Friday the 13th Part 4 – 6
Jason returns from the dead, dies, lives again, and… oh, you get the idea…
Tags: Friday the 13th Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jun 30th, 2009
I am trying to come up with some witty, clever and original way to actually review Friday the 13th parts 4 – 6 on DVD. I can’t even find a compelling way to separate them into individual reviews without actually going into the plot (ha) of each one and analyzing them on a critical level. Let’s be honest, if you’re considering picking up any of these, it is because you have already seen the previous entries. These films don’t necessarily stand alone, but they also aren’t necessarily serialized. They do, however, form a sort of trilogy that takes the franchise in a new direction, addling layers onto they mythology of Jason Voorhees.
But really, that’s all immaterial to the killing. You watch these films to see helpless teens get hacked at by a masked killer. By today’s standards the films are relatively tame, but 20 years ago they shocked audiences, and still provide a few good jolts.
Even though the first three films were complete, you just can’t keep a good serial killer down, and part 4 tries to revive the guy, only this time through a different set of eyes. Apparently news of Jason’s death at the end of #3 was premature, even though we all saw it. We are introduced to Tommy Jarvis, here played by Corey Feldman, who winds up killing Jason (no, really, we mean it this time) in a bizarre turn of events that provides one of the best moments in the franchise. There’s a bit of a revenge storyline for one of the characters from a previous film, but it is never really fully delivered upon – this is mostly Tommy’s story.
Part 5 tries to build on the previous entry as well as harkening back to the first film by providing some sort of mystery. It is also the most absurdist of the films. Well, no, Part 7 is pretty dumb too. But here, Jason is dead, and we get the aftermath of the events from the previous film a few years later. Tommy is dealing with the events, and a new killing spree starts. Could the two be connected? Is Jason really dead? Is Tommy Taking his place? It should be noted that there is a decent twist attempted here, but really, audiences simply want to see the guy in the hockey mask do his job. While this could be canon, it is also the only film that could actually be skipped completely, going directly from 4 to 6 in the whole Bobby Ewing “it was all a dream” type of plot devices.
Yes, it seems that part 5 may have only been a dream, or at the very least immaterial to the overall story of our favorite masked killer. Here Jason is accidentally resurrected and goes on a killing spree. Tommy Jarvis has a lot on his hands, and a few mental issues to deal with. In a way, this film seems to be somewhat arbitrary in it is an excuse to get the franchise focused back on what people know and expect – safe territory that doesn’t reach beyond the envelope, namely having Jason Voorhees front and center as the masked killer for future installments of the profitable franchise.
Originality be damned, there’s teens to kill. For the DVD treatments of these films we get some new featurettes, some deleted scenes for parts 4 and 6 (finally) and audio commentaries on each of the three films. You’re not going to buy these for the special features, but they help. Some of the new special features are lame (like the horror shorts) but fans of the franchise will simply want to have good versions of the films – which they are. With the extras, including the deleted scenes, these are probably about as close to definitive versions of these three films as we are likely to see. I just wish they were actually, you know, good.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Tommy Jarvis + Audio commentaries |
5.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Gets... silly - Mostly lame special features |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| If you're a fan of the genre, these are fine films. If not, these won't make you fans. | |
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Tags: Friday the 13th
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jun 30th, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
