Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is a slasher film. It is the fourth film in the Friday the 13th film series. Though it was billed as "The Final Chapter," there have been seven further films (including Freddy vs. Jason) in the franchise to date. The popularity and financial success of the film (earning over $32 million) kept Paramount Pictures from retiring the franchise. Because of the finality of this film's plot and title, the next film, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, attempted to give the franchise a new face.

Trivia

• Ted White refused to be credited for his role as Jason, saying he believed that many of the young actors were horribly treated on the shoot and he often felt bad about what he had to do to them. One particular instance was when young actress Judie Aronson was out on a raft in the lake, naked and freezing to the point where she was crying. Fed up, White stepped in and demanded that she come in to warm up or he would quit, and director Joseph Zito complied. White also admits that he never saw the entertainment value in watching attractive young actors being mutilated by a deranged killer and said he only did the film for the money. Despite his disdain for the film (though he says that it came out better than he expected), he was asked to reprise the role, but turned it down saying, "I had played Jason once and once was enough."
• Peter Barton was hesitant when it came time to do his death scene, as he was previously burned by a magnesium flare doing a stunt on a previous movie and required multiple surgeries afterwards. Sensing Peter's hesitation, Ted White requested that a pad be placed behind Peter's head when he was slammed into the shower wall.
• It has been said that Tom Savini only returned to contribute to the franchise to kill off Jason, whom he helped create in the original Friday the 13th. The character of Tommy Jarvis has been interpreted as a homage to Tom Savini. Aside from sharing a similar first name and an affinity for designing monster masks, both in their own right kill Jason off in the film.
• The film was released on a Friday the 13th (the second film in the franchise to do so, after Part III).
• During filming, actress Kimberly Beck experienced strange occurrences of a man watching her while she ran in a park, accompanied by phone calls at all hours. They oddly stopped once production of the film had stopped.
• The poster artwork was used for the opening screen on Friday the 13th NES video game and the title screen of the C64 computer game.
• Joseph Zito and Tom Savini previously worked together on a similarly toned slasher film, The Prowler.
• The names of Paul and Ted were used earlier in the series, both being in "Part 2"'.
• Rob mentions that his sister, Sandra, was killed by Jason. Sandra was one of the teenagers killed in "Part 2".