Movie Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

 

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.

You know, being dead is both tragic and terrifying fate for something unexpected or to the future. But sometimes, even we have to dealing with death, we may also have spirit in our mind, seeing ghost that we miss so much in our daydream or even looking back in either the dream or even old video tapes. However, it wasn’t just a looking back, there are some who have an unusual ability of talking to dead people, even though it didn’t make any sense, but sometimes ghost can telling us for the order for revenge or even asking the way to reviving, that is unless if there’s a bio-exorcist from modeling background to go crazy in action to call upon the name, Bloody Mary style, without the disturbance and violence ways.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is a 2024 fantasy horror-comedy that was produced/directed by Tim Burton, co-produced by Marc Toberoff, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Tommy Harper, then written by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith.

Before we have this movie, here’s a brief history about Beetlejuice.

Following the success of “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure”, at first, Tim Burton is going to working on his take on Batman since he’s a bankable filmmaker back then, but it was an opposite that Burton is willing to pay with the writer Sam Hamm, causing a Burton’s caped crusader being less green-lit, which Burton wasn’t so keen for his vision, but that’s a long story, but then came Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson, when they came in to have a new concept about Beetlejuice, which Burton liked that idea, despite he had to putting his projects (including Batman) on hold work on it. Though it was originally going to be much darker and probably violent with graphical car crash and few others in their concept, while some are kept in a cut, though while some concept are kept, but Warren Skaaren stepped in when they had to changing the tone to be less violent to more focus on horror-comedy for various reason like having R&B music, the chaotic climax and even Michael Keaton as the titular character, and the rest, as they say, was history, its beloved by critics and the audience and the box-office was an instant hit, which of course, it eventually brought us a cartoon in 1989 to 1991 with Burton also involved the show as the executive producer. (As for me, yes I watched it from like, a months ago, it was insane, but I like it, maybe il review it in my future.)

Anyway, to the sequel’s origin. In fact, the sequel’s origin came back when Beetlejuice was a huge deal. So much so that the late production company called “The Geffen Film Company” were opened to have, not one, but two sequels, from “Beetlejuice In Love” which is like a horror romantic comedy when after the boyfriend died, the titular character goes after a girlfriend, and “Beetlejuice goes Hawaii” which a vacation movie with a mix of German Expressionism. However, despite Burton was interested to having another Beetlejuice movies, he’s been pretty busy with other projects with or without WB, ranging from working on Batman Returns or unfortunate canceled “Superman Lives”, leaving all of those crazy projects are pretty much thrown out with no hopes at all, even when they trying to get some new writers, including Kevin Smith. But it wouldn’t be until on February 2022, a new company “Plan B Entertainment” (founded by Brad Pitt, yes, THE Brad Pitt) came in to working with WB for second chance to having a new Beetlejuice project, though Tim Burton he had nothing to with Plan B, but he’s interested to coming back as a director, along with reuniting like Danny Elfman and even some casts, despite its all about next gen first witness Beetlejuice, due to having a new casts.

So, with all that said, will Beetlejuice deserves a welcome return for more chaotic journey, or should we not chanting his name ever again?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

While we have a welcome return to our old friends like Deetz family and the Juice, we expect to having something new and more chaotic as the first one? Well, for the most part, yes.

The movie begins where (after a nice replicating the first movie’s intro with Danny Elfman’s welcome return to compose) Lydia Deetz appears as a host of her own talk show called “Ghost House” to talking guest and showing a supernatural videos, while secretly having a relationship with the producer Rory, despite she lost her late husband Richard in his Amazon trip. Despite going on a new life, she still has psychic ability of seeing dead, including her old pal Betelgeuse, which is why she’s taking pills for clearing her mind, even if she sounds she has a trauma view from the past 36 years. She reunites with her mother Delia, while being the hostess of real art show at Soho, New York, she shares her struggling experience about her past, which Delia did shares the same problem from the past when her late husband Charles had a plane crash before gets eaten by a shark (Damn…!). So, they wanna going out to reuniting Lydia’s estranged daughter Astrid, however for Astrid, she’s not in a mood to believing about ghost stories, since she just wants to be in normal life. Even when they revisited the old house at Winter River, Connecticut, Astrid isn’t helping that she still refuses to believing ghosts, while at the same time, Rory goes to proposing Lydia for a new family life, while Astrid bikes away before she meets Jeremy, without realizing the dark secret about him (talk about a red flag for Wednesday).

While in afterlife world, Betelgeuse running his own office business of Bio-Exorcists, even though at the same times, he really misses Lydia for reuniting. However, the afterlife world got into a hot water when Juice’s late ex named Dolores has returned to going on a rampage, sucking souls of the dead to gaining her life ever since back in their good’ol days, they used to be together during the epidemic of Black Plague, right before they were killing each others from Dolores’s poison to Betelgeuse murdering her (though it was before he became ghostly immortal).

So its up for the Deetz family to get themselves back while also dealing with the return of Betelgeuse in a good’ol chaotic journey in real world and afterlife.

Basically, the movie goes into a double plot, one is where Lydia tries to get her family back to gathering like a lovable family, despite their tragic announcement of Charles’s passing with Rory becoming her new husband, while the other is when Betelgeuse wants to see Lydia again while also trying to hiding himself from vengeful Dolores. It sounds like an interesting idea to having a family reconciliation while having a funeral of Charles’s death until dealing with an evil spirit to reuniting Betelgeuse. It sounds like a good idea, if the execution could’ve done right, since this movie is mainly focuses on Deetz family for their gathering along for both the funeral and proposal from Rory, despite some doubts, along with a subplot when Astrid is getting along with Jeremy, but again. Without realizing the dark secrets, while the second plot with Betelgeuse is unfortunately didn’t get a focus, since we would love to see him trying to do a wacky setup in attempt to fighting against his ex Dolores, but alas, we never get a chance of a screen time, especially with Dolores (more on that later), especially it would’ve been great if its a little longer than less than 2 hours long film, im just saying for the length, but its the execution for what would’ve been for the idea of this movie, it has a promising idea, but didn’t get what I was expected. Im not saying its that bad, I like the story for the most part and the writing is good, but again, for the most part from the execution.

While its not as perfect, as for the dark humor in this movie, I will say, its quite of chuckle worthy that I enjoy, from surprise to laughing. I like some humors what it pulled, but its not as fresh as the first one, again, not saying its bad, its good with chuckle, but not as laugh out loud as the first one.

While I enjoy some humors in chaotic natures, but the story, while it has a promising idea for the chemistry and some development, but the execution could’ve been better what we have in this movie.

The Presentation

When it comes to the budget, its surprisingly quadrupled, in comparison, the first one costed $15M, here, it costed $100M. That’s quite of updated budget after 36 years. But does it looking great? Well hell yeah, it does for a bigger and better budget.

For the filming, they filmed on both US and UK, such as East Corinth, Vermont (the same location from the first film) and even Melrose Massachusetts (the latter was resumed in filming after the Hollywood Labor Strike in 2023) in US, then in UK, they filmed in Princess Helena College in Preston Hertfordshire, England. And I will say, their filming location with props setting are pretty good what they put. For real world, its a pretty nice place to film, especially for filming in Vermont that happens to be the same place when it was first filmed in the first Beetlejuice, which I though its just a replica, but nope, its the same location they filmed (especially I thought like “Its only a model” much like in the Maitlands’ house, but again, I was wrong.), but it looks beautiful for welcoming back, even the new location are also pretty nice. In the world of afterlife, they’re quite of trippy with colors all over with neon lights and random locations, like some kind of messed up dream world. Not to mention, along with the ways they’re built, they kinda remind of German Expressionism from the 1920 like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or even Nosferatu.

The effects of this movie is pretty good, freaky in Tim Burton’s fashion and well made. Aside the props in outdoor filming (instead filming on set) and of course, done with practical effects. Sure there were some part are done with CG, but practical effects are the most important things what Tim Burton (as well his crew) likes to pulled off, which is a good thing what we like to see to bring us back since the first film. The designs of the costumes in afterlife like the shrunken head employees are done in practical costume, which they’re quite unique and freaky looking with frown mouth and eyes wide open, then again, what do you expect of Tim Burton’s style, along with some others what they pulled for the costume design are pretty nice looking, as well as a nice reference from the past. But of course, they can also brought back one of my favorite animation style next to hand-drawn, which is the good’ol stopmotion ranging from the flashback of Charles’s death to return of Sandworm Titan, one of Saturn’s moons (still freaky as the original, eat your heart out, Dune’s sandworms…).

Another thing that I also like is some of the Easter Eggs, though I had a minimal of recognizable moments, but im sure some Beetlejuice fans will easily pointed up with several references, either from the first movie, the cartoon from 1989 to 1991, or even the musical from 2018.

Lastly, another welcome return is the soundtrack from our old friend Danny Elfman for giving us some spooky to chaotic moments, but of course, they add more fun to play with some songs from the reminder of Day-O to even chaotic music video with like Richard Marx’s Right Here Waiting, a theme song of Carrie (based on a reference that, again, not gonna SPOILING it) and even MacArthur Park by Richard Harris, along with the cover version by Donna Summer.

The presentation of this sequel is quite of chaotic work, but I enjoy it with the references, a welcome return to Vermont, and even the work of practical effects.

The Characters

Its no stranger that the reason why we have this sequel, we like to have a reunion of our familiar casts, but of course, in typical sequels, there’s gotta be a new characters, but sadly some that we all know won’t coming back.

So lets start off with Betelgeuse himself (played by Michael Keaton, aka Batman, aka The Vulture from Spider-Man Homecoming), before Beetlejuice, Michael had been into comedy movies from Night Shift and Mr. Mom, sure there are others that were mixed results, but those are two famous titles examples. But when he first played the Bio-Exorcist, he took a one heck of a comedic performance, both creepy and cartoony, its no stranger that he stole the show that he gave me a chuckle. As for this sequel, while he remains the same as before, but after 36 years, he’s like an old ex that he wants to see Lydia again, while also being the boss of his own office, and probably have a slight paranoid when her ex Dolores has returned. But he’s still being darkly humorous, which I will say, even Keaton’s pushed to his age of 70s, he’s still doing fun work of his performance for his delivery and even some timing. Sure, he had been away of comedic performance back then, but its nice to do his comedic performance, and again, Keaton did a fun work for his welcome return of his memorable role, especially reuniting with Tim Burton since two Batman movies.

Next up, we have Lydia Deetz (played by Winona Ryder), from before, Winona was around in teenage age to playing as Lydia (after having her debut from Lucas to Square Dance), she used to be a young Gothic daughter with her ability to talking ghosts to helping the Maitlands couple and made Betelgeuse attention to be with her so bad. Here in this sequel, while she’s working as a host of her own talk show, she’s pretty much a struggling mother, ever since she can’t stop seeing a familiar Bio-Exorcist in her mind, her struggling connection to her daughter and her unfortunate tragedy that she lost her husband Richard. Gone from being a Gothic little girl in her odd family, but as a mother who tries to moving on, sure she has a Gothic appearance, but her feeling has been changed that she cares about family, even if Betelgeuse is still in her mind. I will say, its quite of nice return for Winona for her role since her teenage life, sure she had been a difficulty life from losing her respectful young actress Polly Klaas to getting herself into legal trouble. But after many years, it feels like she made a comeback with successful film like Black Swan, a successful show like Stranger Things and even reuniting Tim Burton in Frankenweenie, and this film is the second reunion with Burton and I will say, its good to see her again after been in struggling life and Winona did a great job of her upgraded role of Lydia since her younger days.

Finally, we have Delia Deetz (played by Catherine O’Hara, aka Kaye McCallister from Home Alone), from before Home Alone, Delia started as a sculpture artist and probably an uneasy mother that she tries to connect for all of chaotic reason from her husband Charles to her daughter Lydia with all the arguments to overprotecting her daughter (talk about the earliest example of her motherly panicking role before Home Alone, eh?). In this sequel she got herself a sense of humor (since after the first film) and became a hostess of real art show, even though she likes to reuniting with Lydia, but she’s still an over-dramatic mother when something isn’t going on her way, especially for her loss of Charles. Even with her update and kinda remains the same, Catherine did a fun work of her performance as a mother/grandmother of Deetz family, especially for probably her overacting (though not as over the top, but still).

So what about the new characters in this movie? Well, they’re are good, despite there are some didn’t get well.

Lets start off with Astrid Deetz (played by Jenna Ortega, aka Wednesday Addams from Netflix’s Wednesday), she’s Lydia’s daughter in the movie. But unlike Lydia, Astrid wants to life in her normal day ever since she doesn’t want to hearing about a ghost story from her mother and/or even her grandma. Though sure, she tried to befriend with resident in Winter River, but again she should’ve picked the right person before the red flag some of them are… Too good to be related. Im not saying she’s a bad character, I’d say she’s just misunderstood and she probably taking it too personal she runs away with a bike before gets worse. But of course, Jenna did a great work of her performance and between this and her memorable role of Wednesday, I think Jenna is possibly my new favorite actress based on her delivery in her acting style.

Next, we have Rory (played by Justin Theroux) who’s Lydia’s new boyfriend for his wishful marriage to her, despite there’s probably a doubtful whether or not he’s a respectful TV producer or a manipulative man that he wants her to be with himself. I find him an okay character, I think he’s just another one of those rich villain who wants to using his advantage to marrying Lydia, despite she’s having a struggling experience of both Betelgeuse and her loss of Richard. Cause you know what they said “You can’t buy winning”. Anyway, I find him to be an okay new character due to predictable reason for why he wants to be with Lydia, but again, not gonna give you a SPOILER detail, even though he’s rich, but its easy to know his prediction. Despite the predictable, Justin did a fairly nice role, but even if he probably has less screen time in the second act.

Speaking of villain, we have Dolores (played by Monica Bellucci), an evil spirit who came back from the dead to absorbing souls for revenge on Betelgeuse since the days with Black Plague pandemic as a cult member. I think I find her to be a promising and beautiful villain in this movie, having an evil spirit is a promising concept to see her trying to hunting down the Juice in their deadly battle with ritual and poison. But sadly, we never get to see her more, due to the focus of a Deetz family struggle to re-connection, we’ll never be able to see her more in her rampage or maybe even coming out from Afterlife to murdering living people by absorbing souls, but alas, we never be able to see her more. Its just a shame that, again, I find her to be both beautiful and promising that she could’ve been a main villain, especially that I can’t help but thinking that she looks like Morticia Addams from The Addams Family (kinda ironic that Tim Burton really wanted to making his own take of The Addams Family, but then again, we have Wednesday. Aw well). Especially Monica did a nice work of her beautiful and villainous role.

After that, we have Wolf Jackson (played by Willem Dafoe, aka The Green Goblin), the late B movie actor turned ghostly detective for giving us a plot development about the origin of both Betelgeuse and Dolores, as well as giving us a warning about her, for the most part. Though he’s yet another minor appearance, but I also finding him fascinating, seeing to poke fun of B movie character and even film noir detective, nice touch. But of course, Dafoe is no stranger for my memorable performer for his delivery and some monologue, he always kicks ass.

Lastly is Jeremy Frazier (played by Arthur Conti), a teenager who we assuming to be a nice and innocent resident of Winter River when Astrid meets him. I find him okay, but easy to predict that when he meets someone like Astrid, this must be a dark setup who he is behind his normal teenage life, but again, no SPOILER detail further about him. I mean, that’s like three villains in the movie, cause we all know that having three villains is just too much to bare and confusing for who’s the main villain instead of mixing up to three (sounds like somebody has never learned since I covered Spider-Man 3… No offense). Even though he’s new since GOT’s House of the Dragon, and I think did a good work for say the least, il give it a pass.

Although one character that I do wanna give a factoid, is this blue skinned Janitor, played by Danny DeVito, has shown in a cameo for being Dolores’s first victim, which im guessing its meant to be an in-joke made that, from im aware, DeVito has been in Burton movies a couple times from Batman Returns as The Penguin or Mars Attack as a gambler.

And yes, im aware that two characters were originally intended to bringing back, are the Maitland couple Adam and Barbara (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in the first film), but because Burton wanted to make a sequel in practical effects, it will be unlikely to bring back in the cut, especially for their ages and/or even the focus of the Deetz family. Aw well.

While some characters are a welcome return for changing or remain the same that we enjoy, while the new characters are mixed bag from fascinating, could’ve been promising to predictable.

And now for my final opinion of this film

Overall, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a fun movie for its welcome return, although its not as fresh as the first film.

The filming presentation looks amazing, the jokes are chuckle worthy, the old casts are welcoming, the new casts are good, the characters of some are good too, its chaotic that its silly and fun and even soundtrack and the songs are a nice use, especially with Danny Elfman’s return.

However, despite of its welcome return, the movie has problems from too much villains that its hard to which one is the focus, despite I like Dolores as the main villain, but barely shown, some characters are too predictable and some of the writing is poorly executed what we’d hoped for.

Even though its not a greater sequel that we expected for Tim Burton’s passion to bringing our favorite Bio-Exorcist back from the grave, but at least he tried with all due respect. For recommendation, I think its definitely for the fans of both Tim Burton’s projects and even Beetlejuice. As for me, while I may like this sequel, but its not as great as the first one, I’d say give it a watch for once if you like it or not, il let you draw your conclusion, despite I like the idea for what would’ve been.

For my rating, im gonna give this one a 7/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.

Movie Review: Friday the 13th The Final Chapter

 

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.

Back in October of last year, I covered the 3rd part of Friday the 13th, while I like the kills, a disco theme song, and even Jason’s look that we all know and love, but everything else is just felt flat of boringness. However, as I said in my review in Part 3, it was originally intended as the last one as a trilogy, but because Friday the 13th franchise is a money making success at the box-offices, its no stranger that Paramount made yet another as the “Final Chapter”. Well, so what they think at the time.

“Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter” is a 1984 slasher film that was directed by Joseph Zito, produced by Frank Mancuso Jr., and written by Barney Cohen (for screenplay) and Bruce Hidemi Sakow (for story).

As I said before, with the success of Part 3, they wanted to make another one. However, despite the three previous installments came out, they didn’t received well from critics and non-horror audiences, this maybe resulting some slasher genre was fading for a bit, even though Paramount wanted more, Frank Mancuso Jr. is hesitant for more because nobody seems to liking nor caring about Friday the 13th, and so, Mancuso Jr. declared the fourth one will be the last one (so what we think) before he wanted to working on the other projects. Upon start working on Part 4, Joseph Zito was hired by Mancuso Jr. as a new director when Part 2 and 3 director, Steve Miner, declined, this was thanks to Zito’s own slasher film called “The Prowler”, which they would hoped that Zito will making it to possibly being bigger and better. Despite what they hoped for, working with Zito was an unfortunate struggle due to his attitude of demanding and perfectionism, not to mention if its not going on the way, that would cause a physical fight for all the wrong reasons. But of course, similar to the first Friday the 13th with Kevin Bacon, Part 4 would be a breaking point of then upcoming famous actors like Corey Feldman in his child acting days in the 80s and Crispin Glover for his unique and eccentric actor.

When Friday the 13th Part 4 came out on April 13th 1984, its a same result as previous films, it didn’t received well by the critics and some audience, but it made a lot of money at the box-office with $33M over $2.2M at the budget. But as time went on, many fans considered Part 4 as possibly the best installments at the series, whether its the kills, Jason’s performance or even some memorable characters from the aforementioned build up actors after this.

So, with all that said, will the Part 4 is gonna be like my favorite what the fans enjoyed, or is this film should’ve been the ending based on a cheap slapping title like “The Final Chapter”?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

While its pretty much the same thing as we saw the previous films, but surprisingly, its actually pretty nice for the writing.

Picking up after Part 3 (which means in third installment, its Saturday the 14th and now its Sunday the 15th), aside of obvious reminder with stock footage of three previous movies, the ambulances arrive for clearing dead bodies in a camp site what we saw before, including a reminder of Jason Voorhees got axed in a head. While brought in a morgue, Axel is signed to put the body frozen, but Axel is busy for being horny perv over dead “Cute girl” (“She still is!”) and wanting to having affair with a nurse name Morgan in front of TV plays an aerobic movie, despite he got overly infuriated by being touched by laid out Jason (“JESUS CHRISTMAS!! HOLY JESUS GODDAMN! HOLY JESUS JUMPING CHRISTMAS SHIT!!”. Amen, Axel). After being rejected by Morgan from hilarious fake jumpscare, Axel gets himself back to watching aerobic dance, only he got SAWED and head twisted off by revived Jason out of icebox, then Jason goes after Morgan to pinning her from the wall and stabbed her with scalpel. The next day, we introduce the Jarvis family, older daughter Trish, Mrs. Jarvis, and young son Tommy Jarvis (who introduced himself by wearing alien mask while playing PC game? Who does that?), they have home next to a camps (Yeah, Crystal Lake is confusing for its location, these days), what they didn’t know is that another horny teen campers are going out for, you guessed it, camping and sexing (Can you imagine if they’re having affair in a campsite when you’re in a house next to a camp? That will be awkward experience). But what both Jarvis Family and teen campers didn’t know is that, once again, Jason is out there for his killing business, while the campers prefer doing their own business, its up to Jarvis Family (along with a lone camper name Rob) to watch out over revived killer in hockey mask.

Like I said, its a same old plot like we’ve heard from three previous films, but at least the movie goes to a sorta connection between Jarvis Family and even the campers, since again, weirdly have a house next to a campsite on Crystal Lake, but again, we’ve seen before like meet the campers, have a sharing true story about Jason Voorhees hidden in Crystal Lake to of course, campers sexing. Especially for the latter, campers are quite possibly the horniest in the movie, ranging from various relationships, some sex jokes and one time, watching a stag film (aka the early 20th century porn films). I think what makes the movie possibly better its the writing, I think the writing is actually good and probably funny, ranging from a fun chemistry between Jimmy and Ted for their opposite personalities, a build up of Tommy Jarvis (since Zito wanted to have a young kid in a horror movie) and even a connection from previous installment, like when Rob mentioned one of the victim from Part 2, Sandra, was murdered, which it was revealed that Rob is a missing older brother of Sandra, which I assuming its have a build up when Rob is trying to hunting down Jason for revenge, but sadly, despite what they’re trying for the connection, it sadly felt like an afterthought. Of course, I like to mention it has some dialogues that are either good to even funny, especially with the aforementioned opposite personalities between Jimmy and Ted, despite there’s some dialogue from Ted that I questioned his desperation to get along.

While its not perfect, but its the writing that I enjoy for some character developments in this movie.

The Presentation

The movie’s budget is surprisingly the same as the previous film, mainly that Part 3 and Part 4 are costed $2.2M. But unlike the previous one the presentation is surprisingly gotten better for various reasons.

But much like Part 3, it was filmed in California, whereas Part 3 was filmed Saugus and Green Valley, here, it was filmed on Topanga Canyon and Newhall. But the way they filmed are surprisingly pretty nice like a steady camera that moves smoothly thanks to the use of crane in the beginning, a different angle in the morgue when Jason was “dead” to what better way to do the slowmotions, but some slowmotions are smooth but others are a slightly dropping frames per-seconds. Despite some flaws, the filming is pretty good, at least they don’t wanna do another 3D gimmick ever again.

The filming set is no stranger to be away from the studio for not-so low budget, aside the forest and a morgue (which is a nice inclusion, but only in the first act), but the weirdest part of the movie is the buildings there were set in, there’s the Jarvis Family’s house is a pretty cool house and it surprisingly still with us to this day and the house has been recycled from several movies, while camping building were build from scratch by the Friday’s crew, which is a pretty nice building.

Of course, the movie’s highlight are the design, a makeup effect and of course, the kills. After two previous films, Tom Savini came back to pulling a nice practical and makeup effects with some creatives and memorable kills, ranging from sawing and neck twisting death in the morgue, a backstabbing through the throat at hitchhiking banana girl (where Jason was briefly played by Tom Savini himself, but without him wearing a hockey mask), Jimmy got corkscrewed on his hand to head stabbed from meat clever, Tina thrown out on the top of station wagon (with windows crashing, unexpected, but memorable one), to even Jason himself with brutal death of stabbed on the side of the head with machete. Those kills that I mentioned are either the most notable and probably my favorites, even though you can briefly see what’s going on, because once again, the MPAA was very sensitive to forcing them to toning down the presentation of the kills and sexing.

Despite the flaws, there also some kills are the weakest, like when Samantha is relaxing in a cold night raft before gets impaled from bellow, while the kill itself wasn’t that bad, its the way how they filmed, Judie Aronson was forced to swimming in a cold water in birthday suit (which it was filmed on December in California), she’s unfortunately having hypothermia, which cause Ted White (who played Jason, more on that later) was pissed at Joe Zito for being neglectful at Judie, especially on his verge of quitting, which I can’t blame White that he always wanting to be protective towards actors to have a respectful treatment, for the most part. Another weakest kill is Mrs. Jarvis, which when she looks around, she makes a gasp before cuts out, we never see her what’s happening, though it was originally planned to having her getting decapitated similar to what happened to Mrs. Voorhees, but with this and a planned nightmare scene, was cut, cause honestly, we don’t want another fake out kills like what we saw in three previous films.

Though sometimes, some kills can be funny, aside of Samantha’s kill from her weirdly and hilarious scream of death, but the one that stuck to me, is when Rob gets hacked to death by Jason with cultivator while yelling “He’s killing me! He’s killing me!! HE’S KILLING MEEEEE!!!”. I get it was meant to be disturbing, but his last bit is laughable before he dies, which it gives me a chuckle from its repetition.

While some part might have some flaws, but Part 4’s presentation is pretty good with some creative and gnarly kills and a welcome return to Tom Savini.

The Characters

While most characters have those typical tropes in many horror films, here however, we got ourselves from some memorable characters in the franchise.

Lets start off with once again, Jason Voorhees, this time played by the great late Ted White. He’s quite surprising for the way he moves in his action, unlike the previous role of Jason who’s just wandering and finding the victim, Ted’s Jason is more of the brain for his smart decision and moving faster (Heh, who says Slasher Villains can’t run, eh?), making him quite believable and nearly impossible to getting away from his brutal and fast paste, which is actually pretty nice for his minor changing and Ted White did a pretty good job to be a bit creative in his role of Jason. In fact, he was in his age of 50s, since he did plenty of stunt double of various roles from the past, pretty fascinating of his experience, and its a damn shame that he passed away in 2022 in his age of 96, that’s pretty close to be 100 year old. Rest in Peace, Ted, you were amazing as Jason.

Now lets get to the survivors, like I said, unlike most of them are generic, they have some are memorable.

Lets start off with the main boy in the movie, Tommy Jarvis (played by then 12 year old Corey Feldman), he’s the main kid who’s somehow smarter of creating arts like creating a monster themed mask and a puppet. I was first reacted “Im calling it Bullshit, there’s NO WAY you created those masks and puppet when you’re just a kid!”, although his was given after Tom Savini (who also did those masks and puppets), so its a nice reference. I find Corey’s Tommy Jarvis is fascinating character that, even though he’s a kid, he’s somehow changing his life when first saw teens, which is pretty much he has a puberty of seeing teens in naked, im not sure how puberty works, but that’s just me. But as we all know, when Jason is upon us, he’ll probably trying to find the way to fight back, which Tommy Jarvis would later getting more attention for being a survivor against Jason, but we’ll get there in future, but then again, he’s just getting started as a kid. Plus, Corey did a great work of his role and of course, this will lead his beginning point of his young career from Gremlins, The Goonies, Stand by me and my underrated favorite, The ‘Burbs. However, in behind the scenes, despite he has a respect with some casts (including Kimberly Beck, more on her later), but one person that they didn’t get along was Ted White. Corey said he doesn’t trust him for culture reasons, while Ted hated him as a mean little devilish kid in guts, especially there’s one scene when Jason breaks through the window to literally scaring the bejesus out of poor kid, and I mean literally, he was terrified when this happened after filming this, which im pretty Ted was taking too personal on him, even if when looked back he probably admit his action and forgives his performance, which I agree, again Corey had fun of his performance, even if yes, im aware Feldman had a very sad and troublesome history outside of acting form childhood to grown up.

Speaking of Jarvis, we have the main final girl, Trish (played by Kimberly Beck), she’s the older daughter of the family that she likes to going out with her mother Mrs. Jarvis. Even though she also loves her young brother for family, even if she can be too protective when the campers are arrived to go horny, especially when Tom got distracted from their skinny dips that she doesn’t want him go way too distracted. Well, its not just in movie but in behind the scene as well, in fact, Kimberly Beck, who had an experience with child actors, liked to taking care them like a sister figure, which is exactly how she likes to taking car with then 12 year old Corey, which actually pretty sweet for Kim, especially that I think she also did a pretty good role.

After that, we have Jimmy Mortimer (played by Crispin Glover), he’s one of horny campers, but unlike most of the groups, he’s an awkward and stressed out member of the group that he just wants to get along so badly in his life, which you probably tell he’s uneasy until he eventually give a chance to shine when hanging out with one of the Moore Sisters. But of course, who could ever forget one scene, in particular, when he dances with one of the Moore Sisters while playing the music “Love is a Lie” by Lion, his dancing is all over the place, the way he pulled the dance is crazy, but also both chuckling and probably the most GIF-able moment ever. And I bet some people either in behind the scene or even outside of the movie (which he pulled the same dance when he was in clubs in LA) are trying not to laugh when Crispin danced like this. I guess its not hard to see his performance is quite unique (literally as Joe Zito called him, which I agree), and like Feldman, I guess its not hard to see how he’ll later making a breakthrough eccentric career with Back to the Future and couple others.

And lastly, we have Rob Dier (played by sadly, the late E. Erich Anderson), unlike the young campers to going wild, Rob is an older camp that, at first, he’s just there for camping on his own and welcomed to the Jarvis Family, despite he has his depth he’s looking for revenge for the aforementioned Sandra from Part 2, again, sounds good on paper for having a chronological order, sadly, this subplot is pretty much left to nothing. And not to mention, he barely showing up until the third act that we expected he can fight back, but alas, he didn’t give a chance to shine. And I really mean, which for those who’re unaware when I was researching, Erich Anderson, despite had a nice role in Part 4, sadly passed away on June 1st 2024 (Yes, this year as im writing this) due his diagnose of Esophageal cancer in his age of 67. Rest in peace, Erich…

As for the rest, they are there, either I enjoy some, or some who’re just there for both typical depiction and for obvious sake of body counts.

There’s Doug Bell (played by Peter Barton), who’s… Just there, without giving us something special of his personality (talk about wasting appearance when Pete was famous in the show called “The Powers of Matthew Star”), Paul Guthrie (played by Alan Hayes) who’s a distracted man, even if supposed to be in relationship with Samantha Lane (played by the aforementioned Judie Aronson), there’s the Moore sisters, Tina and Terri (played by identical sisters Camilla and Carey More) who’re there for obvious set up of bring campers to go horny (because this is slasher film, horny teens like to do whatever they want, otherwise, better planning myself to watching and reviewing Scream for going full meta), Ted Cooper (played by Lawrence Monoson) who’s a silly best bud to Jimmy, which its actually nice for chemistry between of two, despite he ranges from poor pickup line of tasking a kiss with teddy bear or going high while watching oldest porn movie, even though in behind the scene he was actually high in his method acting, which I guess it might be explained why he had red eyes that he was drugged up, even Lawrence himself admitted it was a worst idea he ever been, sucks for him, but at least he did a fun role, despite his trouble moment. Anyway, there’s Mrs. Jarvis, who’s like the opposite version of Mrs. Voorhees, but unlike Pamela Voorhees, she disappeared in a lamest kill ever that we’ll never know, aside of scrapped ending scene, and there’s Axel Burns (played by Bruce Mahler), a perverted coroner who find dead girl to be cute (Eww…) and enjoying aerobic dance video, along with giving us his memorable overreact from Jason’s loose hand, which I can’t help but laughing and replaying his clip of “HOLY JESUS JUMPING CHRISTMAS SHIT!” (man, what an underrated delivery).

Even though most characters are typical, but at least some that I enjoy or even some are memorable, along with the aforementioned future success.

SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t seen it or don’t care.

The final act is meant to be like a grand finale as we expected, but… We already know after Part 4. Anyway, while it a heck of a chase, but its more like a cat and mouse on Point A to Point B, and back to Point A.

After the campers are all gone (including mommy Jarvis), Trish, Tommy and Rob (along with golden retriever dog name Gordon, but running away, never seen ever again) noticed both houses and camp are empty, while Tommy is forced to stay in a house safe, Trish is feared to discovering Rob is murdered by Jason in front of her (“HE’S KILLING MEEEEE!!!!”), resulting Trish running away and being by Jason who’s like playing chicken at our final girl between two buildings. Once she’s in her house to protecting Tommy again, to running back to the camp (again, playing cat and mouse on two buildings). That is until Tommy, thanks to retrieving a cutout newspapers about Jason Voorhees from the late Rob, he proceeds to shaving his hair out. As Trish runs back to her house, she tries to fight back at Jason with machete (despite Jason wants his number 1 favorite toy back with due to his left hand split in half from his favorite toy). Once Jason had enough in attempt to strangling Trish, Tommy calling out at Jason, revealing himself bald (And by that, I mean wearing a bald cap, which Zito likes Tommy got shaved, but Corey don’t wanna do that, much a resentment in his mind) to replicating Jason, with distraction succeeded that Trish gets machete back, but ended smacked Jason’s mask off to revealing the most gnarliest Jason’s face ever. But his face reveal won’t be last long as Tommy finishes him by taking a hard hit on his head with machete, collapsing and slides his head down from machete to death (Man, quite brutal, bloody and satisfied, for awhile). But not for long (for a bit) that Jason is waking up slowly that Tommy has reaching his limit to hacking him over and over while repeating “DIE!!!” over and over, like any heroes do in every medias (Remember when Corey had a resentment in his mind, while he prefers to wearing a bald cap, he hated that idea of literal bald, when he yelled “DIE!!!” to wishing himself to beating Zito, while hacking Jason at the same time. Yeah, Joe Zito could be a walking nightmare to working with at the time).

In the end, Trish is recovered in a hospital, Tommy reunites with Trish for their thankfully survival and they live happily ever after. Or so we think when Tommy is seriously looking at the camera.

I should also like to briefly mention that there was an alternative ending planned that Tom Savini suggested his idea involves Tommy crafting a battery scanner and a microwave gadget to connecting at Jason’s head to explode, but that idea was shut down that if Part 4 is a success, it will be a setup that Jason won’t be killed off instantly. Sounds like perfectly dated to calling it “The Final Chapter” to pretty much bringing him back in a future.

The final act’s chase scenes can be dumb for running back and forth in two buildings, but it has a fun moments with the ways of attacking Jason and satisfied kill at Jason (but again, he will be back for a now).

And now for my final opinion of this film.

Overall, while it maybe another forgettable one (at least what critics said), but to be honest, its not that bad that I think, its actually good.

While its a standard slasher film, but its the writing made a good execution that we actually like the characters like Tommy, Jimmy and maybe even Trish, the casts are good too, especially some will make a breakthrough in their future, Jason is one heck of smart and brutal thanks to top notch stunt from the late Ted White and the kills, while edit is unfair because of MPAA, are both impressive, bloody and creative.

But sure, it has problems with some characters didn’t have any special, I can be dragged on (but again, some have a good characters and its fun) and one subplot is worthless.

Like I said, I know some said its another lame Friday the 13th one, but I don’t think so, I probably enjoy it with some future breakthroughs that made yourself saying “Yeah, I remember some will make a promising careers”, the kills and maybe even well executed writing. So if you guys like to see Friday the 13th, I’d say check it out, you won’t be disappointed

For my rating, im gonna give this one a 7.5/10.

So this ends of my Movie Review Friday the 13th Edition, but next time, we’re gonna have a new chapter, without Jason what Paramount was thinking of. There is Friday the 13th on December, but I don’t think its a good idea to review a horror film like Friday the 13th on Christmas month, so im gonna pushing my plan for next year’s Friday the 13th. Sorry guys.

But as always, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.