Friday the 13th: The Revenge of Jason Voorhees (also known as Friday the 13th Part V) is a 1985 slasher film written and directed by Thomas Trenton. It is the fifth film in the Friday the 13th film series. Like its four predecessors, the film was a financial success. However, it received fewer poor critical reviews. Many fans of the series often cite this film as their favorite (as does Trenton himself) for a likeable cast, its brutal gore effects and dark atmosphere, much like Trenton's earlier film, Friday the 13th: Camp Blood (1984).
The film's plot follows series antagonist Jason Voorhees as he stalks a group of college-age teenagers on a private house located on the only island within the Crystal Lake area, having incured his wrath by visiting his childhood home (while he's present) and mocking his mother's memory.
Plot[]
Picking up after the previous film, Jason Voorhees has fled the burned out remains of Camp Crystal Lake and is in on the run. Sheriff William Parks is unconvinced that Jason is dead, but has told local news outlets a lie to stop a panic in town and help in the search for Jason.
Jason's first victims are the Coffin family; Matthew, Cathy and Carol. Proprietors of a local store. In the attack his hockey mask is damaged. Jason finds refuge in the abandoned and boarded up Voorhees family home to rest and repair his mask (accompanied by the Main Title credit sequence). His next victim is an eager deputy who visits the Voorhees home on a hunch and is killed for her good guess.
As news of Jason's "death" makes the airwaves, a group of college students watch with relief that the town might recover, financially and in the eyes of out-of-towners. The group (Billie Jean, Chelsea, Dean Bloch, Eddie, Lana, Anita, Danny "Demon" Blake and Regina "Reggie" Gibbs) decide to visit the nearby "Crystal Island" which is a private country home for Dean Bloch's father. Dean is pushed into going there (he hasn't been back since his younger sister drowned) and the group separate to get supplies. B.J. and Chelsea illegally buy some beer from a local cashier named Michael, who has a crush on B.J.. Chelsea (to B.J.'s chagrin) invites Michael to join them after work.
Reggie, Demon and Anita go to the local grocery story and buy food for the weekend, while Dean prepares for their arrival by ferry. On their way to the ferry, Eddie notices the Voorhees home and takes a quick detour to investigate it. Despite the apprehension of the others, they go inside and examine the kitchen and living room. Eddie and Lana make a crude joke about Jason and his mother, while Jason watches from the shadows. Incurring his wrath, he follows them to the ferry, killing a neighboring couple and stealing their car.
When the ferry arrives at Crystal Island, Dean's group depart with Jason slipping overboard. Dean and the others go to the house and settle in. Meanwhile Jason's rampage is starting to get noticed by the authorities and FBI Agent Elizabeth Marcus arrives to help, against the orders of her superiors. Parks initiates a search of all known areas Jason has been previously.
On the island, Jason watches the group in silence readying to strike. He is given a chance to kill Reggie who leaves the beach party to go back to the house. He grabs her from behind and slips a knife into her side. After the beach party begins to sette for the night, Eddie and Lana head to the house for some privacy and have sex. Dean and Chelsea slip away from the bonfire to make love on the beach and B.J. goes looking for Reggie. Michael follows her and after she rebuffs his advances, he rapes her. Then Michael flees to the beach as B.J. heads inside to wash up after her assault. Michael, agitated, walks off from the others as Chelsea and Dean return. Returning to the house the group realize what's happened and a search party of Dean, Anita and Demon go look for Michael. Too late for him, Jason harpoons Michael through the groin for his assault.
The murdered couple on the ferry are discovered and Parks tries to figure out what Jason is doing. He narrows down the occupants of the ferry and deduces that he's after the group of college kids on Crystal Island. Parks, Michaels and Deputy Matt Parker head off to the island via Matt's brother's boat.
Impatient Eddie and Lana go out a second time to find the others and are both killed by Jason near the campfire. Meanwhile the search party returns shortly thereafter. As the others await the return of Eddie and Lana, Jason appears at the back door and quickly makes his intentions known. Anita is killed first and Demon attempts to fight off Jason as the others escape upstairs. Dean helps B.J. into the attic via a pull down ladder, but is too late for himself and Chelsea as Jason approaches. Dean hides Chelsea in a closet as he too attempts to fight off Jason, getting killed in the process. Jason then quickly finds Chelsea and impales her through the closet door with his machete.
B.J. exposes her position out of fear, but knocks Jason down with the ladder. She flees downstairs just as Parks and his group arrive. Jason is fired at, but he escapes (killing Parker in the process). Parks and Marcus try to fight off Jason, with B.J. forced down in the basement with Parks who is thrown down the stairs. Jason kills Marcus and then pursues the remaining two. Parks appears unconscious, but as Jason moves in for the kill on B.J., Parks distracts Jason long enough for B.J. to hit Jason in the head with an axe.
The next morning, the Highway Patrol has arrived and is cleaning up the murder site. A near hysterical B.J. is taken away and a somber Parks is mourning the loss of life. His only relief is the thought that Jason is finally dead. But downstairs it is revealed that Jason is still alive as he moves his head, looking about and then playing dead again.
Cast[]
- Thomas Trenton as Jason Voorhees
- Debi Sue Voorhees as Billie Jean
- Tiffany Helm as Chelsea
- John Shepherd as Dean Bloch
- Bruce Greenwood as Sheriff William Parks
- Julie Michaels as FBI Agent Elizabeth Marcus
- Richard Young as Deputy Matt Parker
- John Robert Dixon as Eddie
- Rebecca Wood as Lana
- Mark Venturini as Michael
- Jere Fields as Anita
- Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as Danny "Demon" Blake
- Juliette Cummins as Regina "Reggie" Gibbs
Production[]
Pre-production and writing[]
As the producers hoped, the previous film in the series, Friday the 13th: Camp Blood, had been a financial success, and helped to put the franchise back on track. Hot off the success of that film, Frank Mancuso Jr. and Thomas Trenton quickly began to work on the next installment. Trenton again took on the job of writing, directing and starring in the fifth chapter. Mancuso was happy to learn that Trenton had a planned out the next part as well as the sixth. Confident that Trenton would again succeed, Paramount gave Trenton free rein on how to present the story.
Trenton knew not to change a winning formula and continued the story's internal development, with little change to the narrative style. Again he focused on the rampage aspects of Jason's persona, helping to strengthen the mythic qualities of the character. Trenton, second, worked to create and hire an interesting cast to give people the audience could root for. Making them more active than the previous entry, Sheriff Parks and Agent Marcus returned, but once again Trenton deliberately kept the confrontation with Jason to the third act. In a brave move he killed off popular character Marcus in Part 5, so as to isolate, thus make Parks the hero in part 6.
Casting[]
| "After what I had done to B.J., the story I created for her, I just couldn't have Jason kill her. I didn't want her to be a victim twice. She earned the right to get some justice via surrogate Jason. She started out as a weak character, a would-be victim into one of the strongest and most popular characters in the series." |
| — Thomas Trenton (writer/director) on the evolution of B.J.'s character |
Mancuso Jr. gave Trenton final casting decisions and unlike the previous film, Trenton opted not to have a "pretty blonde" as the last girl. While writing the screenplay Trenton had assumed that either Dean or Chelsea would be the final survivor. It was not until he made the plot twist of having the character of B.J. be raped that he decided to make her the final heroine and survivor. Both as a statement on the subject of sexual assault, also because he felt it would be wrong to kill her off.
Actress Debi Sue Voorhees read for three of the roles, but Trenton thought her charming personality was more fitting of B.J.. Plus having the last name Voorhees, Trenton couldn't resist casting her. Along side himself, past cast mates returning included Bruce Greenwood and Julie Michaels and Richard Young who all appeared in the previous installment.
Filming[]
Revenge of Jason was filmed in
Reception[]
Box office[]
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter opened on Friday, April 13, 1985 on 1,594 screens to a then record-breaking weekend box office gross of $11,183,148. The film would ultimately take in a total of $32,980,880 at the U.S. box office. It placed at number 26 on the list of the top grossing films of 1984, facing off against strong competition throughout the first half of the year from such high-profile horror releases as Firestarter and Children of the Corn. It would also out perform Wes Craven's seminal A Nightmare on Elm Street, released later that year.
Critical response[]
The film received generally lukewarm-negative reviews from critics upon its initial release, with one critic saying its saving grace is a likeable cast you care about. Roger Ebert described it as "an immoral and reprehensible piece of trash" as well as a "sad, cynical, depressing movie." Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 44% of 21 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.3 out of 10.
Soundtrack[]
The film's music was composed by Harry Manfredini, who composed the scores to all of the series' previous installments. On January 13, 2012, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 6-CD boxset containing Manfredini's scores from the first six entries of the film series. The release was sold out in less than 24 hours of availability.
References[]