Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter: Deluxe Edition

Widely considered the best "Friday" film, "The Final Chapter" finally gets a good DVD treatment.

"Final" does arguably the best job of keeping continuity, starting right where Part 3 left off, with psycho killer Jason Voorhees laying presumably dead in a barn, an ax sticking out of his head, then continuing a new story that will ultimately stretch over the next three films.

Of course, this being Friday the 13th and all, he's not dead long, and Jason once more rampages as only he can, this time going head-to-head with his biggest star power yet in the guise of Crispin Glover (who'd go on to star in "Back to the Future"), and a kid by the name of Corey Feldman (whoda thunk Jason Voorhees was the easiest of his demons?).

Feldman plays young Tommy Jarvis, himself a young fan of horror films and video games, kicking off a three-film arc where Tommy takes on Jason in a variety of forms.

The film is fine in itself, but the real reason to pick up this set are the extras that weren't afforded it in the "From Crystal Lake to Manhattan" box set released a couple of years back. Included now are two commentary tracks, one from director Joseph Zito, screenwriter Barney Cohen and editor Joel Goodman, which is a very good commentary in itself.

The bigger treat is a second fan commentary by "Friday" fanatics (and filmmakers in their own right) Adam Green and Joe Lynch, and this duo is armed with all sorts of trivia tidbits (the highlight, which is also mentioned in Zito's commentary, is that Zito revisited the house that served as the Jarvis home in the film, and it still has machete nicks from filming.

A "Slashed Scenes" feature isn't deleted scenes, but rather a virtual behind-the-scenes reel that show the magic behind a slasher film. Many of the scenes, however, were trimmed down, and director Zito explains why many of the sequences were edited down.

You also get a faux-documentary on the Crystal Lake Massacres, another part in the "Lost Tales from Crystal Lake" series, an alternate ending, and an "uncut kills" reel.

If you're a "Final Chapter" fan, this is really the edition you were disappointed in not getting in previous DVD releases. It's definitely worth picking up.

Film: 4 Yaps out of five DVD extras: 5 Yaps