Aka Part 4 of the gruesome slasher series, this one rehashes the same basic plot we've had for the last three installments in that a group of teens go out to the lake and get killed. Yup, that's about it. The trouble here is that the conventions that have been used in the prior 3 films are re-used here and to a greivous fault.
We kick start the movie with where we left off at the end of 3. Insert a narrative sequence of flashbacks and then we're in. The drivers and everyone are removing the bodies from that farmhouse and then Jason's body from the barn. Since we're in a horror movie, we have to start with the body count, and so right off, we get the morgue guy and his girl at the hospital. Problem 1 is that the girl was not in Jason's way. She was in another room entirely, far, far away from where Jason was laid. Why did he kill her? Didn't make sense.
Then we start into the two-dimensional characters who exist for sex and death. Also in this tale is a family who has lived near the lake for some time now, and was never previously discovered by Jason. Why is it that people like this are still around. It has been many years since the first film (movie time line wise), and he hasn't found everyone? Sorry, the lake ain't that big. Anyway, after a quick intro that tells us little, we get a character who is in the film long enough to get another kill in before we move into the actual "plot." I use the term loosely.
We have two prime targets here. One is the family who lives on the lake. Single mom, son and daughter. Second is the teens who are renting the house next door. Bunch of them. All horny. These are joined by a pair of twins. Who knows where they came from; they met them on the trail. With enough kill fodder, we go into their daily antics of making out, skinny dipping, and drug use. Some of the teens are more characterised than others, and one or two get so little screen time that when they're hacked, we barely know who they are.
The family is not much better. You get mom, but not much about her. The daughter is just another kid. The son gets the most as he makes these scary rubber masks and has a knack for fixing stuff. He fixes the car on one occasion and the power to the house on another. He serves as the hero in our story...well, using that term loosely too.
So we move into the dumb moves that people do just to make sure they're where they need to be as opposed to doing what real people would. The heroes walk into the house and they find blood and the door smashed in. They walk in and explore. We get the "wait here while I explore" and of course, the other person doesn't wait there. Finally, one of them finds a bidy and exclaims "he's here!" Um, didn't we figure that out when the door was smashed in.
Then there's the guy in the basement who says to the girl "get out! He's killing me!" He's exclaims that he is being killed so many times, it humorous. Then, instead of leaving, the girl runs down the stairs into the basement, runs back out, runs back down to cry over the body, and then (big surprise) the bad guy gets ahold of her...but she gets away. Weird.
At another point, a girl comes across a campsite. What does she do? She gets in one of the tents and sits down and waits. ?! Who the heck does that? The guy who is camping there sees someone in his site earlier in the film, and what does he do? Explores it and finds his gun smashed. He doesn't really react to it. Weird again.
Take all that and add in a lot of hack n slash and you get the movie. There's no substance to it, and it serves only to provide a vehicle for gruesome make up effects, which aren't used as extensively as in the prior episodes. We get to the end, and like most horror flicks, the bad guy "dies" a few times before he is done in finally.
Moving through these, I can definitely see the genre deveoping into the cliche-factory it is today with all the classic elements falling into place. This one also serves to introduce the kid hero element into the genre which is used here and there in horror flicks for a "cute" factor.
So, this one is standard fare with nothing new to offer, though it might have given something interesting at the time.
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