Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

Shortly after the horrendous “Friday the 13^th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan,” Paramount sold the rights to the “Friday the 13^th” franchise to New Line Cinema (the same company who created Freddy Kruegar). The time between the eighth and ninth sequels was four years, the longest everyone went through without a new “Friday the 13^th” movie. Originally titled “Friday the 13^th Part IX: Jason Goes to Hell,” it was changed to “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday,” released in 1993, where they wanted to interest every fan. George Rother stated in his review, “It’s a good title, but the purist in me likes the first title better.” Once again, the word “final” is in the title. Look, we’ve been through this before and know the deal. Rother said, “I’d like to preface my next point by saying that I do like Jason Goes to Hell. It’s campily entertaining and has a fair amount of gore. My problem with it is that it attempts to explain why Jason Voorhees can’t die. BAD IDEA! Some things are just better left unexplained. The fact that Jason can’t be killed is something that should be accepted on faith alone, much like a child believes in Santa Claus bringing toys to all the children of the world in a single night. It’s a paradox really. I wanted to know why Jason couldn’t die, but deep down I really didn’t.”

Rother goes on to say, “All that aside, the explanation offered up by Jason Goes to Hell is absolutely ludicrous, so much that I still shake my head in disbelief twenty-odd years later.” It should have made the movie into a complete failure, but in a strange way, it doesn’t. Look, I know this is a bad movie, but it’s the kind that you like to watch because of how much fun you have.

In the years since he went to New York, Jason is now back to his original home and went back to his murderous ways. As the film starts, a young woman, played by Julie Michaels, walks to her cabin at Crystal Lake. It’s night, she’s alone and does everything girls in horror films shouldn’t do (like going outside to get something from a shed, takes a shower). As you might have guessed, Jason, reprised by Kane Hodder, shows up and chases her through the forest…right in the middle of the FBI. They shower him with bullets before blowing him to smithereens. Seeing how they believe they have finally killed him lets us know that they don’t know who they’re up against. His corpses are taken to a secure government building for the autopsy. The coroner, played by Richard Gant, becomes hypnotized and eats Jason’s beating heart. He becomes possessed by Jason’s spirit. I’ll explain it for everyone. The spirit, which clearly looks like a giant black worm (or a turd, if you want to describe it that way), moves from one body to another as it needs to, normally when one body starts to decay. How nice. Continuing, for Jason to go back to his human form, he needs to be reborn through a blood relative. In other words, only a Voorhees can kill a Voorhees.

Coincidentally, Jason does have family in the Crystal Lake area, like his half-sister Diana Kimble (Erin Gray), her grown daughter Jessica (Kari Keegan) and infant granddaughter Stephanie (Brooke Scher). This causes Jessica to return to Crystal Lake and be reunited with her ex-boyfriend/daughter’s father Steven, played by John D. LeMay. He’s completely aware of the situation thanks to bounty hunter Creighton Duke, played by Steven Williams, who also is out to kill Jason. Jason changes into a few different bodies in his forceful mission of Jessica and her baby while Steven tries to protect them. Rother said, “As I write this, I’m thinking about my initial reaction to Jason Goes to Hell upon seeing it opening day way back when. It sounds more like a sequel to The Hidden (another New Line release) than an F13 movie. It’s this kind of thing that makes me smile with bewildered delight.” At least the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. Rother said, “Directed by Adam Marcus, it’s decidedly tongue-in-cheek, especially with allusions to other classic horror flicks of the 80s. I won’t spoil the surprise by pointing them out here, I’ll only tell you to pay attention to certain background objects in the old Voorhees house. This raises a real quandary for me. Should I discuss the final scene or not? I mean, this movie is 21 years old, so most people have seen it. Also, it sets up the events of a particular sequel, so it’s not like I’m dropping a major spoiler. I guess I’ll leave it alone for now.”

One thing that you should like about “Jason Goes to Hell” is how many people have come back for this movie. Producer Sean S. Cunningham and composer Harry Manfredini both return to the franchise. Also, Kane Hodder reprises the role of Jason for a third time. Rother said, “It dawns on me that I failed to mention him in previous reviews and the man certainly deserves his props.” He makes a great Jason Voorhees. There are also some of the best kill scenes. Here they are: an assistant coroner (Dean Lorey) gets stabbed in the back of the head with a probe, a naked woman (Michelle Clunie) gets cut in half from behind (really graphic), Jason smashes two cops’ (Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps) heads together, a man’s (Adam Cranner) arm is broken in a grotesque way, another (Leslie Jordan) gets scalded in a deep-fryer, a woman’s (Rusty Schwimmer) face is literally smashed in, another woman’s (Allison Smith) head is crushed until blood comes out and a decapitation (Kipp Marcus). Rother noted, “I counted 18 onscreen deaths and 4 body jumps (I didn’t count them with the killings). The previous two F13 installments weren’t particularly gory, so it’s nice to see a return to form. Actually, Jason Goes to Hell is the goriest F13 yet. Of course, I’m talking about the unrated version on DVD as opposed to the one released theatrically. Other than the woman (Michelle Clunie) being cut in half, I couldn’t say what was added or expanded. It may be more-than-sufficiently bloody, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the silliest entry in the series. If I may return to a point previously made, sometimes the answer to a burning question proves unsatisfying. Perhaps it’s best not to seek answers at all to certain questions. I remember hearing a classmate make a similar point when 2010 came out in December ’84. He said that while it’s a good movie, it spoiled the mystery of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I get it, I really do. That being said, I like Jason Goes to Hell as a slasher flick, but not as an explanation of Jason’s immortality. I prefer to keep thinking of him as the hockey-masked killer that never dies no matter what.”

Look everyone, I know that this is a bad movie, but I actually enjoyed myself when I was watching it. It was different, for sure, but in a way that I actually thought was interesting. It didn’t repeat the same gags as before and tries something new, which I give it credit for. Plus, the look they gave Jason was actually fresh, we get some great creature effects and it's very different from the rest. Definitely see this one and see for yourself. If you don’t like it, I understand, because people like to say this film is a mess. If you do like it, more power to you. I might place this under the sixth movie on my list, but I would have to rethink the list up before I rank them again.

Alright everyone, time to grab on to your vomit bags again. Tomorrow we will be looking at the absolute worst in the franchise. I’m not looking forward to it either, but just bear with me. The sooner we can get it over with in “Friday the 13^th-a-thon,” the sooner I can get back to good stuff in this year’s “Halloween Month.”