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JASON
GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY Review
After eight films from 1980 to 1989, the FRIDAY THE 13TH series found a new home in New Line Cinema, the house that Freddy built. The moment Jason entered his new home, fans wondered if Jason would finally go toe to toe with Freddy Krueger. New Line released JASON GOES TO HELL in hopes to deliver a final film to set up the inevitable showdown. With Sean S. Cunningham back in the producer’s seat, the origins of Jason Voorhees were about to be revealed. Some things are just better off unexplained. JASON GOES TO HELL begins on its wisest note by ignoring the conclusion of the previous film, this time having Jason the target of a SWAT team who blow him to bits. His body is sent to a morgue for examination when, for some unknown reason, the coroner decides to eat his heart and become possessed by the spirit of Jason Voorhees. Meanwhile back at Crystal Lake, residents embrace Jason’s demise by throwing a huge celebration despite a renowned bounty hunter claiming he knows the only true way to destroy Jason once and for all. Oh, and Jason has a sister too. I’m going to go and say this right off the bat. This is the perfect example of why die hard fans of a film series should not eventually write and direct the sequels. As is the case with this and HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, it shows the filmmaker tries too hard to put in as many references as they can by trying to explain an origin. The problem is that enough was already made out of the earlier films that it wasn’t even warranted. Adam Marcus seems like a good guy as shown in the MANY LIVES OF JASON VOORHEES doc on the JASON X DVD, but he was clearly the wrong choice for this film. Cunningham produced it, he should’ve directed it as well. Adding more members of the Voorhees clan actually turned FRIDAY THE 13TH into a direct clone of HALLOWEEN, with Jason now bent on revenge for family a la Michael Myers. Although Cunningham and Victor Miller admit they were copying the formula of the original HALLOWEEN for the first FRIDAY, they copied its sequels here for that storyline. The premise of Jason jumping from body to body was an attempt to try something different. Some fans liked it and some hated it. Count me in the latter. The film tries to bolster up a story by including a few names in the cast, mainly Erin Gray as Jason’s sister, who informs the father of her granddaughter that she is a Voorhees, and X-FILES veteran Steven Williams, in very fine form here as the egocentric, maniacal bounty hunter Creighton Duke, who claims the only way Jason can be killed is through another Voorhees member. While the premise is interesting, it doesn’t fit with the rest of the series. If Jason can jump from body to body, why couldn’t he do that in the rest of the series? It seemed too much of a tacky gimmick. Also, Jason could read and perform rituals, as indicated by a properly placed NECRONOMICAN book from the EVIL DEAD series in the Voorhees house (which oddly looks like another house inhabited by a famous killer in a white mask). The real Jason, played once again by Kane Hodder, is only shown in the opening scene, on a few occasions in mirrors, and finally returns for the finale, which given the circumstances surrounding it (taking over the body of a dead relative) makes it humorous he’d return with the hockey mask intact. Still, Kane is well in this film with the limited time he has, and his descent into hell is well done. At least the film got the gore quotient right. There’s plenty of gore here, and the unrated version shows lots more of it with superb work. One of the nastiest wasn’t even bloody, just a nice shot of a car door crush in a person’s skull. It’s an old trick, but done well and paired with a sign post impalement were the only scenes that had me cringing. The best part about the film was in the final shots, when Jason’s hockey mask, lying on the dirt the morning after, is sent back down to hell by the glove of Freddy Krueger, providing the ultimate tease that had audiences clamor for FREDDY VS. JASON and the realization that it was going to happen. Granted, ten years later, but it happened. In all, JASON GOES TO HELL serves as my least favorite film of the entire FRIDAY series, so disappointing in its nature by rehashing so many elements in an attempt to make it original, which made it too complex on a franchise that was successful because of its simplicity. JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY: 3 Out Of 10 Maggots
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