Jason Goes to Hell (1993) User Reviews

This Is Not A "Friday" Film

[ReelCheese · 4/10 · 12 August 2007]

If longtime fans of the "Friday the 13th" saga have anything to say about it, the people behind this film will burn in the same place as its hockey-masked star. "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" is completely preposterous, out of place and an affront to what had been a dependable horror series.

Admittedly, director and co-writer Adam Marcus deserves credit for his boldness. He seemed inexplicably convinced that the wheel of the "Friday" series needed to be drastically reinvented, even though fans had lined up for basically the same plot eight times prior. But the brainwave of having Jason possessing one body after another alters the very fabric of what made these films good. Suddenly it's like we're watching an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" rip-off. Throw in Jason's newfound grunting, a far-too-heavy plot and a magical dagger (!) and you have something completely unworthy of the "Friday" moniker.

"Jason goes to Hell" is also incredibly lazy. All "Friday" films, by their very nature, require a leap of faith, but this is really too much. Firstly, this marked the first time that no explanation was given for Mr. Voorhees' reemergence. Were we all dreaming when we watched him get melted down to goo in the sewers of New York City? And what about Jason's rebirth toward the end (the most ridiculous moment of any "Friday" film)? How can a little slimy demon be reborn into a man already wearing ripped clothing and a hockey mask? And what about bounty hunter Creighton Duke? It's never explained how he knows so much about Jason and the mythical circumstances surrounding his life. In each of these instances, there seemingly are no easy answers. So rather than be inventive, the writers just threw all of this at us and hoped we would lap it up like thirsty kittens at a milk dish. This sequel completely ignores the continuity of the Jason legend that had been meticulously built up over the years.

What's equally tragic about "Jason goes to Hell" is its insistence on mocking the series. At one point, John D. LeMay's character sarcastically asks a trio of teens headed for Camp Crystal Lake whether they plan to smoke dope, engage in premarital sex and then get slaughtered. Har har. The transformation of Jason into some kind of media star is just as unnerving. Jason is a legend, a mythical figure whispered about in wildly imaginative campfire stories. Yet this movie turns him into a serial killer so well known he makes the TV tabloids and is targeted by the FBI. This is not the Jason we know, and "Jason goes to Hell" is not the "Friday the 13th" we love. It essentially breaks the fingers of the hand that feeds it.

The failure of "Jason goes to Hell," both in terms of concept and box office revenue, inevitably draws comparisons to the much-panned "Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning." That film drew plenty of boos for its Jason-less gimmick, but at least it had the feel of a "Friday" flick. "Jason goes to Hell" is substantially worse than any other entry, mainly because it is completely unrecognizable. Like "Part V," it probably would have worked better as a horror film independent of the Jason saga, rather than dragging Mr. Voorhees into a place he has no business being.

Clearly, Adam Marcus was wrong. The "Friday the 13th" wheel did not need reinventing. The failure of this film (and "Jason X" years later) shows that fans want a return to simpler times when horny teens in cabins were afraid to look out their windows. As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Bizarre!!!!

[lilac_point_burmese · 5/10 · 20 November 2006]

Okay, okay - its not the greatest of the series (I personally like Part 5 and Jason X for its pure unadulterated hamminess), but I think the problem with the film is more than just being bad but it was bizarre - it was so totally off the charts, I enjoyed it more looking at it from the perspective of a stand-alone film rather than part of the series. As part of the series, well, lets just say there is a lot to complain about, but on its own - its not bad. Certainly has a bit more personality than the other films. It felt a bit like Freddy Part 6 but made less sense! Its not that bad - worth a look if you like the series.

Part 9 is pretty dismal and not much fun at all

[capkronos · 3/10 · 12 May 2003]

Not actually killed in Manhattan (surprise, surprise), Jason is still at it until an undercover FBI agent (Julie Michaels, who makes time to take a shower) tricks him into an ambush where he's blown to pieces. If you think being head and limbless will stop Mr. Voorhees from returning to his murderous ways, think again. Now we learn that he can be "reborn" through a blood relative and can possess victims by sending an evil black monster into their bodies (idea stolen from THE HIDDEN).

In a touching tribute to the good ol' days of simplicity, overage-looking "teens" make time for skinny-dipping and tent sex before Jason splits the girl in half with a tent stake. This ninth installment in the endless Friday THE 13TH series features a good cast, but is derivative, annoying, unpleasant and not likely to be the final word in the Jason saga, despite ANOTHER cheat title (remember "The Final Chapter" way back in 1984?).

It played theaters in a cut R version (where it flopped), but the unrated "Director's Cut" video and DVD version restores most of the excellent KNB Group gore effects and some nudity, redeeming factors in a low-grade production like this. Kane Hodder (in his third appearance as Jason) also gets a credit for stunts.

The Worst crime is the murder of a horror icon!

[andell · 1/10 · 1 May 2005]

Let's understand two things about slasher horror from the 1980's: first of all, they had a legacy of saturating their own market, and secondly, they were simple stories born out of the twilight of an ever changing world.

With this in mind, it would be easy to point out what is wrong with Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday- however for the sake of time, it might just as well be easier to point to what's right about it. The answer to that is: NOTHING! All you ever wanted to know about Jason is revealed, and once you know the dark secret, it will haunt you- except for a small matter of cosmetics, the "dark secret" is the same as the lemon revealed a short time earlier in New Line's bad "finale" to the Nightmare movies. Of course, the only nightmare about that film was having to admit that you paid to watch it- it is much the same with this piece of total garbage.

Jason, it would seem, is not merely a specter capable of regeneration with a great rage at those who he feels are responsible for both his own and his mother's demise. Oh no, the dark secret is that if you can find someone who shares his father's blood line (cause lets face it, his mother was not born a Voorhees), then you can see Jason finally put to death, or you can see him re-born. Guess what happens here.

Except the rebirth is anti-climatic because he is nothing more than the same twisted mass of flesh that he was before he was blown apart by bombs and bullets at the beginning of the movie. And apparently genetics has a preference for certain types of clothing, and a certain mask because he is reborn with both.

In one laughable sequence, you would be forgiven for thinking "Jason" (or as I'd like to refer to him as...the Imposter) being reborn meant the world would end, however a mere 10 minutes or so after he was "reborn," he is also summarily killed again with an ancient dagger (who were the camp counselors who ignored Jason as he died...some ancient Sumarian or Egyptian people or something? What's with the dagger that must be used? Why does it look like an artifact) supplied to his niece (oh, this is a long story, and is too tedious and boring to go through right now) who finds the Linda Hamilton in her to terminate the 'terminator.' You'll be in for your just desserts if you think this repulsive piece of junk is worth even five minutes of your time. Of course, there is plenty of blood and gore (as the Friday films always seem to have), and there is also plenty to gross you out- but if you think or feel anything towards the horror icon that made these films successful, you ought to take a pass on this one.

Even the soundtrack is awful!

Was there a couple of Friday the 13th's missing?

[Aaron1375 · 1/10 · 3 April 2001]

*May contain spoilers! (Not that I am spoiling much)

This had to be the worst Friday the 13th movie to date, and lets face it there weren't that many great ones. The huge problem with this is what the heck happened. The last time we saw Jason he was in Manhattan and he was somehow turned back into a kid, in this movie he is again a walking corpse. I can live with that, but then he gets blown up, they made it look so easy, they should have done that from the start. Now though it gets strange as Jason becomes something from like the movie alien or all those body snatcher movies. At this point I am wondering "didn't I pay to see Jason hack up people directly?". Then comes the startling revelation that Jason has a sister! What! Get Real!!! There is no way the woman in the first one had a daughter before or after Jason (or before or after her head was chopped off for that matter). If she had a daughter she would have had someone to fall back on and Jason's death wouldn't have pushed her over the edge (most mothers like their daughters more anyway). In the end Jason is killed by another relative, because apparently a relative is the only one who can kill him (how did they come up with that) and the movie thankfully ends.

Totally different than previous ones, in a bad way

[ontheis · 2/10 · 9 October 2020]

So, they decided to downgrade the series even more with cheap effects and trashy version of Alien. Didn't rate this 1 star only because it was slightly amusing. This franchise would've been better if it stayed in the 80s.

What the hell?

[mattymatt4ever · 5/10 · 12 November 2002]

The ways of bringing Jason back just get crazier by the sequel, but this is the absolute craziest. Crazy is too light a word; ludicrous is more like it. The opening sequence is really cool. A woman's taking a bath, she flees from Jason, he chases her through the woods and BAM!!! Beams of light surround him. That's when we find out she's really an agent and a SWAT team jumps down and shoots him to bits. Now, Jason's body has literally fallen apart. Ain't nothing we can now, right?

Jason is taken to the coroner's office, the coroner gives him an autopsy and suddenly Jason's heart starts beating. Then, out of the freakin' blue, the coroner grabs the heart and devours it like a sandwich! Then supposedly, Jason's soul enters his body and every time he looks in the mirror, he sees Jason's reflection. Now, once we got to the heart-devouring scene, I was ready to puke--not because it's disgusting, but because of how idiotic it is.

Now, this isn't a terrible movie, but it's only watchable on an entertainment level. The story just gets dumber by the minute. Hell, the previous Jason sequels weren't heavy on logic, but they allowed the audience to suspend a fair deal of disbelief. Besides, it sucks that we hardly get to see Jason--mask and all--throughout the movie.

"Jason Goes to Hell" also lacks a certain charm that the other movies had. I'm guessing this was made on a higher budget and the director and producers were actually trying to accomplish things that weren't accomplished in the previous movies. But this is no more than B-horror trying to disguise itself as A-horror. There's only one cool death scene that will stick in my mind and that's when the girl is in the tent having sex, she goes on top and her body is sliced in half by Jason. Not to sound like a sadist, but that was freakin' awesome!

My score: 5 (out of 10)

"Jason Goes to Hell"- I'm sorry, but I appreciate and applaud the boldness of this entry. An interesting experiment in shaking up the franchise for the "Final Friday."

[TedStixonAKAMaximumMadness · 5/10 · 14 September 2016]

If there's one thing that can and should be said in defense of "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday", it's this...

...this is one bold, gutsy move for the franchise! Completely subversive and joyously disparate when placed in comparison to the previous eight films. A bizarre, red-headed-stepchild with a strange and sharp leaning towards the overly fantastical and blatantly magical. Taking what had been to that point an increasingly repetitious series, and attempting to inject some fresh blood for what was at the time considered to be the one... last... film to cap it all off.

Is is a success? Well, I'd say for the most part, fans do consider it a failure because it strayed so much from the formula in trying to establish a grandiose finale. And I think I would probably consider it to be a bit of a failure for that very same reason. But it's definitely a fascinating and daring failure. One that I can get behind. Especially after the increasing monotony of the previous two films.

Sue me, but I'll take an interesting failure that attempts to shake up the formula over a bland retread any day of the week!

Jason Voorhees has finally been killed. After an FBI Sting Operation blows his body to smithereens, the town of Crystal Lake is finally able to settle down, knowing the figment that has haunted them for so many years is finally gone.

Or is he?

Nope! As it turns out, Jason has become something more than human, and his evil has given him the ability to possess others through some sort of relatively-unexplained magical means. Now, Jason is coming back to seek vengeance, taking the forms of various characters through body-swapping, intent on locating surviving members of the family, so that he may be reborn again through them in his original form. Now, his only living relative (Kari Keegan), her ex (John D. LeMay) and a bounty hunter who knows the truth about Jason (Steven Williams) must team up to stop him once and for all!

Look, this movie's ridiculous. It's completely out of left-field. It doesn't really connect properly with the previous films. Its storyline is just bizarre. And it's a completely different beast tonally from any of the other flicks...

...but it's a lot of fun!

Director Adam Marcus and writers Jay Huguely and Dean Lorey seem to have a ton of ideas on how to exploit this ridiculous concept, and are given free reign to just go crazy. There's a little something for everyone here. From a touch of the self-aware laughs that made "Jason Lives" so enjoyable, to some wild and whacked-out imagery (you won't look at a straight-razor the same way again!) to some good old-fashioned kills that harken back to the first couple of movies, this film aims to deliver a roller-coaster ride from Hell... and it does deliver on that promise.

Add to that some likable performances, fun and inventive kinetic camera-work that knows how to make the best of it's lowish budget, weirdly entertaining humor and plenty of gore to go around... and it produces a film that I find to be a decent bit of dumb-fun.

This movie is stupid. Beyond belief. And it doesn't feel anything like the previous eight outtings. But I'm OK with that. It's got a lot of insane-o concepts and ideas to play with, it knows exactly what it wants to be, and it's got some fiendishly creative minds at it's helm.

It's a failure... but an entertaining and wildly ambitious failure that I can't help but root for.

So I'm giving it a middle of the road 5 out of 10. If you're a fan of the franchise and are open minded, give it a shot. You might be one of the proud few who really enjoys this off-the-rails nutcase- of-a- flick.

What a great beginning, too bad the rest sucked

[baumer · 6/10 · 14 July 1999]

I was so excited when the beginning of this film was before my eyes. The music, the darkness, the atmosphere. The beginning of this movie starts off just like the first four. It was tense and it had the exact feel of what we all loved about the early Fridays. The chase, the unnecessary nudity, the false scares, the mirror, and finally Jason in all of his gory splendor coming back one more time to wreak havoc on Crystal Lake. But then suddenly, he is blown up. He is dead, for real this time. I mean he is not like the T-1000 from Terminator that can put himself back together. So how does the movie go on from here? Well to be honest, if the film would have ended after the first ten minutes, I would have been more satisfied than I was at the end of this film. Simply put, I was cheated. I was enticed with what seemed to be a perfect Friday the 13th feel and then they went back to what made the last few suck so bad. What the hell were they thinking? Why the blatant disregard for us as horror fans? And why did they start off so well and then just kill us when Jason dies? By having his spirit enter into the body of some other people, it is a theme that has been done before. And to have the talent to make the Friday feel, and then deviate from that feel, well that is just despicable.

For those of us that really like the films from the early 80's, we were teased. We were lied to and for that I am still mad to this day. And to be honest, when I found out that New Line had decided to produce the films instead of Paramount, I knew that some how, some way, there would be some Freddy reference in it. And besides the beginning, that was actually the best part. Now if they only find a way to make the next film somewhat entertaining, then it could be fun again. But judging by how bad they butchered this one, don't hold your breath.

Steve and Sean should be ashamed of themselves.

4.0 what the hell

[slippyskills · 2/10 · 29 November 2005]

how can this film get a higher rating than parts 5 and 8, this is incredible, i mean it's gone beyond being funny cos it's crap, and delved into just plain crap crap. Unbelievable. only gave it a 2 because it has Jason and i was able to watch the whole thing with out switching off. The plot of this film is so diabolical, it's not even got anything to do with Jason, it's over the top cheesy Hollywood, but is so bad u can't even laugh at it. They even used Kane Hodder (Jason) to play the part of a security guard, perhaps cos they couldn't be bothered to cast someone else. IF they used him twice to be funny or give the Friday fans something extra, this is equally as bad. There was big gap between part 8 and 9 so you would have expected them to have come up with something better than this. If this is the only Friday you have seen, this film has no reflection on the others in the series. This film should not have been made. But if u want a good example of a poo movie, this is perfect as it is easy to get hold of.

A cinematic blast of genre goodness

[rivertam26 · 8/10 · 11 March 2020]

This is without a doubt one of my favorites of the franchise. It all begins when Jason tries to takedown an undercover FBI agent (whose footwear keeps changing as she's chased through the woods) and he's blown to bits in a spectacular, over the top fashion. The doctor doing the autopsy is seduced into eating his black heart and from than on it's a whole bunch of body switching like 1987s The Hidden but way amped up. The masked maniac is a demon parasite in search of a family member so that he can become his old self again. It's all a bit goofy and there are some unintentional funnies but who cares. The movie is fantastically gory and overly entertaining. Not only does it have the best kills of the series but also has the best kill of any slasher ever. The "tent split" is beyond amazing and needs to be experienced in it's full unrated cut like the rest of the glorious film. And as a horror fan how can I not appreciate all the homages and genre universe expanding. From the Halloween references to the Necronomicon from Evil Dead which makes Jason a full fledged deadite to freddy's glove dragging his mask into hell. It's all an absolute crazy, goretastic, insanely fun bundle of genre goodness.

4.25/5

Entertaining🌞

[jonflottorp · 7/10 · 1 January 2022]

I understand the hate but it's entertaining.

Jason goes to hell is bad but it's still fun watching it!

It's almost not one good actor it's a weird plot but i like that they did something New to the franchise.🔥 This movie has some of the best kills of the franchise.

It's not a Friday the 13th movie🎃 It's actually a pretty fun movie and i recommend it if you just wanna watch a movie🌞

More like the 'Friday the 13th' series has gone to hell

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 9 January 2018]

'Friday the 13th' may have been panned by critics when first released but since then it is one of the most famous and influential horror films, the franchise containing one of horror's most iconic villains. The film is popular enough to become a franchise and spawn several sequels of varying quality and generally inferior to the one that started it all off.

'Jason Goes to Hell' for me is one of the worst of the 'Friday the 13th' films, a strong contender even for the worst. Is it irredeemably awful? No, not quite, don't think any of the 'Friday the 13th' films are. Then again this is coming from somebody who tries to see the good in bad films etc. and even tries to say where good to great films etc. could be improved on, not somebody who hates on everything or declare every film seen a classic. Sadly though, despite not caring hugely for the previous two instalments, 'Jason Goes to Hell' is indicative of the series has gone to hell.

Are there good things here in 'Jason Goes to Hell'? Yes there are. The highlights are the tense opening scene and the slicing in half death (very strange but both disturbing and not easy to forget). Kane Hodder does a lot with little and is suitably creepily intimidating.

There are instances too where the film is also inventively shot.

On the other hand, while a good deal of 'Friday the 13th' films are silly, the silliness here is overkill that it becomes insultingly ridiculous. It is certainly the most bizarre film in the series, and not in a good way, and it completely gets in the way of scares or suspense. 'Jason Goes to Hell' overdoes just as much on the weirdness as it does with silliness. A lot fails to make sense, with too many parts confusing the story, and things that beg for an explanation are left unexplained, anything explanations are like the previous films didn't happen because so much doesn't fit.

Hodder aside, the acting is really poor, even for the 'Friday the 13th' films where acting rarely was a strength. Likewise with the dialogue, which is 'Friday the 13th' at its most taking-simplicity-to-extremes, stilted, cheesiest and lacking in taste.

Nothing is truly scary here, apart from the opening and one memorable death and suspense is nil. The kills are generally neither creative or shocking (going for more quantity, with a very large body count, than quality where gore feels too much and gratuitous. The pacing is far too hectic, the film never stops moving and everything here feels incredibly rushed, and this hurts the atmosphere and the storytelling. 'Jason Goes to Hell' is also the first film in the series where the music score is a drawback and not a redeeming feature, not only does the music sound cheap here it also is so discordant with what's going on and like it was written for a different film.

Concluding, not a good film and indicative of a severe decline of a variable series of films. 3/10 Bethany Cox

A really botched entry in this series

[Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki · 2/10 · 24 April 2003]

Jason is lured out into an open field where the FBI is waiting for him in an ambush, (In all the other movies no one believed Jason was alive, why do they now?) he's then hit with a missile and blow to pieces, about five minutes into the movie. Then after a LENGHTY credits sequence, we find out Jason's body may have been destroyed but his spirit/ soul is still alive and quite angry. He then possesses several people, trying to be reborn by his heretofore unmentioned sister.

Good premise, if not original, but the camera work is sometimes grainy and out of focus, the gore is badly done (all the blood looks like black paint) The music score to this movie is HORRIBLE! It sounds like someone is mashing down all of the major keys on a piano at the same time. The opening title sequence, and its horrendous music score, just seems to go on forever. Unbearable! All of the characters in this movie are obnoxious, so we don't care who is killed. The story is inconsistent with the rest of the films in this series, and it ends up being just a really missed opportunity of sorts. When Jason is reborn at the climax of the film, why is he still rotten and shredded, with bullet holes and machete cuts still in him? Shouldn't he have been good as new, again?

At the climax, giant, floppy muppet hands reach up from the ground and grab Jason and pull him down to Hell; that looks more unintentionally funny than anything.

The unrated version is mediocre at best, the heavily edited "R" rated version will put you to sleep, or annoy you to the point you just cannot watch any more.

Probably not the send-out fans were hoping for but it does take a cool twist

[dirtychild · 11 November 2004]

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is (supposedly) the last Friday the 13th chapter... FBI agents hunt down and destroy Jason at Crystal Lake - but Jason has the ability to possess other people's bodies and continues his bloodbath.

I don't think this would be a favourite of the fans - it is quite corny, Jason doesn't feature a lot in the movie... but I think the movie half-way through takes a turn for the better. Instead of being another mindless slasher - the movie goes all John Woo with some cool gun fights and slow motion camera. It was like the director had watched a couple of John Woo films for the first time half-way through shooting the movie and decides... "it would be cool to use this stuff in this movie"!

The "Invasion of the Body Snatcher" plot doesn't work - but I think the stylish gun battles redeem this film somewhat. Sort of recommended!

Does for Jason what Halloween III did for Michael

[buzzingscooter73 · 1/10 · 29 June 2005]

It seemed like New Line tried a little too hard to be innovative with this installment. I thought Part VII was too over the top with a telekinetic girl, but the whole body-switching approach was ridiculous even for the most hardcore Friday fan. If Jason can "wear other peoples' bodies the way you and I wear clothes" as is said in the film, then why didn't Jason use this power in any of the previous installments? Also, by following this format, the audience is basically just watching a generic slasher flick as "Jason" only appears in the film for about fifteen minutes. It was especially sad to think that critics had been lambasting the franchise for years and this bomb just gave them all the more ammunition. After it was all said and done, I was very disappointed to think that this may indeed be the "final Friday," because to end the series with this load of trash would be desecration. If you ever want to watch the entire series back-to-back, start with part one, go through part eight and then skip ahead to Jason X.

Keep it simple please!

[SnoopyStyle · 3/10 · 18 October 2013]

Jason is tricked by an FBI sting where they blew him to bits. Only his dark heart still beats. When the coroner falls under the trance of the beating heart, he eats it up and becomes possessed by the great evil.

Steven Williams is too campy as bounty hunter Creighton Duke. And he's not the funny kind of campy. An older Erin Gray stars as Diana Kimble. At least I like her.

The problem with this one is it takes a lot of side trips away from the simple Jason-killing-teens story. It's what the franchise is about. It's what we expect. The FBI thing just comes and goes. I understand that it's meant to surprise us. But after the surprise, there isn't much follow thru. The possession premise of this movie strays too far from the franchise, and just misses the whole point of it all. It's as if they're trying to throw everything at this including the kitchen sink.

Wow.

[nightwishouge · 3/10 · 12 April 2021]

About two years ago, I bought the Blu Ray box set of the original Paramount Friday the 13th releases (1-8) at the local Wal-Mart and gradually made my way through the series with my girlfriend. In retrospect $20 was the perfect amount of money to plunk down on the set--cheaper than the accompanying beer and pizza one needs to enjoy the films. I wouldn't say any of the movies are good, per se, but in the right frame of mind they are trashy fun.

Would that the series had stopped there.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday was not included in that box set, being the first episode in the franchise after New Line Cinema bought the rights (ostensibly for the opportunity to match their own slasher titan, Freddy Krueger, against the hockey-masked antihero). So I had to wait until it showed up on a streaming service to which I had access. Tonight was that night. Was the movie worth my own personal wait? Well, let's just say it made me nostalgic for even the worst of the Paramount entries.

What's wrong with the movie? Where to begin? I'm not sure there's a single positive thing I can say about Jason Goes to Hell, except that it didn't strike me as out-and-out immoral. What a ringing endorsement.

First of all, the concept is ill-conceived. Why make a Friday the 13th movie that barely features Jason? He IS the franchise. Sure, he's at his most effective when kept off-screen for a large portion of the movie, but to eliminate him altogether is to completely miss what fans love about Friday the 13th as a brand name. Instead the plot focuses on a vaguely defined "evil" jumping from body to body to accomplish what we are now told was Jason's mission all along: to eliminate the Voorhees bloodline, because only a Voorhees can kill a Voorhees...but also can reincarnate Jason's evil into a new body. Yes, the motivation of killing off his own family members IS stolen from the Halloween franchise, and yes, it's a dumb plotline there as well. Also, if Jason knew all along he needed to kill his own long-lost (or at least never-before-mentioned) sister, why was he spending so much time at Camp Crystal Lake offing teenagers arbitrarily? Just for kicks, I guess.

In a way, I sympathize with screenwriters on long-running horror franchises. As a given series goes on, they have to continually inject the latest movie with enough innovation to justify its existence while still delivering what the fans have come to love and expect. Both Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street indulged in convoluted, nonsensical mythologies to carry the series along (though Nightmare at least did something interesting with it by part 7). So in that sense, kudos to Friday the 13th for wringing 8 more-or-less satisfying entries out of the exact same premise (tedious though it got by the time Jason took Manhattan) before invoking supernatural retconning. But back to Jason Goes to Hell specifically.

The second problem: the cast. The characters fall into two categories: grotesque caricatures, for which there is certainly precedent within the franchise; and the completely nondescript. As usual the comic relief characters are not ACTUALLY funny but at least have a certain amount of energy. The main characters are so bland I can't tell you a single character trait shared among them. The leads are boring and have absolutely no chemistry and the supporting cast leave equally little impression. At one point a waitress in a diner grabs a shotgun and starts blasting away at the Jason-surrogate like Sarah Connor in the Terminator series and I found myself thinking, "Do I have any idea who this character is?" The only exception is mysterious Jason-hunter Duke, played by Steven Williams, who for unexplained reasons knows all about (and becomes the exposition for) all this new mythology about the Voorhees evil. His character doesn't come to anything either but at least he feels alive.

The final nail in the proverbial coffin is Adam Marcus's direction. The movie doesn't look particularly good. The earliest films in the series have a low-budget grit and grain that, combined with the camp setting in the lush wilderness, winds up being at least accidentally aesthetic. Jason Goes to Hell, by contrast, is just polished enough to be completely lacking in atmosphere. The pacing is arbitrary at best, with tension failing to materialize and jump scares consistently falling flat. In terms of cinematography, Marcus barely outperforms a typical Goosebumps episode, especially in the opening sequence in which a heavily-armed FBI team takes down Jason; it's just so amateurish and flatly lit and goofy you feel like you're watching a movie-within-a-movie, a la a Zucker Brothers comedy or something. Jason himself is so bulky and mutated, with his lumpy bulging head threatening to swell over and envelop his hockey mask, that he looks like a rejected design for a Resident Evil antagonist.

Lastly, I hate the tone of gratuitous fanboy wankery Marcus sets throughout the film. Fanboys think nothing is more clever or satisfying than pointless meta-commentary and empty references to other properties they like. When you give fanboys money to make art, they spend so much time and energy imagining how they can create little coded messages and "winks" for the other fanboys in the audience that apparently they forget to go a step further and create something decent and compelling in its own right. Watching a movie borne of such a mentality is akin to the torment of being cornered by an angry bearded guy with poor social skills who needs to blather at you in excruciating detail about why The Last Jedi MUST be omitted from canon. What a blot on the face of the Evil Dead franchise that the actual Necronomicon prop worms its way into this smug self-satisfied hack job.

There is certainly a place in the world for bad movies. Mindless garbage, unambitious fun. What I can't abide is boring, self-congratulatory, inane, incompetent drivel. Even a diehard Friday fan ought to skip Jason Goes to Hell. Just go find the Blu Ray set of 1-8 at Wal-Mart instead.

Confusing and somewhat disappointing, but still fun in a silly way...

[Zombified_660 · 5/10 · 30 April 2005]

Jason Goes to Hell is probably the most experimental of the Jason movies. This is to be applauded, but unfortunately the experiment is something of a failure. This movie tries to explain the Jason mythos, but actually eschews any of the mythos the earlier movies had created in favour of its own take, which is frankly rubbish anyway.

The movie explains Jason's invulnerability as 'he can only die if he's stabbed through the heart by a family member with this special knife'. If this was so, then how come Tommy Jarvis kills him at the end of number four and he doesn't come back until number six when he gets struck by lightning Frankenstein style? I shouldn't really expect solid gold continuity out of the eighth sequel out of 10 (with an eleventh heading our way sometime next year or the year after) but I do expect some kind of respect for the storyline laid down in previous sequels and this isn't it.

However, if I were to ignore the wholesale jettison of the plot of the rest of the series, maybe JGtH would still be good? Well no, it still kinda sucks eggs. They decided to jettison Jason as well, see he gets blown up with a bazooka in the opening frames and spends the rest of the movie as a worm hopping bodies in a soulless mockery of The Hidden. He comes back for a bit at the end (and is enough of a bad mofo in this last five minutes to almost make up for it) but honestly, doesn't do a lot other than bash Steve Williams about a bit. Mind you, this sequence is pretty fun and almost redeems the movie.

So, there's a dumb plot with no connection to earlier Fridays, Jason isn't really in it...Hell, you ask, is there even any gore? Any reason I shouldn't skip straight from Eight to Ten? Well, on the gore front the movie delivers. It has what the team themselves refer to as 'the most horrific kill in a Friday the 13th to date' which is, I'd have to confer, pretty damn nasty (I won't spoil it, just to say it is absolutely sick, and involves a tent spike), and if you're watching the uncut edition (buy this in the UK or on import from the UK on Pathe and you will have the uncut print) there's a whole damn lot of nastiness, including a deep fat frying, a lot of fairly hideous slashing and a man melting into a pool of gore Robocop style. If you want blood, you got it basically and to be honest hardcore gorehounds probably won't give two hoots about it's shortcomings on account of all the generous splatter on offer.

But I watch horror movies for the excitement factor and the removal of the iconic Jason leaves this movie choking in the dust when compared to other Friday movies. If this movie had Jason in place of all the people he bodysnatches it would have been awesome, but he's not and he carries these movies. A shame, as the movie's still pretty interesting (if only as a failed experiment) due to the reasonably good ideas it has. It just lacks the X-factor of Jason.

It's honestly not that bad

[yasmal · 7/10 · 20 March 2022]

People give this film way too much hate... It is a fun and wild time that still has all of the core elements that people love about the franchise intact.

stupid

[ahufe · 1/10 · 26 October 2020]

This is not friday the 13th this is a stupid bad movie

Scary Gruesome Fun!

[njachimiec · 8/10 · 16 February 2006]

I have been a big Jason fan for years and this was actually the first film I saw pretty interesting since this is known as the black sheep of Jason films. I really like this movie it's scary for one and the acting is excellent for a horror film. John D LeMay and Steven Williams are awesome maybe the best characters from any other Jason film. This film's deaths are only rivaled by some of the things I've seen in the Final Destination films they are that good. Adam Marcus and Dean Lorey are hilarious in their director commentary I recommend listening to it. I just bought the unrated DVD on special order at a Best Buy go buy this movie!

Haters Take a Machete to the Face

[cinemaguy21 · 7/10 · 27 October 2006]

I think its a travesty how this movie has taken so much heat compared to the rest of the series. While I love this kind of camp, every character, plot and film in this series has largely been interchangeable with the others.

Fast forward to 1993 and we have a film that attempts to add innovations like pop horror references to the films Evil Dead and Nightmare on Elm Street without resorting to half-baked comedy (I'm looking at you Freddy). We have a film that updates Jason's by-now clichéd features to a more sublime grotesque, looking like a serial killer would look if he ignored hygiene for 20 years during his hacking and slashing hayday.

The plot makes a marked improvement from "I know they're all gonna die, but how?" to "What the hell could possibly kill Jason? What does the Necronomicon have to do with it (merely a mystery in the mythology)? Jason has family? and We're finally going to get some friggin' resolution here?" Come on people: Jason X should have been shunned by any self-respecting fan after all the promos claimed this to be "The Final Friday". Plus finished it in what I considered to be a climactic finale. Instead you crawled back on your knees like the creatures of habit that you are, always willing to settle for another broken promise and failed expectation from a marketable franchise. Note: Let's be fair though, none of us could have helped wanting to see Freddy Vs. Jason.

To the creators of this movie, I give you props. Besides most of the people on IMDb who hated this movie either don't like the slasher genre or can't friggin' spell "slasher genre".

Everything is wrong

[HorrorEnjoyer · 1/10 · 24 July 2020]

Plot is stupid, characters are horrible, acting is bad, pacing is all over the place - sometimes it drags and then sometimes you feel like half of the movie is missing and you have a very vague idea what actually is going on.

Kills are done poorly, stalking scenes are done badly, movie has one single decent special effect, others look like they were done by a child for a school project.

Sound effects are horrible too - why did they add grunts for Jason, like he's some kind of cartoon monster? Big part of why Jason is scary is because he's a silent killing machine, adding random grunts to him totally undermines the character.

Oh and the intro credit scene is one of the most annoying things I have ever seen, because of the way it cuts back and forward what feels like a hundred times.

One of the worst movies ever made.

Worst of the Series

[Michael_Elliott · 8 February 2009]

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

1/2 (out of 4)

For this ninth entry in the long-running series we saw studios changed hands as New Line took over after Paramount had grown tired with the series. New Line's attempt was to bring some new blood into the series but what they ended up doing was delivering the worst film. This time out we start off with Jason (Kane Hodder) chasing a victim through the woods when a SWAT team jumps out and blows him to pieces. The only problem is that his heart is still alive and after a doctor bites into it the soul of Jason enters him. Turns out Jason had a sister so the spirit, jumping from body to body, now tries going after her and her daughter. As you can tell by not having Jason in the movie except for the start and finish, the studio certainly tried doing something new and I can still remember my father taking me to see this with a sold out crowd on opening night. The crowd was certainly pumped up and ready to go but by the twenty-minute mark people were bored out of their minds. At the end of the film people were throwing popcorn at the screen, cussing and everyone walks out mad and cheated. So has time helped this film? Certainly not as it's clearly the worst in the series just because of how stupid the spirit jumping in. Not only does the film have logical plot holes it also has some really bad direction, bad dialogue and, as I said, a really bad story. The only thing that really saves this turkey are some rather good kill scenes as well as the now well-known cameo at the end, which gave fans something to look forward to (even though it didn't happen for over a decade). With this film the characters are all poorly written and for the first time in the series there wasn't a single one I cared for. I found all of them to be very annoying with a leading man who couldn't carry a grocery sack let alone an entire film. The female heroin isn't any more interesting and Hodder really doesn't get to do much with Jason since you see him and then he's gone. Even the ending manages to be the worst in the series. All in all this is just a very bad movie from start to finish.