Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

Director - Adam Marcus (Let It Snow, Secret Santa)

Starring - John D. LeMay (The New Kid, The Twilight Zone), Kari Keegan (The Prince of Pennsylvania, Mind Games), and Steven Williams (The X-Files, Supernatural)

Release Date - 1993

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Evil has finally found a home"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) 

Rating (out of 5):

     When I was in elementary school my uncle randomly appeared.  My family was not that close and this was one of the first times that I remember meeting him.  The only reason this meeting stood out with me was because he gave me Conan the Destroyer, Jason Goes to Hell, and Die Hard on VHS.  All were in those clear clamshell cases that most video stores used so I assumed it was stolen from a video store where ever it was he lived.  I watched these movies a lot growing up but Conan would be my go to but I still enjoyed the others for the most part.  Jason Goes to Hell will always be the first movie I saw in the Friday the 13th franchise which will be a lasting experience but when you watch it back to back with the previous films you can't help but laugh at how ridiculous it is.  

     Jason is baited back to Crystal Lake where a military outfit blows him up.  His body is taken to study but the heart is not dead.  It forces one of the doctors to eat it and once inside possesses the host sending him on another bloody rampage jumping from body to body until it reaches Crystal Lake.  A bounty hunter claims to know how to stop Jason for good and needs a relative of Jason to put a stop to him before more bodies pile up.  

     Jason Goes to Hell follows in the outlandish exploits of Jason that started to pick up from part VII until now.  Though it is crazier than a telekinetic camper and Jason in New York it still pulls the viewer in with the crazy practical effects and gruesome scenes.  The movie tries to add some depth to the Jason character by giving Jason a supernatural history and a much broader story than the original films did.  However, it fails to really gain any traction.  The acting in this one is pretty solid.  Some of the characters are comic reliefs while others are a little too serious for their own good.  We have Leslie Jordan and Rusty Schwimmer delivering some funny performances as the off beat couple that are polar opposites of each other while Steven Williams is just a little too serious.  In fact, some of the scenes comes off as comical because he is just too into it.  Aside from these three, I found the movie to be pretty well grounded and the cast does a pretty great job in the roles.  The characters are standard cliched horror characters but the cast does a solid job with it.  The story for this one blends the already established Jason mythos with a newer one that paints him more than just an undead slasher.  The film gives him a reason to kill aside from revenge with a much bigger family origin story.  It would have worked if it was something established 9 films previously but randomly inserting it into the 9th film in the series makes it feel rushed and doesn't have the impact that it would have had if it was introduced earlier in the franchise.  With that being said, it is an interesting concept that brought about a much bigger scope than just a masked man killing campers.  Finally, this one has some of the most impressive practical effects and kills out of the entire series.  KNB Effects was in charge of this and it's one of the most memorable kills and unforgettable effects.  With that being said, I don't care for the look of Jason in this one but he's only in the film for a short time.  Overall, Jason Goes to Hell will always hold a special place in my heart as the first Jason film I had seen but I know it's a mess of a film.  The kills are fun and the story starts something than is never fully explored but stands without saying.  It's watchable but sinks to the bottom of the pile.