Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
directed by Adam Marcus
starring Kane Hodder, Leslie Jordan
Arrow Video
In any ongoing film series, at some point, people start clamoring for the series to “do something different,” and then as soon as something different hits the screens, people balk and want the familiar back. Such is the case with the Friday the 13th series and in particular the divisive 9th entry, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. The film often ranks at the bottom of fans’ lists of the franchise and ended Jason’s run for nearly a decade, though it features good gore effects, some memorable kills, and even more memorable nudity (the tent scene alone is worth the price of the ticket) that should have been a hit with fans. I can understand it coming at the end of the cycle and fatigue setting in, but in the intervening 32 years, little has changed in the minds of the fans. Is the film really that bad, or is it a misunderstood monster that dared to deviate from the template?
After an explosive pre–credit sequence where the girl-alone-in-a-cabin trope gets flipped and it is Jason Vorhees who finds himself on the wrong side of a couple dozen heavily-armed federal agents, one might assume that, with his body blown apart, Jason’s immortal soul is headed for the fiery depths of hell. Instead of heading to hell, his cursed soul starts jumping into various host bodies looking for one that can harness his power. Meanwhile, bounty hunter Creighton Duke knows the only way to end Jason’s reign of terror is for a member of his family to kill him with a magical dagger. So there is an impressive body count piled up by Jason in this film, but they all occur while he possesses other people’s bodies. The whole thing is odd and surely a shock to people wanting to see a by-the-numbers Friday the 13th sequel, but this unholy mash-up of The Evil Dead, The Terminator, and The Omen is far more entertaining than its reputation would suggest. If it was a standalone piece without the Jason Voorhees baggage, it would probably be more fondly remembered.
The film is surprisingly well staged and photographed, despite showing the telltale signs of a cheapjack production, including a single hallway being utilized for multiple locations only redressed with cardboard signs. Director Adam Marcus keeps things moving along at a nimble clip — there isn’t a great deal of mystery or suspense in the film, but it is a film that knows what it’s doing and delivers plenty of gore, nudity, and a healthy balance of scares leavened with some ridiculous comic relief. But it also doesn’t feel like a Friday the 13th movie. It literally feels like a late entry of some other series where the bounty hunter Creighton Duke has been hunting Jason for multiple films, instead of being introduced in the cold open. The film isn’t shy about acknowledging its inspirations, as the actual Necronomicon from Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness and “The Crate” from Creepshow have cameos in the movie.
Arrow Video has resurrected this misunderstood monster in a two-disc 4K UHD that features both the theatrical and far superior Director’s cut of Jason Goes to Hell. The film looks gorgeous, and it almost feels quaint to have night scenes in a horror movie where you can actually see what’s going on. Jason Goes to Hell also comes with three audio commentary tracks from director Adam Marcus, screenwriter Dean Lorey, author Peter Bracke, and film historians Michael Felsher and Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton. A bunch of interviews with cast and crew really round out this impressive release of a strongly divisive horror film that really deserves a re-evaluation.
