Customer Reviews

Jason Goes to Hell [VHS]

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(55)
3 star:		(48)
2 star:		(33)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

Elizabeth Marcus (Julie Michaels) is being chased through the woods by Jason. Typical Friday The 13th movie, right? Wrong. A bunch of bright lights flash on, startling Jason. The FBI comes out of hiding and shoot Jason numerous times. In fact, Kane Hodder, as Jason, had the most squibs ever on an actor. Jason is then blown to smithereens, causing body parts to go flying. It's a pretty cool opening sequence, but how are they going to finish the movie?

Jason's tattered remains are being examined by a professional. The man is hypnotized by Jason's black heart so much so that he eats it (there's some interesting acting). This brings the spirit of Jason into him. He continues to go from body to body, searching for his living family members (his sister, his niece, and his niece's baby). If he can get one of them to host his spirit, he will be reborn with into his old body, complete with mask and all.

He switches bodies multiple times throughout the movie, which is kind of cool. The downside of this is that there aren't many scenes with Jason as Jason -- that is, Kane Hodder as Jason. This is his third of four times playing Jason in a row. Hodder does have a short appearance as an FBI agent, but he gets killed.

The ending is pretty lame with the 'heart creature' and the giant hands from Hell. However, the sequence right before the credits is very exciting. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but let's just say that there's a very special cameo.

Aside from the cameo I just mentioned, there are some other interesting appearances. The book in the old Voorhees house is the Book Of The Dead from the Evil Dead movies. Additionally, the dagger used to kill Jason was the same daggeer used in Evil Dead. This didn't have anything to do with the movie, but it was cool that they used the same props.

This movie leaves many unanswered questions. Why does a movie titled Jason Goes To Hell never have a scene in Hell? How did Jason come back from the ending of the eighth movie? If the bounty hunter has been chasing Jason for his entire life, why doesn't he show up until the eighth installment? How did he find out how to kill Jason? More importantly, why is he even after Jason? Why was Jason's family never mentioned before this? Oh well, it's a movie. It's bound to have some plot holes.

On the plus side, there is actually some character development here, which most Friday The 13th movies lack. People are actually in relationships and have lives until Jason interrupts.

It was interesting to see how New Line went in a different direction with this film. The didn't do the same 'campers getting killed in the woods' thing, although they did include a few camper deaths in the movie, which was a good idea on their part. Let's face it: people complained about the lack of that, but if they would have done the same old plot again, people would have complained about it being boring and unoriginal.

The DVD is pretty good for this movie. It has some cool special features. One of those is the funny commentary from director Adam Marcus and screenwriter Dean Lorey, both of whom play small roles in the movie. They poke fun and make jokes but also tell interesting facts, so it's entertaining. Other features include alternate scenes from the television version, the original theatrical trailer, and jump to a death. The only thing missing would be a cool 'making of' segment.

The best part about the DVD is that it contains both the R-rated version and an unrated director's cut. The R-rated version is the one you saw in theaters. It shows a lot of deaths off screen. Sure, that adds a sense of mystery, but if you're a gore hound like myself, you'll want to watch the unrated version. It has a lot of bloody deaths that were so bad, they couldn't be shown in theaters. It's much better than the original, in my personal opinion.

It's not the Final Friday, as the title states, but neither was the fourth one, which claimed to be 'The Final Chapter'. They will continue to make movies as long as they can get money out of it. At least this one isn't a bad movie, like the next to come.

At least, if you're into the horror genre. There are a few things that make this entry in the series a cut above the other Fridays: First, there's certainly an abundance of plot- we've got Jason's origin and some actual character development. Second, there are some good actors in this movie- Erin Gray, John D. LeMay, Steven Culp, etc. We actually care for some of these characters. Third, you get the feeling that this is the first time the filmmakers are actually in on the joke... as in every horror movie, the couple that has sex is 'punished' but in this movie, there's even an amusing scene where, right before Jason kills them, he steps on the condom that the guy tossed out of the tent- so much for safe sex! And how about those Vorhees burgers and Jason fingers at the diner? And the scene where the woman strips and takes a shower in order to draw Jason out into the open? Too funny! And that last scene was a perfect way to end the movie and nicely set up future sequels.

I have always been a fan of the Friday the 13th series. I'd seen each of the movies a dozen times, but had somehow missed this particular movie. I barely even remembered hearing about it.

I finally got to see it a few days ago and, wow... I mean, I honestly gave this movie a chance. I really did. This installment into the series is what PART 3 was to the HALLOWEEN series. Jason is barely in the movie. When you do see him, his makeup job is so weak that he becomes more comical than imposing or frightening. Now, I love Kane Hodder as Jason, but the acting in this movie is absolutely bottom shelf. There are a few decent visual effects, yet there are more than enough cheesy effects to counter and totally eclipse the good.

This is the 2nd "mulligan" of the series: along with part 5, fans will wish they could simply remove them from the series and forever forget them.

Jason, the living, breathing essence of evil, is back for another fierce fling. Tracked down and blown to bits by a special FBI task force, everyone now assumes that he's finally dead. But everyone is wrong. Jason has been reborn with the ability to assume the identity of anyone he touches. The terrifying truth is that he could be anywhere. Or anybody.

One of the weaker installments in the franchise. The one bright spot in the film is actor Steven Williams (who would later play the role of "Mr. X" in the series "The X-Files"). His character is interesting, and he plays it with energy and comedic touches.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (Adam Marcus, 1993)

It pains me to admit that I didn't realize until about ten minutes into watching this piece of dreck that I'd already seen it. It's downright embarrassing to admit that after I realized this, I did, in fact, watch the remainder of the movie again. Why would I put myself through such horror again? Your guess is as good as mine. But I did. And since I did, I might as well review it. I can sum my review up in three words: "Oh, the humanity." But since three-word reviews are not looked upon kindly by those in the movie-buying community, I will take a few minutes to expand on my reaction.

Plot: after an FBI sting, Jason (Kane Hodder) is finally taken down. Or is he? When he gets to the morgue (in pieces, of course), his heart begins beating again, and he possesses (by means of the movie's best scene, actually) the coroner working on him (Daddy Day Camp's Richard Gant). And thus begins Jason's newest talent-- travelling from body to body in order to get himself into a situation where he can be reborn. (If this sounds familiar, it is--this device was used to much greater effect in the 1998 movie Fallen.) Along the way, of course, are all the old tropes of the Friday the 13th movies that make them such a neocon's dream--if you use drugs or have premarital sex, you die. The difference here is that some of Jason's victims are actually premeditated. Then, of course, there's the big showdown, the two minutes where you get to believe Jason is really dead, and the final scene showing he isn't. (Or, in this case, finally giving the fans the hope that Freddy vs. Jason was actually going to get made, though it took ten years.)

Everyone knows there hasn't been a good Friday the 13th movie since #2. For a while, they just kept getting dumber and dumber, but Jason Goes to Hell was a true nadir; even Jason X wasn't this completely awful. It's useless to go into the technical specs, since this series has set the baseline for bad acting, woeful direction, cinematography that ranges from campy to crappy, and taking itself way, way too seriously. But really, in the age of director's cut DVDs, you'd expect more of everything (no matter how bad it is) from an unrated Friday the 13th movie. It fails as cheesecake, it fails as a gore film, it fails as a horror movie, it just pain fails. *

"Jason Goes to Hell" is a great entry into the series and isn't the same story that had been played seven movies before it where Jason kills people who go to Crystal Lake. This movie has things that any horror fan would love; melting people and tons of killing. No, it doesn't have much of "Jason" as you know him-but it is the same character. That is the difference between this and the fifth movie, this is actually still Jason, even though he is in different bodies.

Watching this and seeing the Necronomicon from the Evil Dead series appear on the film makes me sad that Ash won't be in the next Freddy vs. Jason movie. It would be a great intro into the next film, just like Freddy's hand was a prelude to FvJ.

Overall, I loved it. I saw this movie as a kid and just watched it again and I thought it was great. It has great special effects and an interesting story that is a change of pace. So, it depends on what you like. If you watch the movie just to see a hockey mask killer, then you won't like it that much. But if you like something different, this will be for you. But what you have to remember, it is still Jason that is the killer. Halloween III didn't have Michael in it in any way, shape or form. So, there is no comparison.

I know some previous reviewers pointed out some glitches to this 9th chapter. (1. We don't know how Jason came back after the end of Part 8. 2. Jason has a sister in this movie even though in Part 1 his mother said he was an only child. 3. Jason supposedly can only be killed by a certain party, even though we know Tommy Jarvis killed Jason in Part 4.)

Well, if you raised these complaints, you were right. But the truth is, if people are willing to pay to see sequels, the industry will do what it has to do to create another chapter, and it really doesn't care about cheating. (Look how "Halloween 4" brought back Michael and Dr. Loomis even though they should have died in a hospital fire. But they cheated because people wanted another chapter.)

Giving you a brief rundown of where I stand, I think Part 1 was pretty good; part 2 had it's moments; I didn't much care for Part 3; part 4 had its good points and introduced Tommy Jarvis; part 5 was surprisingly good and focused on the aftermath of survivor Tommy Jarvis; part 6 remains my favorite one for soundtrack, well done scenes, and a surprisingly well written script; part 7 was arguably the most boring and worst chapter; part 8 was slightly better than part 7.

Onto the subject at hand. The opening scene gives us something new. We see Jason blown to bits, and we are wondering how even Jason will come back from this. (But since this is the 1st scene we obviously know he will do it somehow.) Good suspense. Soon we learn that Jason has the ability to inhabit other bodies when he (with some nice effects and musical touches) 'borrows' the coroner's body. Jason then continues his killing spree. As Jason does this, we learn that Jason has a surviving sister, niece, and once removed niece.

Also, we meet Mr. Duke. Duke explains that Jason has the ability to jump into other bodies, that he knows the way to destroy Jason, and will do so for a price. One interesting thing is that we learn that Jason can't stay in any one body long before he must seek a new one. We are allowed some time to wonder why before Duke gives us the answer. Besides telling us the way Jason can be destroyed, Duke also explains to us that Jason will eventually need to make use of some Voorhees woman to get his own body back.

Now I know some people complained that we don't get to see Jason on screen too much, but let's be fair. We all know (possibly through the good acting of the borrowed bodies) who Jason is. 2nd, it offers some new twist in that the other characters don't know at first who Jason is, and in one well drawn scene even we the audience don't know. 3rd, rather than just wondering how many people will get killed before (providing if) Jason is stopped, we are in suspense as to whether Jason will somehow manage to get his own body back.

Overall, there is good suspense, some good laughs, decent character development, some new twists, and action that is not so overdone. While Part 6 will always be the best to me, this chapter was surprisingly good.

Now before I rewview, I want to thank amazon. When I bought this DVD from a store, there was a JUMBO size crack in it! I whent back to the store, but they wouldn't give me my money back!!!!!!
Amazon gave me this DVD at a nice low price. Thanks! Now, to the movie. Jason is tricked and blown up by the F.B.I. He is belevied to be dead, but he's evil spirt( which turns out to be a fake looking demon) goes to a diffrent body. Many murder's are commited by Jason, and every one now think he is alive again. The Boundy Hunter Duke says he knows how to kill Jason once and for all. He teams up with Jason's sister and her daughter, because only a blood reletive can kill Jason. What I liked about the film the most is that it had the feel of Friday the 13th 3 and 4, the first "real" Jason movies. Sure people will won't agree with that, but you just need to wach the film for yourself and wach the old ones to see what I mean. I hate it when people say this is bad. Here are some complant's I have heard.

Jason jumps body's: So? It's trying to be scary, it's a horror movie. Do you think every horror film will be the same?

Jason's a demon: Well he alway's acted like a demon to me. He runs around killing people with a hockey mask on.

Jason has a sister: Hey his Dad left him, don't you think he got remarried?

Deleted secencs: I saw those sence, they were not a big deal. the Tree Trunk Demons looked fake.

They made a sequel: They made other movies with Jason in them but they never did another Friday film. Jason X does not have Friday the 13th in the title so it's not a Friday film.

Well that's it. You'll like this film if you liked the old ones. 80'S FAN'S REJOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE STORY: An FBI agent poses as an average girl in the woods. When Jason starts chasing her, he runs into her trap. A bunch of FBI agents start shooting him rapidly and then throw a bomb that blows him up into a million pieces! He's dead...right?! See, he's so evil that his heart, which is remaining in the rubble, is still beating. A doctor then takes his remains and scans them. Once he gets to Jason's heart, it puts him in a trance and he eats it and gets possesed! Now Jason can jump bodies! Can anybody stop him?

MY THOUGHTS: *Sigh* if you look at your average Listmania that displays FT13th movies from best to worst, this is usually on the bottom. WHY!? I loved this move! The story is original, with a good amount of plot twists, and it has the R-rated version and the uncut version. The uncut has LOTS of gore, along with a nice sex scene:) ! For those morons who say that Jason isn't in it very much, oh please! At least it's not an imposter like in part 5! The only thing that I didn't like was that Jason looked a little odd in this one. Also, the ending sets the stage for Freddy Vs. Jason!

This is one "HELL" of a movie! *Gets sliced by Jason for bad pun.*

Yet another entry in the hoary "Friday the 13th" series, "Jason Goes to Hell-The Final Friday," really had nowhere original to go. After sending our hockey masked anti-hero to New York where he seemed to finally perish after taking a dip in a toxic waste bath, the company who owned the rights to this franchise decided to sell their interest to New Line Cinema. The people responsible for running the Freddy Krueger/Nightmare on Elm Street series into the ground, New Line rubbed their palms together with glee as they contemplated all of the horrific ways they could do the same to Jason Voorhees. As I watched this movie, I couldn't help but think how far this franchise has gone in its twenty-three years of existence. Who among us would have thought that a low budget film about a killer at a summer camp would achieve such longevity? Moreover, who thought it would encompass such bizarre plot elements as sending a killer into space or to the deepest pits of Hell? O.K., they did give us Leprechaun and Hellraiser in space, but still-JASON? Well, before they sent Jason into outer space, they ran him through the paces here on earth in this absolute abomination of a film. I actually liked "Jason X," but this film, its immediate predecessor, stinks to high heaven. I wish I had never watched it.

The plot of "The Final Friday" is cerebral novocaine, a plot so brain meltingly banal that it took all of my energies just to get to the end. Jason, miracously recovered from his dissolution in toxic sludge, reappears at Camp Crystal Lake briefly before the FBI blows him to bits in a carefully laid trap. The remnants of Voorhees turn up at a federal medical center where some poor dolt doing the autopsy is suddenly overcome by the "spirit" of evil--or some such nonsense, I cannot remember if the film made it clear or not--and promptly devours Jason's black, still beating heart amidst messy sprays of gore and flesh. Once this guy eats the heart, Jason manages to possess his body and continue on his merry flesh rending ways. That's right, folks; Jason Voorhees can now move from body to body, and of course he heads right back to Camp Crystal Lake for more mayhem. Apparently, our hero cannot exist indefinitely in other people's bodies; he must find a blood relation to inhabit so he can reassume his familiar form. Confused yet? Don't worry. It gets much, much worse as the film progresses.

Enter Diana (Erin Gray), a waitress near Crystal Lake who, unbeknownst to her, is actually Jason Voorhees's sister. Diana has a daughter who happens to have a husband and newborn child, so blood relatives of Jason Voorhees are as thick as flies on honey around the man's old stomping grounds. Jason will soon seek out the baby as his best hope for returning to a world full of animated, featherless bipeds that squish when you whack them with a sharp object. Not content with trying to pass off this laughable, convoluted plot on an increasingly enraged audience, director Adam Marcus and his fellow travelers introduce a few other dumb characters. There's a slimy reporter attempting to ingratiate himself into the lives of Jason's descendants in order to get a scoop, some loudmouth, ultra stupid white trash characters running a diner near Crystal Lake, some cops, and a bounty hunter by the name of Creighton Duke gunning for the money placed on Voorhees's head. A lot of people die violently at the hands of whomever Jason possesses at the moment, but it's all done in a rather unoriginal way. The conclusion of the film, with the inevitable showdown between Voorhees and the good guys, simply reeks. By the time the credits mercifully rolled, I knew I had seen one of the worst films in the history of American cinema. That "The Final Friday" ever received a theatrical release is a crime against humanity.

The only positive in this film is seeing Erin Gray again, still looking great in her fifties. Millions of men my age have rather vivid memories of this actress from her tenure on the television show "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," where Gray usually appeared in a skintight spandex outfit with a plunging neckline. In fact, I credit Gray with helping me ford that difficult gulf lying between childhood and early adolescence. I wept tears of shame when I saw her appear in this pap. Fortunately, she saves herself from complete ignominy by dying early on. Gray helps the film, but not nearly enough. Everyone else is awful, especially Duke Creighton (Steven Williams), a character so loaded up with ersatz machismo that he comes off looking like a fool. What's with Duke's confrontation with Diana in the diner? Or the incredibly stupid scene in the jail cell where Duke will only provide information about Voorhees to one of the heroes of the film if he allows the bounty hunter to break his fingers? Creighton Duke isn't a tough as nails hero; he's a sadist. And we're supposed to admire this guy?

The DVD version of the film does offer plenty of extras (unlike Paramount's releases of the eight preceding installments), including deleted scenes, trailers, a commentary, a widescreen picture transfer, and some other junk. There's even an option to watch an unrated version of the film, a version promising more gore than the theatrical cut. Is it gorier than the 'R' rated cut? Probably, but not as gory as many other extreme horror films easily available on DVD. In any case, the rest of the film is so bad that the bloodshed does nothing to save it. Give "The Final Friday" a pass. Believe me, you aren't missing much.