Horror in the 90s: 'Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday'

Jason Goes to Hell The Final Friday (1993)

Directed by Adam Marcus

Written by Jay Huguely, Dean Lorey

Starring John D. LeMay, Kane Hodder, Erin Gray, Allison Smith, Steven Culp, Steven Williams

Release Date August 13th, 1993

Box Office $15.9 million dollars

It's weird and rare to see a horror movie franchise parody itself and yet, that's exactly what we get in the opening moments of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. The film opens on a beautiful woman alone at a summer camp. She's making all of the mistakes that a victim of Jason Voorhees makes. She's getting naked and then running around in just a towel. Naturally, of course, this grabs Jason's attention and he begins his usual methodical pursuit. And then, the scene is turned on its head. Floodlights fill the scene, the woman as well as dozens of FBI Agents pull guns and explosives are used to blow Jason Voorhees to little bits.

This sequence features a shot of Jason's mask flying toward the screen and a shot of Jason's still beating heart which is pretty cool. For a moment, only a moment, it seems as if Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, might have a sense of humor and purpose in taking this aging franchise in an interesting new direction. And then, the movie flies completely off the rails. If you could think of a worse direction to take Jason Voorhees and this franchise you would be meeting quite a challenge. The decisions made by director Adam Marcus and writers Jay Huguely and Dean Lorey are so insane that they defy even the gravest notions of a bad idea for a movie franchise.

So, with Jason blown to bits how does the story continue? Jason's charred pieces are taken for an autopsy. The coroner in charge of Jason's body, for reasons that cannot be explained, decides to eat Jason's heart. It's implied that something supernatural, something Jason is doing from beyond the grave, is causing this otherwise normal guy, to eat Jason's heart but that doesn't make this scene any less insane. Eating Jason's heart turns the coroner into Jason Voorhees but he still looks like the coroner. As the coroner, Jason sets about murdering the staff of the coroner's office and begins seeking a way to keep himself alive.

To let us know that Jason is still around, we occasionally see Jason, full hockey mask and overalls regalia intact, in reflections. You know, in case we forgot what movie we were watching. For real though, we might actually need the reminder as Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday sets out to retcon more of Jason's backstory to serve this new narrative. In a move that baffled long time fans, Jason is revealed to have a sister, played by a slumming former television star, Erin Gray. She has a daughter who is about to give birth and Jason wants to get in that baby in order to be reborn into a new body.

Thus, Jason kills his way through several bodies, he can't sustain the bodies he enters by vomiting himself from one victim to another. All while he searches for his sister and the baby that he hopes he can enter and be reborn. Why and how a mindless killing machine like Jason Voorhees would suddenly have this supernatural body swapping power and the knowledge of how to use these powers is beyond any attempt to explain. He just has these powers just as he now has a sister that he never had before. Look, if you're going to question it, you're not going to enjoy Jason Goes to Hell. I know, I didn't enjoy it.

Well, I should say, I didn't enjoy it in any way that the filmmakers intended me to enjoy it. On a derisive level, I did have a little fun making fun of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. The sight of various characters in the guise of Jason Voorhees vomiting Jason from one body to the next is a gross but hilarious visual. I laughed at poor Erin Gray who seems to be lamenting every moment that she spends being in this movie. Gray was once a popular and beloved television star and its clear that being part of a late in life sequel to a dying horror franchise is not how she saw her career playing out. Her dead behind the eyes delivery borders on intentional comedy.

The real star of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday however, is former 21 Jumpstreet star Steven Williams. In a performance of glorious cheese, Williams takes on the character of Creighton Duke, an expert in all things Jason Voorhees. How did he come by this expertise? He read the script. That's really the only way he can know the things he knows about Jason Voorhees' past and his family and where Jason might be headed next. Williams wears a cowboy hat and a leather duster and delivers every line with a portentous pomposity that is sublime in its over the top actorly arrogance.

It's unclear if Williams thought this was a cool way to play this character or, to borrow a phrase from the Brits, he was taking the piss, making fun of the movie that he's in. Did Williams truly feel he was giving his best performance or was he indulging in an opportunity to have fun, chew scenery, and set himself apart from a cast of forgettable supporting players slumming for work or unaware of their own lack of talent. Whatever the reason for Williams' performance, it's fun to make fun of whether you feel you are laughing with or at Mr. Williams.

The one legacy of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday comes from a scene at the very end of the movie. After Jason has been entirely defeated in his attempt to invade the body of a baby, his mask is all that remains. As the mask lies prone on the ground, having been unearthed by a dog, a gloved hand emerges from the ground and wraps its sharp blades around the mask pulling it down into the depths of hell. In case you're new here, this is the deadly glove of Freddy Krueger, scourge of Nightmares on Elm Street.

The owners of the Freddy and Jason I.P's, in a desperate attempt to squeeze more cash out of their dying franchises wanted to tease audiences with the idea of their favorite mass murdering monsters fighting each other in Hell. Eventually, that movie would happen. 10 years after Jason went to hell, he and Freddy re-emerged for a fight in 2003's Freddy vs. Jason, a surprisingly good horror mash-up that somehow only led to one Freddy and Jason team up. Freddy vs. Jason is wildly, remarkably and unquestionably superior to Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday but that is a very, very low bar to get over.

This review of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is part of two ongoing projects for me. The first is my new spinoff podcast from the Everyone is a Critic Movie Review Podcast, Everyone's a Critic 1993. It's a podcast where myself, a professional film critic, sits down with Gen Z'er M.J, and Gen-X-er Amy, to talk about movies released in 1993 in chronological release order. The goal is to see how movies have changed in a mere 30 years and how they are seen culturally after so much time has passed. It's a fun experiment and you can hear it on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast feed, wherever you listen to podcasts.

This review is also a serialized piece from my first book project, Horror in the 90s, an expansive history and analysis of the horror genre from 1990 to 1999. I am watching as many wide release horror movies of the decade that I can and putting together reviews and observations of the movies, the directors, the stars and the franchises and how they all helped shape the next two decades of horror that came after them. I am serializing pieces from the book on Horror.Media in hopes of raising awareness and support of the project. It's a big project and I cannot complete it without your help. If you would like to support Horror in the 90s, make a donation on my Ko-Fi Page, linked here, or leave a tip on Vocal. Thanks!