Review of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) by Foreverfinalgir — 20 Dec 2021

I think I have a love/hate relationship with Jason Goes to Hell. (Mostly hate.) Besides the first movie, we don’t get Jason hardly at all in this movie (I know A New Beginning doesn’t have Jason, but we get someone at least dressing like him!). But it is the goriest Friday the 13th movie to date.

PLOT.

The FBI “kills” Jason and takes his body to the morgue. Due to his body being in pieces, Jason possesses people in order to get back to Crystal Lake and find a way to get his body back. In the way is the usual teen victims and stupid adults. A bounty hunter may hold the information that can stop Jason for good.

MY THOUGHTS.

I’ll have a Voorhees burger and a side of Jason fingers.–Duke.

Wow! A lot to unpack. Not sure I’m liking the whole Jason possesses people instead of actually seeing Jason. But can I say, I’m not hating the male nudity in this? LOL.

Starting with the kills. I did like the fact that Jason Goes to Hell is the goriest of the movies (up to this point). We get some good bloody kills. I like the kill where Deborah (Michelle Clunie) is stabbed and torn in half with a spike. I also liked the effects when Deputy Josh (Andrew Bloch) after transferring “Jason” just melts. We get to see the effects, and I think the K.N.B. Effects Group did a great job with it. There were a lot of kills in this installment and a lot of good kills. Come on. One woman had her face pushed into her head by someone possessed by Jason! LOL.

The acting wasn’t too bad. I think Richard Gant did a pretty good job when possessed by Jason. Steven Williams as the bounty hunter was just the right amount of jackass in the beginning. Steven Culp is his usual slimy jerk (he’s usually pretty good at that role). I had totally forgotten that John D. LeMay was in this movie. Nice little tie in between the movies and the TV show (even though they don’t have anything to do with each other). I think, for the most part, the male roles were more outstanding than the females. Though I do think Kari Keegan as Jessica, the final girl did better than Rennie from Jason Takes Manhattan.

There are a few props from other horror movies planted throughout the movie. The Necronomicon, from the Evil Dead series, can be found on a table in the Voorhees house. Also in the house, in the basement, is a crate that is from the story “The Crate” in the movie Creepshow. Outside of the Voorhees house is the jungle gym used in Hitchcock’s The Birds. And finally, the most well-known is Freddy’s glove at the end from A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. As a side note, the actor using Freddy’s glove is Kane Hodder. He’s the only actor to play both Jason and Freddy.

Now to the negatives. As much as I liked the special effects for the kills, the hands dragging Jason down in the end sucked. They were just really cheesy (and not in a good way). I already mentioned I didn’t like the fact that Jason was hardly ever in the movie. And I think the baby storyline was not needed but that’s just a minor detail.

Overall, I’m surprised with this rewatch. It’s not as bad as I remember. Still not the best, but may not be the worst. Interesting how your views on a movie changes as you get older.

The reason that this film is titled “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday” instead of “Friday the 13th Part IX” or something similar is that New Line Cinema did not have the rights to the name “Friday the 13th”. This was the first film in the series made by New Line Cinema instead of Paramount.

This is the first Friday the 13th-related film to have another Voorhees in the movie since Friday the 13th (1980).

Josh’s death won the Golden Chainsaw Award in Dead Meat’s “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (R Rated Cut)” kill count, while Deborah Caldwell’s death won the award in the Unrated Cut. (As a side note: Dead Meat is a great Youtube Channel that does Kill Counts for horror movies. I recommend checking them out: Dead Meat).

If you want to see my other Friday the 13th reviews, click here: Friday the 13th Franchise.

Let’s get into the rankings:

Kills/Blood/Gore: 4/5.

Sex/Nudity: 2.5/5.

Scare factor: 2.5/5.

Enjoyment factor: 3/5.

My Rank: 3/5.

IMDB: 4.2/10.

Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 1.6/10 audience: 2.4/10.

Letterboxd: 1.