Jason Goes to Hell - The Final Friday

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining horror.
Review: This film puts Jason back in the Camp Crystal Lake area, where he is blown to pieces by the military. But when his remains are taken away to the morgue, it soon transpires there is more to the serial killer than meets the eye.
Where this film stands up is in its original ideas, and its departure from the standard stalk-and-slash, which had become stale by this point. It is revealed Jason has a long-lost sister who is the only person who can truly kill him. The film has a few sex-mad teens, but thankfully they're only included as an in-joke. The more interesting characters in this film include a bounty hunter who hunts serial killers for a living. The touches of humour (businesses making cash out of the horrific, etc) are good, and the climax is genuinely spectacular. Maybe it's not for die-hard fans of Jason (though he still does the killing, he spends most of the film using victims' bodies as vehicles), but I'd rate it as one of the best of this series.

Rating:
Summary: 3 Stars for the movie itself, 4 Stars for the DVD
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Jason Goes To Hell
Review: "Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday" shakes "Friday The 13th" foundations to their very core while remaining fully committed to and honoring all that has come before. By far the most radical departure from form for the series, the chances the movie takes pay off in spades, providing possible alternate explanations for events in previous entries (for me, one route is especially obvious, but there are other possible ways of fitting the new developments in with the old as well) and generating one of the most surprising, shocking, and truly jaw-dropping movies in history.

There is so much one could say about this movie, both in praise of its brilliance and in speculation as to various meanings, and yet so little one can say without risking giving away crucial plot points. For example, the first major - and totally unexpected, if you've never seen or heard all about this movie - comes about 5 minutes in! (This one is kind of given away on the movie's back description, as are a few too many other points)

If you're at all interested in seeing this movie, I'd recommend getting it NOW and reading no further of this or any other review. For the benefit of those who are still undecided, I'll say a bit more but endeavor not to give anything other than the earliest points any specific mention, and hereby disclaim:

WARNING: THE NEXT LINES CONTAIN POSSIBLE INCOMPLETE SPOILERS TO THE MOVIE'S FIRST 20-25 MINUTES, BUT NO FURTHER.


After finally being utterly destroyed in the opening minutes of the movie, with seemingly no credible way of ever coming back this time, 'Jason' does indeed return - in a mind-blowing, totally unforseen way that I doubt anybody could have ever predicted from seeing the first 8 chapters - and does so in short order and very convincingly, certainly feeling far less arbitrary than the opening sequence to "Jason Takes Manhattan" (incidentally, it's apparant that quite a bit of 'untold' events have transpired between the end of "Jason Takes Manhattan" and the beginning of "Jason Goes To Hell". It remains to be seen whether these gaps will ever be filled in) From here, it quickly becomes evident that Jason (with nary a hockey mask in sight for some time) is now different, no longer the emotion/instinct-driven but unthinking killing machine of "Friday"s past; this new incarnation is sadistic, more aggressive than ever, and clearly shows intelligence. The reasons for this dramatic change should become clearer when you see the film.

An outstandingly made piece of cinema, possibly the best movie of 1993, epic, with some of the best special effects in film history, and the ending...!! If anyone reading this hasn't heard how it ends do yourself a huge favor and see "Jason Goes To Hell" as quickly as possible - it's possibly the best surprise ending ever, even eclipsing movies like "The Sixth Sense", the original "Planet Of The Apes" and "Halloween"; and still shocking even after multiple views.

Rating:
Summary: Very scarey!!!!
Review: MAN this movie was scarey man thats freaky how jason gets into people's bodys then u see that will worm-like demon go into there bodies and very violent killing scenes the part was scarey too when jason goes to hell with the demons draging him down to hell i really love this movie if i was u and u dont own you better get it!