Jason Goes to Hell
by Adam Marcus
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DVD details
Actor: Allison Smith, Erin Gray, John D. Le May, Kari Keegan, Steven CulpDirector: Adam Marcus
Brand: NEW Line Home Video
Producer: Sean S. Cunningham
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
Published: 2002-10-01
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-08
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Video
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; DVD; Widescreen; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Jason Goes to Hell
DVD Review: Friday the 13th Part 9: Jason Rips Off the Hidden
Summary: 3 Stars
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Okay, I admit it. I actually have a soft spot for Friday the 13th films (well some of them at least). While none of them could ever be called truly great cinema (actually most of the films are downright awful), being a horror fan and self professed gore-hound I've always liked watching the franchise's undead mascot Jason Vorhees slice and dice his way through some really dumb and oversexed teenagers.
But by the 6th and 7th installments, the evil MPAA was cutting almost all of the "good stuff" out of these movies to get an R rating as to where there wasn't really a point of watching them if blood and gore was what you were wanting to see. Then, the 8th film literally ripped off all of the fans by calling itself Jason takes Manhattan and then sticking him on a boat on his way to Manhattan killing off the teenagers on board for 3/4 of the film. He didn't even get to Manhattan until the last 10 or 15 minutes of the movie and even then, almost all of the action took place in back-alleys to disguise the fact that the Vancouver was substituting for New York (with the exception of a couple of cheesy Times Square shots).
When New Line studios bought the rights to the Jason character (but not the Friday the 13th name, hence the title of this film and the title of Jason X) from Paramount during the early 90's and announced they were making yet another Friday the 13th film, I cringed. But when Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (or Friday the 13th Part 9) was released in theaters (in heavily edited R-rated form) my friends and I went ahead and saw it telling ourselves over and over that it couldn't be any worse than part 8.
While I applauded New Line for trying to do something different with the franchise, I wasn't sure if what I had just witnessed was truly a Friday the 13th film. In an interesting twist, the makers of this movie basically acted like the last few movies didn't exist and literally rewrote the whole mythology of Jason Vorhees. In the prior movies they presented him as just pure evil that could not be stopped no matter what methods the protagonists tried to use. It was pretty much a simple case of him just being an unstoppable killing machine and nothing more.
In Jason Goes to Hell, we learn the "reason" why Jason keeps coming back. Turns out that his heart is actually some sort of parasite/demon that enters unlucky people through their mouths (unwittingly of course!), and takes over their body using it to do various highly questionable things (in this case killing numerous people in grotesque and gory ways). Kind of like Invasion of the Body Snatchers to a certain degree. Whenever the current body gets too beat up due to extensive gunshot wounds or other inflicted mayhem, the parasite simply exits the host's mouth and goes into someone else's mouth to take them over pretty much against their will and continue on its merry murderous way.
Sound familiar?!!! Of course it should. This plot is directly ripped off from the 1987 cult-classic The Hidden, only in this case they don't make any mention of the parasite being from outer space (though I was seriously waiting for that plot element to be introduced at any moment given the movie's everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach of referencing other horror films). In this film, it's just some sort of unexplained demon. There also aren't any extra-terrestrial detectives trying to track it down either though we do get a bounty hunter named Creighton Duke who has made it his life's mission to track down and kill Jason. (this plot element always amused me. He knows where Jason is at which is Camp Crystal Lake. It's not like Jason is going around the country killing people).
The film starts out in a familiar setting, a camp ground where a very attractive young woman is just arriving at a secluded cabin. There's the obligatory scene of her having to go out to a shed to get a new lightbulb to replace one in the house and her being scared by the door suddenly closing and other creepy sound effects. After fixing the light, she goes upstairs to take a shower and remove most of her clothes (always required in a horror film such as this) when the power suddenly gets cut (of course). Alarmed she goes out and is attacked by Jason. While running through the woods with Jason chasing after her (actually make that walking after her and still managing to stay right on her heels), she all of a sudden jumps in a clearing. A bunch of spotlights get cut on and a swat team of sorts descends out of the trees and proceeds to fill Jason with about 200 bullets (give or take a few). Then some sort of explosive device is lobbed his way blowing him to smithereens with a shot of his heart laying on the ground slowly stopping beating. Turns out the girl was nothing more than bait to lure Jason out in the open. But then we get a shot of some mysterious black man in the woods who utters the prophetic words "I don't think so" and then the opening credits begin.
At this point I'm not going to try to summarize any more of the plot since the film just gets more and more complex and confusing and some truly screwy things happen that had me going "WHAT?!!!"
An early scene involves a coroner eating Jason's heart(!) after it somehow takes over his mind and he gets taken over by Jason's evil spirit. The black man I mentioned earlier is a guy named Creighton Duke who is some sort of bounty hunter who has been following and trying to kill Jason for years. We also learn that Jason had a sister who is still alive and that somehow if the evil parasite can infiltrate the body of a Vorhees, Jason can be reborn. Creighton Duke tries to warn her about what's going on and of course she thinks that he's nuts.
Lots of non-sensical body hopping ensues and the movie has a finale in which Jason finally makes a return in his true form and we learn that he can only be killed by a "magic dagger" that has to be handled by a Vorhees to put Jason back where he belongs.
Keep in mind that all of this is brand new and has absolutely nothing to do with the other Friday the 13th films. I've heard of filmmakers trying to reinvent a franchise but this borders on ridiculous at times.
But if you take this movie out of the Friday the 13th context, it actually is decent fun in a really goofy gory sort of way. The acting varies from decent to unintentional camp. The cinematography and direction is actually quite a bit better than we are accustomed to seeing in a Friday the 13th film. Plus, the fact that this one actually attempts to have a plot is a big advancement for this franchise.
The main star of this movie though is the extremely over the top gore effects by the renowned KNB effects team. Throughout the course of the film we are treated to:
1) Jason getting blown to smithereens by some sort of non-sensical explosive device in super gory detail.
2) A coroner chowing down on Jason's black heart in gruesome close-up shots including the coroner barfing up a nasty black substance.
3) A girl getting stabbed and ripped in half while right in the middle of having sex with her boyfriend (she's on top in case you were wondering). Her boyfriend's head is squashed off screen.
4) Brains/gore exploding out of the top of a woman's head after having her head severely squeezed by the killer. This comes after a double impalement of sorts.
5) 2 guys having their heads smashed together.
6) a man slowly melting and basically coming apart (one of the f/x highlights of the film IMO). The shot of the writhing body with its intestines strewn beneath it is bloody good stuff.
7) one of the cops gets his head partially decapitated
and there are still many more graphic gun shot wounds, stabbings and various impalements all shown in super graphic detail.
There is also the prerequisite female nudity (along with a male backside for the ladies) that is expected in this kind of film. What would a Friday the 13th films be without some fine bare breasts? ;)
The recent DVD release of this film contains both the R and unrated versions of the film. The 88 minute R rated version runs about 3 minutes shorter than the 91 minute unrated cut and is definitely not the one to watch (though it is interesting to see how the MPAA can butcher a film). The unrated cut has all of the uncut gore sequences. (The sex scene in the tent is also about twice as long featuring some explicit shots/angles not presnt in the R-rated cut). Both versions are on the same side of the disc and are selected after choosing the "play movie" menu selection. Both versions are present in the film's original 1.85:1 matted theatrical ratio and the film looks pretty good though some of the nighttime shots have sort of a washed out look to them in regards to the black levels.
In regards to extras, New Line has done their typical great work supplying worthwhile extras to a film that most people would think didn't deserve it. First off is one of the best (and funniest) commentary tracks that I've ever heard featuring the director and the main writer. They both realize that this movie can't be taken seriously on any level and they strike a great balance between offering interesting tid-bits about the making of the movie while also making cracks at the movie's ludicrous plot. This was their first feature film and they make no apologies for the movie that they unleashed onto the masses. They both say that they are huge fans of the Friday the 13th films and they were just trying to take this movie in a completely different direction. There is never a dull moment in the track and it's just great fun listening to these 2 guys have a blast watching this movie for the first time in years. (An interesting fact is that they both actually kind of prefer the censored R-rated cut as they claim in some respects that it's more suspenseful.)
There are also about 12 minutes of deleted scenes that were only present in the edited T.V. version shown on TNT. These scenes are mainly just talky stuff though it is worth checking out just to hear how they replaced the curse words with overdubbed T.V. replacements like "friggin'" and "frig". The DVD also has the usual selection of trailers and I was particularly impressed by the nifty animated menu screens.
But the best feature is called the "Jump to a Death" feature. You can bring up a menu of every death scene in the movie and clicking on one of them takes you directly to that scene. While some may frown on this feature as being in pure bad taste, at least New Line acknowledges the majority of people are just going to skip to the gore scenes anyway after sitting through the whole film once.
I'm kind of torn on my rating for this movie. While it's not a great movie by any means, it does do what it sets out to do which is gross out people and provide a few legitimate scares. On one hand it's easily the most ambitious Friday the 13th film to date (that is until the awful Jason X was unleashed in theaters 9 years later) but Jason really is only in the movie for the first few minutes and the last 10 or so minutes of the movie. Yes it does have a plot but it is so unbelievably goofy and confusing at various points in addition to having absolutely nothing to do with the prior films in the series. Now granted, none of these movies have had Oscar worthy scripts but when the 8th film ends with Jason reverting back to his youthful form in a sewer from the toxic sewage of New York (don't ask......) at least the prior films established some sort of continuity that this film completely throws by the wayside.
But on the whole, I enjoyed the movie. If you love really well done gore effects and extreme levels of brutal violence this movie is worth checking out. While a lot of people will be turned off by how mean and vicious this movie is, horror fans will eat it up. If you are a fan of the first 8 Friday the 13th films, this movie will more than likely do nothing but infuriate. But taken as its own movie, Jason Goes to Hell does deliver enough of the goods to be worthy of a rental one weekend when you're hanging out with your friends and downing some beers.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is unrated and contains extreme graphic violence and gore, strong sexual content, nudity and strong language.
Description of Jason Goes to Hell
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