Harefooted Halloween: Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

What I Liked: Instead of a straight ahead Friday the 13^th they went for something new altogether.  Jason gets blown up in the opening by a SWAT team but his heart seduces the coroner and the spirit of Jason takes over his body.  He can pass to any person via a giant slimy mouth worm and continues this trick until he can be reborn by invading the body of a blood relative.  While the story initially seems bonkers keep watching because it slowly wins you over and eventually finds its groove about half way through.

Part of what makes this entry enjoyable is how action packed it is.  There’s little down time in between “Jason” knocking off teens, passing his worm along to others, people busting out of jail and the many fights in various locations.  The second half turns into a total Terminator picture with “Jason” constantly charging after his niece and her child so they’re always on the move and battling him wherever they go.  The diner scene is a highlight where they employ nice gunplay, slow motion, moody blue lighting and naturally they put the deep fryer to good use.

The effects are a bit of a mixed bag but holy shit the melting scene.  In one part the Jason worm jumps to a new body causing the old body to convulse and horrifically melt away.  The guy’s shaking all over the room and blobs of his skin stick to the wall and floor until he completely liquifies.  It’s unbelievably nasty to witness and fuckin’ badass as hell.

Our hero (John D. LeMay (Friday the 13^th: The Series)) is a nerdy guy with a short haircut and glasses who wears a letter jacket and I like the subversion of expectations.  This is not at all what your lead in an action/horror movie looked like in the early 90’s.  He’s totally up for fighting Jason though and never shies away from the seemingly impossible task so he definitely proves his worth.

*Slight spoiler here* They totally deliver on the whole going to hell angle with demon arms shooting up from the dirt grabbing Jason as he struggles to stay on earth.  And what a cute touch to have Freddy Krueger nab Jason’s mask from under the ground like “I think you forgot something buddy”.  I remember hearing about that at the time in school and thinking it was the coolest thing.

What I Didn’t Like: There’s a certain cheapness to the production that’s slightly unfortunate.  The all-knowing all-wise Duke character (Steven Williams (The X-Files, Birds of Prey)) is pretty cartoony and convenient, the music uses a lot of poor sounding synth horns and strings that was popular at the time on lower budget productions, while there’s plenty of effects work in general they don’t use the regular Jason in full makeup very much and his mask has a sort of plasticky sheen.

Speaking of Duke, I wish they had found a way to incorporate this character better.  He’s introduced in the beginning as having all this knowledge about Jason and his family (we don’t know how he acquired this) and then he kind of disappears until the ending so he can tell the protagonists how to defeat Jason.  He’s important to the story and should’ve been fleshed out more and given more to do.

Overall Impressions: To give a little background this is the first film to be made after New Line Cinema purchased the rights to use Jason (everything else associated with the series was off limits like the name “Friday the 13^th”and any other characters).  And Sean Cunningham (director of the first movie) returned as producer and meticulously oversaw the production.  So that’s why this has a different vibe.

Writer/director Adam Marcus has talked in recent years about how he came up with a fascinating new backstory when he wrote this movie that Jason is actually a deadite from the Evil Dead universe.  Jason’s mother got ahold of the book of the dead and used it to turn her son into a killer zombie.  This would explain why he keeps coming back in all the sequels and can’t be destroyed by conventional means.  However, NONE OF THIS IS IN THE FILM.  Only a quick shot of the Necronomicon in the old Voorhees house provides the connection.  But what a neat idea!

I can see the concepts they tried out here probably working better as a graphic novel because I think some aspects come off silly or cheesy on film.  Plus it’s perhaps too much of a departure for the majority of fans.  I kinda dig it though.  It doesn’t exactly feel like a Friday movie but the baseline of a relentless demon man machine who kills anyone that crosses his path is there.

Over the years I’ve always had a soft spot for this one due to its weirdness, elements of body horror, quick pacing and largely likeable characters.  It might be like the third best one, top half of the list for sure.