Arrow Video: Jason Goes to Hell (1993) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Arrow Video

Well, it’s been 32 years, and Jason Goes to Hell continues to stick in the crawl of many fans of the long standing Friday the 13th franchise. It’s not hard to see why. After the abject disaster that was Jason Takes Manhattan, Paramount sold the rights to the Jason character, but not the title Friday the 13th: A decision that put the series into rights hell for years. New Line Cinema picked it up, complete with the original movie’s producer, Sean Cunningham, who passed off writing and directing duties to an inexperienced kid by the name of Adam Marcus, only 24 at the time. With his co-writer, Dean Lorey (who later worked on Arrested Development), Marcus set out to upend the long standing formula with a body-hopping/possession element. This concept is where the generational backlash is rooted. When a formula gets stale, it’s important to reinvigorate it with fresh blood, but you don’t want to completely reinvent the wheel just because you got one flat tire.

With all that being said, I have been a vocal defender of this movie for years because I can respect this swing-for-the-fences attempt to do something different. See my review for Halloween Ends if you want something else to yell at me about. How can I defend this movie? Because there are things it does really well… it just doesn’t tie them together in a way that redeems all the creative decisions. And since everyone is very familiar with this movie’s many shortcomings, let’s discuss some of the positives. I promise you they do exist.

Steven Williams as Creighton Duke is absolutely stellar casting. From the moment he appears on screen, it’s obvious that this is his movie. Introduced in a TV interview format, the host inquires what he thinks of when he hears the name Jason Voorhees: “Well, that makes me think of a little girl in a pink dress, sticking a hot dog through a donut.” He’s the best character in the movie, and one of the best in the entire series, taking a place of honor right by Tommy Jarvis (Feldman or Mathews, you pick). His charisma and gravelly voice, the small reactions he has to ludicrous situations, and the effortless way he can make forced exposition seem natural to his character all point to him being a major player in this universe. Unfortunately, his entire backstory was scrapped from filming, in favor of focusing on John LeMay’s nerdy hero and Jessica (Kari Keegan), Jason’s long lost niece, who is destined to kill the hockey-masked slayer once and for all. One can’t help but think of the Thorn Cult Timeline from Halloween with that little revelation. The loss of this backstory and a shift to less interesting characters is a bloody skid mark on this movie’s underwear. My kingdom for a standalone Creighton Duke movie that explains how he comes to know all the lore we get in the jailhouse exposition dump.

The second merit I must all call out is the very good style at work here. The slow motion showdown with Robert/Jason in the diner is a highlight, all shot in stark and contrast-heavy lighting from single sources, a cinematic choice that really shines on Arrow’s new UHD transfer. The grain levels are quite choice. All the supporting characters get a hero pose in their standoff with Robert/Jason, particularly Allison Smith as Vicki, the badass ginger waitress who comes out all guns blazing, and refuses to admit defeat as her head gets popped like a pimple. Which inevitably brings up another negative: In a movie full of likable but horribly underwritten characters, we learn the least about the ones who actually intrigue us. Between Vicki and Duke, we have a much better movie buried among the melting corpses.

The opening sequence is also fantastic. Marcus’ tongue was planted firmly in his cheek here, as a woman literally lures Jason into the open with her nudity so a SWAT team can make good on the movie’s title before the opening credits. Which brings up another good point: The title isn’t a lie, unlike Jason Takes Manhattan. Jason does indeed go to Hell. Ironic that I have to write this review on a site that is dedicated to avoiding spoilers, because the title itself betrays that cardinal rule. 

Other than that, and some truly remarkable effects work by KNB, Jason Goes to Hell suffers under the weight of an underwritten script and a director woefully unfit for the task. Sean Cunningham himself admits this is not a good movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s wholly without redemption. Kane Hodder, what little we see of him, is still The Definitive Jason, and sporting his best look short of The New Blood’s perfect design. There’s also plenty of gore, lots of nudity, some genuinely funny moments, and inspired sound design during the finale. Not to be confused with Harry Manfredini’s abysmal score, definitely his worst of the series. But regardless of your opinion of this redheaded stepchild of the franchise, it’s never looked as good as it does now. This Arrow definitely hits the bull’s eye. 

- Blake O. Kleiner