Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

Serial killer Jason Voorhees' supernatural origins are revealed.

Director:

Adam Marcus

Writers:

Jay Huguely (story), Adam Marcus (story)

Stars:

John D. LeMay, Kari Keegan, Kane Hodder

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John D. LeMay	...	Steven Freeman
Kari Keegan	...	Jessica Kimble
Kane Hodder	...	Jason Voorhees
Steven Williams	...	Creighton Duke
Steven Culp	...	Robert Campbell
Erin Gray	...	Diana Kimble
Rusty Schwimmer	...	Joey B.
Richard Gant	...	Coroner
Leslie Jordan	...	Shelby
Billy Green Bush	...	Sheriff Landis
Kipp Marcus	...	Randy
Andrew Bloch	...	Josh
Adam Cranner	...	Ward
Allison Smith	...	Vicki
Julie Michaels	...	Elizabeth Marcus F.B.I.

Storyline

The secret of Jason's evil is revealed. It is up to the last remaining descendant of the Voorhees family to stop Jason before he becomes immortal and unstoppable. This is the final (?) battle to end Jason's reign of terror forever.

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Plot Keywords:

female victim | bare breasts | female nudity | overalls | serial murderer | 

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Taglines:

Horror, has many faces... death, wears many different masks... but pure evil, wears only one... and this is your final chance, to see it.

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and gore, and for sexuality and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kari Keegan's negative experience working on the film, and her antagonistic relationship with director Adam Marcus, eventually caused her to quit acting for good.

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Goofs

When Luke and Deborah go into the tent, their shadows show Luke automatically take off the shirt she is wearing. But the next shot, when the camera goes into the tent, Deborah is once again wearing the shirt.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Agent Elizabeth Marcus: [flips switch, light blows out] Shit.

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Crazy Credits

On the end of the credits, we hear the famous echo: "Ki-ki-ki...ma-ma-ma"

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Alternate Versions

The following cuts were made (some of the cuts were made in order to avoid an "NC-17" rating from the MPAA):

• At the beginning, before Jason gets blown up by the FBI, the female cop shoots Jason in the head.
• The fighting scene between Steven and Jason is longer. At one point Steven hides inside the climbing rack as Jason tries to grab him.
• We see Duke being brought in the police station. Duke is brought in, having been found standing over the empty morgue cabinet that had held Diana's (Erin Gray) body. What was he doing there? "Trying to steal the body, obviously," Duke explains irritably, "but you f**ked up and let someone get to it before I could....if it's where I think it is, you're in a world of s**t."
• In the morgue we see the coroner get some instruments from a cabinet.
• More dialogue in the Duke interview.
• The original ending where Steven kicks the knife in Jason's chest. Besides the giant hands there is also a creature which pulls down Jason into the ground.
• Jason in the body of Josh kills the boyfriend of one of the waitresses after we see some dialogue between them and she leaves. Jason bangs the guy's head against a sink.
• After the creature escapes Randy's body we see Duke fighting with it before it falls down the basement. Then there is a different dialogue where Steven asks Duke if the Voorhees which Jason has to be reborn trough must be alive.
• Another dialogue where Robert Campbell talks on the phone in the Voorhees house while Steven hides in the closet. He says Jessica can never shut up about her family and he runs down the whole Voorhees family tree.
• For the final edit, the character David (Jonathan Penner) and his murder were completely cut from the film. In bootleg prints, the character is dispatched by Deputy Josh (Andrew Bloch), who has been possessed by the Jason entity and who bashes David's head against a faucet.

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Connections

Followed by Jason X (2001)

User Reviews

"Jason Goes to Hell"- I'm sorry, but I appreciate and applaud the boldness of this entry. An interesting experiment in shaking up the franchise for the "Final Friday."

If there's one thing that can and should be said in defense of "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday", it's this...

...this is one bold, gutsy move for the franchise! Completely subversive and joyously disparate when placed in comparison to the previous eight films. A bizarre, red-headed-stepchild with a strange and sharp leaning towards the overly fantastical and blatantly magical. Taking what had been to that point an increasingly repetitious series, and attempting to inject some fresh blood for what was at the time considered to be the one... last... film to cap it all off.

Is is a success? Well, I'd say for the most part, fans do consider it a failure because it strayed so much from the formula in trying to establish a grandiose finale. And I think I would probably consider it to be a bit of a failure for that very same reason. But it's definitely a fascinating and daring failure. One that I can get behind. Especially after the increasing monotony of the previous two films.

Sue me, but I'll take an interesting failure that attempts to shake up the formula over a bland retread any day of the week!

Jason Voorhees has finally been killed. After an FBI Sting Operation blows his body to smithereens, the town of Crystal Lake is finally able to settle down, knowing the figment that has haunted them for so many years is finally gone.

Or is he?

Nope! As it turns out, Jason has become something more than human, and his evil has given him the ability to possess others through some sort of relatively-unexplained magical means. Now, Jason is coming back to seek vengeance, taking the forms of various characters through body-swapping, intent on locating surviving members of the family, so that he may be reborn again through them in his original form. Now, his only living relative (Kari Keegan), her ex (John D. LeMay) and a bounty hunter who knows the truth about Jason (Steven Williams) must team up to stop him once and for all!

Look, this movie's ridiculous. It's completely out of left-field. It doesn't really connect properly with the previous films. Its storyline is just bizarre. And it's a completely different beast tonally from any of the other flicks...

...but it's a lot of fun!

Director Adam Marcus and writers Jay Huguely and Dean Lorey seem to have a ton of ideas on how to exploit this ridiculous concept, and are given free reign to just go crazy. There's a little something for everyone here. From a touch of the self-aware laughs that made "Jason Lives" so enjoyable, to some wild and whacked-out imagery (you won't look at a straight-razor the same way again!) to some good old-fashioned kills that harken back to the first couple of movies, this film aims to deliver a roller-coaster ride from Hell... and it does deliver on that promise.

Add to that some likable performances, fun and inventive kinetic camera-work that knows how to make the best of it's lowish budget, weirdly entertaining humor and plenty of gore to go around... and it produces a film that I find to be a decent bit of dumb-fun.

This movie is stupid. Beyond belief. And it doesn't feel anything like the previous eight outtings. But I'm OK with that. It's got a lot of insane-o concepts and ideas to play with, it knows exactly what it wants to be, and it's got some fiendishly creative minds at it's helm.

It's a failure... but an entertaining and wildly ambitious failure that I can't help but root for.

So I'm giving it a middle of the road 5 out of 10. If you're a fan of the franchise and are open minded, give it a shot. You might be one of the proud few who really enjoys this off-the-rails nutcase- of-a- flick.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 August 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

Friday the 13th Part IX: The Dark Heart of Jason Voorhees

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,552,190, 15 August 1993

Gross USA:

$15,935,068

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$15,935,068

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Sean S. Cunningham Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min 91 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1