My Favorite Scary Movie: Jason Goes to Hell (1993)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

For the month of October, JoBlo.com staff will be gearing you up for the Halloween season with My Favorite Scary Movie, where we will share our favorite scary flicks, be it gory horror, supernatural thriller or bloody slasher flicks, lending the personal touch for each film and why it stands as one of our all-time favorite spooky flicks of the season

JASON GOES TO HELL (1993)

What’s it about? As you might imagine from the film's full title JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY, this is the installment of the infamous FRIDAY THE 13TH series where the powers that be decided it was time to kill off the gigantic masked-Mongoloid killer for good – sending him straight to hell, never to return. Obviously, this didn't pan out like planned, but the film tries it's best. This entry is also notable for not featuring a teenage cast of cannon fodder, instead, the main foes to Jason are a nerdy father and his estranged wife trying to save their newborn baby from being the vessel from which Jason can be reborn. Toss in a badass bounty hunter for the ages, a shotgun-toting waitress, a bully of a backwoods barbeque cook, and yes, a few teenage pieces of cannon fodder and you have the recipe for one of horror's most underappreciated films, JASON GOES TO HELL.

Who’s in it? John D. LeMay (who was also in FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES) stars as our Nerdy Hero along with his ex-wife and baby mama played by Kari Keegan. They're helped along their quest by the most badass bounty hunter of the 90s, Creighton Duke played by Steven Williams. Other cast includes Allison Smith as Vicki the shotgun waitress, Erin Gray as Diana, Steven Culp as Robert, Rusty Schwimmer as my third favorite character after Jason and Duke, Joey B., Leslie Jordan as her husband, Billy "Green" Bush as Sheriff Landis, Julie Michaels, Dean Lorey, and of course, Mr. Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees!

Who made it? This off-the-what-the-f*ck-wall ninth entry in the FRIDAY THE 13TH series was actually produced by the original film's director Sean S. Cunningham. He hired screenwriters Jay Huguely and Dean Lorey (who went on to write ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) to pen the script, which would eventually be directed by Adam Marcus (Screenwriter, TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D). FRIDAY THE 13TH mainstay Harry Manfredini composed the score and notorious effects group K.N.B. provided some of their best gore FXs and designs to date.

Why it’s my favorite scary movie: JASON GOES TO HELL came out in 1993. For those of you who might not know (and how would you?), this was the year my little baby brain turned into a somewhat rational human-ish brain and I could collect the information around me and put it to good use as memories. And one of the first horror movies I ever remember getting the TV Spot and posters at my local movie theaters treatment was JASON GOES TO HELL. That said, it was YEARS before I found the courage to become a horror movie fan. I grew up strict Catholic and wasn't allowed to watch PG-13 until I turned thirteen. Yeah, I was THAT kid.

But once I caught EVIL DEAD 2 at a party in high school it was all over. I was a horror movie fan instantaneously and one of the first franchises I conquered was naturally FRIDAY THE 13TH. I dreaded getting to this entry because I had heard nothing but brutal bile spit its way throughout my life. But can you imagine my sinister surprise when I popped this flick into my VHS player (yeah, you read that right) and witnessed the UNRATED cut in all its gory glory!

Maybe it was my teenage FIGHT CLUB counterculture mentality at the time that made me sing the praises of JASON GOES TO HELL on every street corner. Maybe I was just searching for the most punk rock movie (next to RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD) in the most punk rock genre of cinema. Maybe that's why JASON GOES TO HELL became my favorite horror movie. But I doubt it. As the years have gone on, my enthusiasm for the flick has not dropped so much as a notch on the bat I call "Horror Movies Devoured." And I'm thinking, 17 years and half of my life later, JASON GOES TO HELL is here to stay near the top of my favorite horror movies list.

On top of all that, this is one of my top – of not my absolute top pick – for the movie to play during a Halloween party. It doesn't take much effort (if any) to follow the plot, and it's filled to the hockey mask with everything we love as horror fans – and more! Basically, I like to think of JASON GOES TO HELL like this. It's a badass balls-to-the-wall horror movie filled with blood, boobs, and gore-filled set-pieces for days -and as a bonus, it has Jason Voorhees in it. Think of Jason as merely a cameo in some kind of backwoods remake of THE HIDDEN and you'll have a blast time and time again with Adam Marcus' JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY.

Jason Goes To Hell is one of the most referential horror movies ever made. We see the Necronomicon and Kandarian dagger from Evil Dead, The Crate from Creepshow in the basement of the Voorhees house, and you've got Cunningham County. The jungle gym at the end is from The Birds. Universal packed it up and gave it to me and I put a bird at the top of it. I asked if New Line owned the rights to Freddy so I called up my two executives, Mike De Luca, and Mark Ordesky, the guy who brought Lord of the Rings to New Line. I told them I wanted the glove and his laugh for the movie and I gave them the ending I wanted. Freddy just died in Freddy's Dead and he's in Hell.

Who better to drag Jason into Hell than Freddy? These guys went nuts! When Sam Raimi gave me the Necronomicon he handed it to me in a plastic bag. When I asked for the original glove from Freddy's hand, it came in a box handcuffed to a guy who delivered it. It was Kane Hodder's hand inside the glove that pulls Jason's head down, making him the only guy to play Jason Voorhees AND Freddy Krueger. – Director Adam Marcus to SyFy Wire.

Scariest Part: This movie, while bloody and bonkers from start to finish, isn't what many would call "scary." Scares aren't for the most part what this film has in mind. Instead, JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY aims to give horror movie fans a rollercoaster ride through the backwoods of B-movie bliss. That said, the film does sport a few killer scenes that got to me as a little one, including an incredible melting man, a tent kill that is one of the best ever, and a "surprise ending" that sets up Jason's eventual battle royale with one of slasher cinema's OTHER great villains. God bless the final minute of this film. God bless it.

Best Lines:

Robert Campbell: "I'm going to say a couple of words to you and I want you to say the first thing that comes into your mind."

Creighton Duke: "Okay."

Robert Campbell: "Jason Voorhees."

Creighton Duke: "That makes me think of a little girl in a pink dress sticking a hot dog through a doughnut."

—

Security Guard #2 (played by Kane Hodder): "[Jason] was nothing but a big old pussy anyway."

—

Assistant Coroner (played by screenwriter Dean Lorey): "Hey, fuck. How you doing, you fat-ass, maggoty, blown-up fuck?" Gives Jason's body the finger. "Suck this. Suck it. You know what I'd like to do to you? I'd like to take a crap right on your fucking mask. A big old mango-sized crap."

—

Officer Randy Parker: "Get in the car, Steven."

Steven Freeman: "Why should I?"

Officer Randy Parker: "I've got a gun."

Steven Freeman: "Fuck that, I've got a gun."

—

Sheriff Ed Landis: "That's my lady you're talking about."

Creighton Duke: "Well, now, see, she is only your lady because she ain't had a taste of the Duke yet."

Gore and Nudity: For years, I claimed that JASON GOES TO HELL was the goriest movie I had ever seen. That is until I laid my eyes on the gore-tastic wonder that is Peter Jackson's zombie-splatter classic DEAD ALIVE. And while JASON GOES TO HELL doesn't contain the level of viscera on display in Jackson's early film, it does boasts some truly memorable bits, such as Jason blown to black-bloody pieces, a chomped on heart, a naked girl split up the middle by a tent pole, crushed out brains, bullet hits for days, and the above-mentioned incredible melting man, which is… wait for it… jaw-dropping. As far a the film's level of TNA goes, this is one of the lesser entries in the famously nudity-soaked franchise. There is nudity on display for sure – and some of it is straight softcore porn level – but when the nudity in this entry hits it's usually quick and then back to the blood and gore. I'm not complaining!

Sequels, Spinoffs or Follow-Ups: Other than the obvious fact that this film was the ninth entry in the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise, the film itself gathered a life of its own following its controversial release. Since the film hit screens back in '93 there has been a comic book series (which you can snag RIGHT HERE) and there is even a retrospective documentary headed our way soon from Adam Marcus and director Nick Hunt called THE DARK HEART OF JASON VOORHEES: THE MAKING OF THE FINAL FRIDAY coming our way in the near future. You can check out all the current details on that project HERE.

I hate safe storytelling. Hate it. We all knew this was a risk but I felt the fans deserved to be treated with respect by not shoving the same damn movie at them for the eighth time (I always omit Part 1 in that equation, by the way). I thought Part 6 was an incredibly cool movie and had big balls turning Jason into a Zombie. Part 7 Was awesome for having the telekinetic aspect. But once Jason went on a boat ride to Canada, uh, I mean New York, I felt as a fan, I was no longer being respected and I wanted to change that. I also wanted someone to deal with the fact that Jason is supernatural. Again, how many movies were going to be made by avoiding that backstory? It’s why I asked Sam Raimi to borrow the Necronomicon. – Director Adam Marcus to Dead Entertainment.

Scare-O-Meter Score: In the end, Adam Marcus' ninth entry in the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY might not be the scariest movie on the chopping block, but I love it with all my horror heart. It's ballsy as all hell and sports more than enough gore, blood, and boobs to please even the most jaded horror fan – if they can just get over the fact that this film isn't like all the other FRIDAY THE 13TH movies. To be utterly honest here with you guys today, my absolute number one pick for Favorite Horror Movie will always be Wes Craven's SCREAM, but JASON GOES TO HELL needs more love so that's why I'm covering it here today instead of SCREAM. You've seen SCREAM. You love SCREAM. While I'm sure you've seen JASON GOES TO HELL, you might need to give it another day in carnage court. It's worth the journey, trust me. Enjoy! (9/10)