Jason Goes to Hell (1993)
Last Watch Date - December 26, 2023
Total Times Watched - Five? More?
Comments
I'm done with the holiday cheer. Give me some SLASHER GOODNESS AGAIN. It's been a while since I've watched this entry in the F13th series, but I recently rewatched a bunch of them (around Halloween), so it was a good proximity to give me some reactions and opinions based on the other movies. This movie is often cited as one of the worst in the franchise, but is it really? LET'S FIND OUT.
Straight away, you get Voorhees chasing a woman wearing only a towel. I remember the first time I saw this and thinking "wow nice" and then "oh this is going to be NUTS." Little did I know they'd blow Jason up and that's kinda-sorta the last time you see him for the most part. Well, unless ...
This leads to the problem many people have with this movie. Or, one of the problems at least. This movie is not really about Jason Voorhees. It kind of is? But it also isn't. He's not on screen as himself for 90% of the movie. It's a bizarre decision and obviously super polarizing. I don't like it for the series, but I also don't like the way they took the lore of the franchise. It feels too similar to the whole Michael Myers thing with a sister and daughter and baby and blah blah. But then they add in the body switching thing and it really makes no sense.
What I like to do when I watch this glorious piece of cinema is to imagine it's not actually a F13th movie. Think about it as an oddball early 90s horror flick with some body horror and it's WAY better. Except Creighton Duke, I can't explain that character at all. How does he know they're going to blow up Jason? How does he know Jason can't be killed but by a Voorhees? And how does he know about his sister? This is never explained. Oh, he also has a magical knife that transforms when a Voorhees holds it? What?
Obviously this plot is ridiculous, yet somehow I have fun watching this movie. It has a lot of funny kills, some really oddball characters, and a ton of overacting. It's probably the best early 90s slasher, though that isn't saying much. These types of movies started to hit a lull in the late 80s and didn't fully come back until Scream in '96. Still I will stick up for this movie whenever I hear someone talking poorly about it. It's not a bad movie, it's just... weird.
Recommended?
You know what, YEAH. Watch it! It's so weird.
