Jason Goes to Hell is probably the most experimental of the Jason movies. This is to be applauded, but unfortunately the experiment is something of a failure. This movie tries to explain the Jason mythos, but actually eschews any of the mythos the earlier movies had created in favour of its own take, which is frankly rubbish anyway.
The movie explains Jason's invulnerability as 'he can only die if he's stabbed through the heart by a family member with this special knife'. If this was so, then how come Tommy Jarvis kills him at the end of number four and he doesn't come back until number six when he gets struck by lightning Frankenstein style? I shouldn't really expect solid gold continuity out of the eighth sequel out of 10 (with an eleventh heading our way sometime next year or the year after) but I do expect some kind of respect for the storyline laid down in previous sequels and this isn't it.
However, if I were to ignore the wholesale jettison of the plot of the rest of the series, maybe JGtH would still be good? Well no, it still kinda sucks eggs. They decided to jettison Jason as well, see he gets blown up with a bazooka in the opening frames and spends the rest of the movie as a worm hopping bodies in a soulless mockery of The Hidden. He comes back for a bit at the end (and is enough of a bad mofo in this last five minutes to almost make up for it) but honestly, doesn't do a lot other than bash Steve Williams about a bit. Mind you, this sequence is pretty fun and almost redeems the movie.
So, there's a dumb plot with no connection to earlier Fridays, Jason isn't really in it...Hell, you ask, is there even any gore? Any reason I shouldn't skip straight from Eight to Ten? Well, on the gore front the movie delivers. It has what the team themselves refer to as 'the most horrific kill in a Friday the 13th to date' which is, I'd have to confer, pretty damn nasty (I won't spoil it, just to say it is absolutely sick, and involves a tent spike), and if you're watching the uncut edition (buy this in the UK or on import from the UK on Pathe and you will have the uncut print) there's a whole damn lot of nastiness, including a deep fat frying, a lot of fairly hideous slashing and a man melting into a pool of gore Robocop style. If you want blood, you got it basically and to be honest hardcore gorehounds probably won't give two hoots about it's shortcomings on account of all the generous splatter on offer.
But I watch horror movies for the excitement factor and the removal of the iconic Jason leaves this movie choking in the dust when compared to other Friday movies. If this movie had Jason in place of all the people he bodysnatches it would have been awesome, but he's not and he carries these movies. A shame, as the movie's still pretty interesting (if only as a failed experiment) due to the reasonably good ideas it has. It just lacks the X-factor of Jason.
The movie explains Jason's invulnerability as 'he can only die if he's stabbed through the heart by a family member with this special knife'. If this was so, then how come Tommy Jarvis kills him at the end of number four and he doesn't come back until number six when he gets struck by lightning Frankenstein style? I shouldn't really expect solid gold continuity out of the eighth sequel out of 10 (with an eleventh heading our way sometime next year or the year after) but I do expect some kind of respect for the storyline laid down in previous sequels and this isn't it.
However, if I were to ignore the wholesale jettison of the plot of the rest of the series, maybe JGtH would still be good? Well no, it still kinda sucks eggs. They decided to jettison Jason as well, see he gets blown up with a bazooka in the opening frames and spends the rest of the movie as a worm hopping bodies in a soulless mockery of The Hidden. He comes back for a bit at the end (and is enough of a bad mofo in this last five minutes to almost make up for it) but honestly, doesn't do a lot other than bash Steve Williams about a bit. Mind you, this sequence is pretty fun and almost redeems the movie.
So, there's a dumb plot with no connection to earlier Fridays, Jason isn't really in it...Hell, you ask, is there even any gore? Any reason I shouldn't skip straight from Eight to Ten? Well, on the gore front the movie delivers. It has what the team themselves refer to as 'the most horrific kill in a Friday the 13th to date' which is, I'd have to confer, pretty damn nasty (I won't spoil it, just to say it is absolutely sick, and involves a tent spike), and if you're watching the uncut edition (buy this in the UK or on import from the UK on Pathe and you will have the uncut print) there's a whole damn lot of nastiness, including a deep fat frying, a lot of fairly hideous slashing and a man melting into a pool of gore Robocop style. If you want blood, you got it basically and to be honest hardcore gorehounds probably won't give two hoots about it's shortcomings on account of all the generous splatter on offer.
But I watch horror movies for the excitement factor and the removal of the iconic Jason leaves this movie choking in the dust when compared to other Friday movies. If this movie had Jason in place of all the people he bodysnatches it would have been awesome, but he's not and he carries these movies. A shame, as the movie's still pretty interesting (if only as a failed experiment) due to the reasonably good ideas it has. It just lacks the X-factor of Jason.