Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is a 1993
slasher filmA slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
, the ninth—and, as the title suggests, intended final—installment in the
Friday the 13th film series and the first
sequelA sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to be distributed by
New Line CinemaNew Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
.
The film was released unrated on DVD in North America, and includes both versions of the film: the censored R-rated version, and the unrated version, which runs three minutes longer than the theatrical version of the film.
Plot
The undead serial killer
Jason VoorheesJason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
, thought to be killed in part 8, is back at Crystal Lake—through some form of unexplained or unknown resurrection—but this time the killer is on the wrong end of an
FBIThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
sting. As he is about to kill a woman (undercover FBI agent Elizabeth Marcus), the FBI springs a trap. After gunning him down, they launch a grenade and Jason gets blown to pieces—but, unknown to the agents, Jason's dark heart keeps beating. His remains are sent to a
morgueA morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or otherwise...
, where the
coronerA coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
Phil is
hypnotizedHypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
by Jason's
heartThe heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
and begins to eat it, causing himself to be
possessedDemonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
by the
demoncall - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
ic spirit of Jason. Jason, now in Phil's body, kills Phil's assistant, and two FBI agents.
Jason then goes to Crystal Lake, where he finds three partying teens named Alexis, Deborah, and Luke. He splits Deborah in half with a signpost. While Luke and Deborah have sex in a tent, Jason kills Alexis with a scalpel and then kills Luke by smashing it on his head.
Jason then attacks police officer Josh and Edna. He kills Edna by slamming her head into a car door. He then transfers himself into Josh's body, possesing him.
Meanwhile,
bounty hunterA bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
Creighton Duke finds out that only members of Jason's bloodline can truly kill him and he will return to life if he possesses a member of his family. The only living relatives of Jason are his half-sister Diana Kimble, her daughter Jessica, and Stephanie, the infant daughter of Jessica and Steven Freeman.
Jason makes his way to Diana's house. Steven bursts in and stabs Jason with a fireplace poker. Diana is killed with a knife sharpener and Jason escapes. Steven is falsely accused and arrested for Diana's murder, and meets Duke, who reveals Jessica's relation to Jason by asking Steven to 'pay' for the info by letting Duke break his fingers. Determined to get to Jessica before Jason does, Steven escapes from jail.
Jessica is dating
American Casefiles reporter Robert Campbell. Steven goes to the Voorhees house to find evidence to convince Jessica, but falls through rotten boards. Robert enters the upstairs room and receives a phone call which reveals that he is attempting to "spice up" his show's ratings by putting emphasis on Jason's return from death, having stolen Diana's body from the morgue for this reason. Jason bursts in and transfers his heart into Robert, while Josh gruesomely melts. Jason leaves, with Steven in pursuit. Jason attempts to be reborn through Jessica but is disrupted by Steven who hits him and takes Jessica into his car. Steven runs over Jason and explains the situation to Jessica, who does not believe him and throws him out of the car. Jessica makes it to the police station.
Jason arrives at the police station, and kills most of the officers. He then nearly possesses Jessica before Steven arrives and stops him; Jessica realizes that Steven's story is true. In the chaos, Duke makes his escape. The two make their way to Joey B.'s diner to grab the baby. Jason arrives, but is attacked by the owners of the shop with guns. He manages to kill the owners, but is impaled by Jessica's friend Vikki with a barbecue skewer. Jason however impales her on the same skewer, and smashes her head, killing her. Jason is presumably killed, and Jessica and Steven discover a note from Duke, telling them that he has the baby and ordering Jessica to meet him at the Voorhees house alone.
Jessica meets Duke at the Voorhees house and is given
a mystical daggerThe Evil Dead is a 1981 horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi, starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker. The film is a story of five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a wooded area...
which she can use to permanently kill Jason. Meanwhile, an unseen officer enters the diner where Robert (possessed) transfers his heart into him. Duke falls through the floor, and Jessica is confronted by Landis and Randy. Landis is killed accidentally with the dagger, and Jessica drops the dagger under a dresser. Randy (possessed) attempts to be reborn through Stephanie, but Steven arrives and severs his neck with a machete. Jason's heart, which has now grown into a demonic infant, crawls out of Randy's neck, and makes its way to the basement where it crawls into Diana's dead body through her vagina while Steven and Jessica pull Duke out of the basement. Complete with worksuit and hockey mask, Jason is reborn.
While Steven and Jessica attempt to retrieve the dagger, Duke distracts Jason: in response, Jason kills him before turning his attention to Jessica. Steven tackles Jason, sending both men flying out a window. While Jessica retrieves the dagger, Steven engages Jason in hand-to-hand combat. Just as Jason moves in for the
coup de grâceThe expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...
, Jessica stabs him in the chest, releasing the tortured souls that Jason has accumulated through his entire killing spree throughout the whole series. Numerous demonic hands burst out of the ground and pull Jason into the depths of
HellIn many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
.
Steven and Jessica reconcile and walk off into the sunrise with their baby. After they depart, Jason's mask is unearthed by a dog, but
Freddy KruegerFrederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
's clawed glove bursts out of the ground, grabs Jason's mask, and drags it to Hell, setting up
Freddy vs. JasonFreddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
.
Cast
- John D. LeMay
John D. LeMay is an American actor who has starred in TV shows and on film.LeMay was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota and moved to Normal, Illinois in his teens. He went to Normal Community High School and participated in school plays and got into both singing and acting...
as Steven Freeman
- Kari Keegan
Kari Keegan is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her lead role in the horror movie Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday . She appeared in an uncredited part in Jerry Maguire and as the lead role in the independent film Mind Games . She has been married since 1998 to Craig...
as Jessica Kimble
- Steven Williams
Steven Williams is an American actor of films and television.Williams was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Chicago. He is known for his role as Captain Adam Fuller on the Fox Network's hit TV series 21 Jump Street from 1987-91.He played Lt. Burnett on the CBS drama series The Equalizer in...
as Creighton Duke
- Allison Smith as Vicki
- Steven Culp
Steven Bradford Culp is an American film and television actor, best known for his roles as Rex Van de Kamp in the television series Desperate Housewives and CIA Agent Clayton Webb in JAG.-Early life:...
as Robert Campbell
- Billy Green Bush
William Warren Bush is an American actor, sometimes credited as “Billy Greenbush”.Notable movie appearances include Five Easy Pieces , The Culpepper Cattle Company , Electra Glide in Blue , Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore , The River , The Hitcher , Critters , and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final...
as Sheriff Landis
- Erin Gray
Erin Gray is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles as Kate Summers in the situation comedy Silver Spoons and as Colonel Wilma Deering in the science fiction television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century....
as Diana Kimble
- Rusty Schwimmer
Rusty Schwimmer is an American film and television actress and singer. Her most prominent role so far is that of Barbara Ludzinski on The Guardian.Among her movie appearances are those as Joey B in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Mrs...
as Joey B.
- Leslie Jordan
Leslie Allen Jordan is an American actor and playwright.- Early life and career :Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and at a height of 4 ft 11 in , Jordan has made numerous appearances in both film and television...
as Shelby
- Andrew Bloch as Josh
- Kipp Marcus
Kipp Marcus is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and digital media executive. He is best known for his role as the oldest brother Kip Cleaver on the revival television series The New Leave It To Beaver...
as Randy
- Richard Gant
Richard E. Gant is an American film and television actor. His credits include the films Rocky V , as a possessed cornoner in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday , Deadwood, Babylon 5, Special Unit 2, NYPD Blue, Living Single, Posse and Charmed...
as Coroner (Phil)
- Gino Kane as Ward
- Julie Michaels as Elizabeth Marcus
- Paul Devine as Paul
- Kane Hodder
Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...
as Jason VoorheesJason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
/Guard/Freddy KruegerFrederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
's claw
John D. LeMayJohn D. LeMay is an American actor who has starred in TV shows and on film.LeMay was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota and moved to Normal, Illinois in his teens. He went to Normal Community High School and participated in school plays and got into both singing and acting...
is one of only two actors from the TV series to appear in the film franchise, the other being John Shepherd who played Tommy Jarvis in
Friday the 13th: A New BeginningFriday the 13th: A New Beginning is a 1985 slasher film. It was released on March 22, 1985. It is the fifth film in the Friday the 13th film series...
.
Box office and reception
The film opened in 1,355 theaters, making $7.6 million its opening weekend. Domestically, the film made $15.9 million, making it the third lowest grossing
Friday the 13th film.
Like the films before it,
Jason Goes to Hell received negative reviews, currently holding a 29% "rotten" rating on
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. However, it did fare better than
Jason Takes ManhattanFriday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is a slasher film released on July 28, 1989. It is the eighth film in the Friday the 13th film series, and deals with Jason Voorhees stalking a group of high school graduates on a ship en route to New York City, and was the last film in the series...
.
Other media
A three-issue
comicComics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
adaptation of
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday written by Andy Mangels was published by
Topps ComicsTopps Comics is a division of the American trading card publisher and gum/candy distributor the Topps Company, Inc. that published comic books from 1993–1998, beginning its existence during a short comics-industry boom that attracted many investors and new companies...
. As the comics are based upon the original shooting script of the film, elements that were left out of the film are used in them. Topps also released a series of
trading cardA trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text...
s for the film.
The FBI sting that occurs at the beginning of the film is foreshadowed in the novel
Friday the 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat, which takes place between the events of the seventh and eighth films. The epilogue of the book states that the FBI, upon discovering Jason Voorhees actually exists, have begun making plans to trap him and "send him straight to Hell"; the actual events of the 'sting' are revealed in
Friday the 13th: Church of the Divine Psychopath.
Freddy Krueger's clawed hand coming out of the ground and taking Jason's mask was a reference to the future
crossover between the twoFreddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
(similar to the Alien Skull scene in
Predator 2Predator 2 is a 1990 science fiction action film starring Danny Glover, Gary Busey, María Conchita Alonso, Rubén Blades, and Bill Paxton. Written by Jim and John Thomas and directed by Stephen Hopkins, the film is a sequel to 1987's Predator, with Kevin Peter Hall again playing the role of the...
, which was a production
in-jokeAn in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
), which had been in development hell since 1987. It was finally finished in 2003, a year after this film's
sequelJason X is a 2002 science fiction horror slasher film directed by James Isaac. It is the tenth in the Friday the 13th film series and stars Kane Hodder as the undead mass murderer Jason Voorhees, the film made $16,951,798 worldwide with a budget of $14 million...
.
The film features the appearances of the skull dagger and
NecronomiconThe Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in...
from the
Evil DeadThe Evil Dead is a trilogy of horror films created by Sam Raimi. The films focus on the protagonist, Ashley "Ash" J. Williams, played by Bruce Campbell, who deals with "deadites", which are undead antagonists created by the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. The film series has since expanded into other...
films. Jason, Freddy, and
Ash WilliamsAshley J. "Ash" Williams is the protagonist in the Evil Dead horror film franchise, played by Bruce Campbell, and created by director Sam Raimi. Throughout the series, Ash has to face off against his loved ones inside an abandoned cabin as they are possessed by "deadites", the evil souls of the dead...
(the main protagonist of the
Evil Dead movies) would later meet in the comic book series
Freddy vs. Jason vs. AshFreddy vs. Jason vs. Ash is a six-issue comic book limited series that was released in November 2007 and ran until March 2008. It was published by Wildstorm, Dynamite Entertainment, and DC Comics. Based on the original Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash film treatment by Jeff Katz, the story serves as a...
(a story adapted by writer Jeff Katz from a
Freddy vs. Jason 2 screenplay treatment he had written in 2004) and again in
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare WarriorsFreddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors is a six-issue limited series comic book written by Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric, with art by Jason Craig. The series was published by Dynamite Entertainment and DC Comics, with imprint by Wildstorm, beginning in August 2009 and concluding in December...
.
External links