A misguided attempt by New Line Cinema to revive Paramont’s moribund "Friday the 13th" slasher series, 1993’s "Jason Goes To Hell - The Final Friday" at least boasts some pretty gruesome deaths and... gasp... a story (!) on which to hang its thin excuse of a plot. This movie has divided Jason Vorhees-loving diehards between those that felt the formula of the prequels didn’t need tampering and those that are glad writer/director Adam Marcus (along with original "Friday the 13th" producer Sean S. Cunningham) tried something new for a change.
‘What new thing could these guys possibly come up with that would seem new or different in a "Friday the 13th" slasher film after eight progressively-dumb and retarded sequels?’ you might be asking to yourself. Well, besides (a) the dropping of the "Friday the 13th" name from the title of the movie and (b) the physical annihilation of Jason Vorhees’ body less than 10 minutes into the film, would (c) Jason’s supernatural essence (i.e. his spirit) springing from body to body (ala the alien in Kyle McLahalan’s little-seen 1988 sci-fi classic "The Hidden") count as something new and never-seen-before in a Jason-starring slasher flick?
The main problem with "The Last Friday" (other than its misleading title, ala 1984’s "Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter") is that it jumps through Ocean-sized plot holes and leaps of logic in order to explain what/who/why Jason Vorhees is the way he is. As in the better "Halloween" movies (i.e. the early one’s), a slasher movie starring Jason works best when our anti-hero’s background is kept unknown and his motivation for what he does to a minimum (‘Jason saw mom beheaded, wanted revenge, killed everyone when he grew-up, etc.’). As in the latter "Halloween" movies though (particularly "The Curse of Michael Myers"), when the filmmakers that inherit a struggling franchise start meddling with the killer’s backstory in order to justify/explain/put into context the new orgy of deaths it invariably reflects bad on the previous entries of the series. Director Adam Marcus and fellow screenwriter Dean Lorey might not have intended to do so (and they vigorously defend their decisions in the DVD’s commentary track), but in "The Last Friday" they put Jason’s previous killing sprees into such a supernatural and quasi-mythological realm as to cast doubt on the validity of the earlier films’ mood.
After Jason’s body (once again represented by stuntman Kane Hodder) is blown to bits in an FBI raid on Crystal Lake (!) the still-pulsating heart hypnotizes the coroner performing an autopsy on Jason’s remains into eating the serial killer’s heart (EEEEUUUU!), which transforms him into a re-incarnated version of the masked serial killer (minus the physical attributes) and starts slicing and dicing. A nationwide search for the killer is launched and fueled by a sleazy tabloid TV reporter, Robert Campbell (Steven Culp), who just happens to be dating a certain Jessica Kimble (Kari Keegan). Daughter of Diana Kimble ("Buck Rogers" hottie Erin Gray), a waitress in a diner on the outskirts of the town of Crystal Lake, Jessica returns to town with boyfriend Campbell after Diana is mysteriously killed by her ex, Steve Freeman (John D. LeMay, star of the TV version of "Friday the 13th"). But Jessica, unlike the audience, doesn’t know that it was someone possessed by Jason’s spirit that killed her mother. Framed for Diana’s murder and told by a bounty hunter named Creighton Duke (Steven Williams, of "21 Jump Street" and early "X-Files" fame) that ‘only through a Vorhees can he be reborn, and only by the hand of a Vorhees can he be killed’, Steven busts out of prison and tries to stop Jason before he does any harm to either Jessica or her newborn baby.
This leads to a final mano-a-mano between a resurrected Jason (complete with every scar and piece of clothing he ever wore in the previous eight flicks) and Steven that drags on forever, but which eventually leads to a classic gag in which New Line’s Freddy Krueger (via his infamous glove) grabs Jason’s mask as a ‘Welcome to Hell’ signature. In-between its needlessly dense plot "The Final Friday’s" unrated edition showcases a generous dose of gunshot wounds, still-alive human corpses that melt into nothing, severed heads, split-in-half bodies and other slasher movie necessities (i.e. premarital sex) that were either lacking or absent from the two prior "Friday the 13th" installments. It’s too bad the gore isn’t as graphic as it could due to a darkened palette used to represent blood (no doubt done to sneak the film into an ‘R’ rating it didn’t achieve without substantial cuts). Only briefly does the human being hosting Jason’s spirit go off his beaten path and actually dispatches Camp Crystal Lake campers in the heat of the you-know-what. Even with the brain turned off and the unrated carnage unfolding before your eyes, "Jason Goes To Hell - The Final Friday" is a disappointing 9th entry into a series that peaked at 'numero cuatro'.
The Disc:
Goodbye feature-less and bare-bones Paramount DVD’s. Hello New Line Cinema’s high-quality DVD’s that at least attempt to give consumers their money’s worth. Though shy of the studio’s Platinum Series or Infinifilm standards, "The Final Friday’s" Widescreen Anamorphic (1:85:1) Video Transfer and English Dolby Digital Soundtrack(s) are the best yet for a movie starring the masked one. Most of the movie takes place at night or in the shadows, and from time to time the compression artifacts let slip an unseemly image or two. It’s not much to look at to begin with, but "The Last Friday" at least looks every bit as good as one would expect from a New Line Cinema. The same cannot be said about the sounds of the film, which are perpetually dragged down by one seriously wicked score from Fred Mollin (the composer for the then-syndicated horror series of the same name) that mistakes loud repetition of the same few basic notes over and over again for some kind of horror soundtrack motif. Dialogue, sound effects and incidental sounds are OK, but I dare you NOT to go insane trying to tolerate this acoustic abortion of a composed soundtrack!
"Friday the 13th" fans asked for them, but nobody at Paramount was listening (or willing to lift a finger to find them) as clearly as the folks at New Line: special features. For starters there are Rated and Unrated Versions of "The Last Friday" on the same disc, so gore hounds or peeping Tom’s can look at what the studio deemed too objectionable for fragile minds back in ‘93. Only by viewing the Unrated Edition of the movie will viewers be able to access the DVD’s best feature, a feature-length Commentary Track with Director Adam Marcus and Writer Dean Lorey. Wide-eyed twentysomething filmmakers back in 1993, the now wiser family men that resurrected Jason from his infamous "Jason Takes Manhattan" sewer tunnel demise go all out for fans of Jason Vorhees and the "Friday the 13th" phenomenon. These two laugh, ridicule themselves, share behind-the-scenes trivia and gag at the stuff their fertile imaginations dreamt of a decade ago, making for a very pleasant and enjoyable listen.
There are also Full-Screen (1:33:1) Additional Scenes that are used as filler by TV stations when the movie airs in syndication (this DVD’s equivalent of Deleted Scenes), the semi-obligatory Theatrical Trailers and a rather unique feature called ‘Jump To A Death’. Want to see Steven Culp (as Robert Campbell) crush a woman’s head like if it were a water-filled balloon? Or "Buck Rogers’" own Erin Gray (as Diane Kimble) do her imitation of Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother in the shower scene from "Psycho" (minus the shower and the moody b&w photography)? ‘Jump To A Death’ lets you relieve all the gore and sexual promiscuity this movie has to offer without the backstory-heavy plot or dead space in-between the killings, a neat idea that no one at Paramount either thought of or felt inclined to pursue.
bottom line:
I’m glad New Line’s improved DVD options (particularly the enjoyable writer/director commentary track and the appropriately named ‘Jump To a Death’ option) have saved me the trouble of recapping the body count of every "Friday the 13th" movie that I review on DVD. Gets kind-of dull by the umpteenth stabbing and/or dismemberment from a guy with as little personality (or body in this case) as Mr. Jason Vorhees, you know? "The Final Friday" you ask? Yeah right! Maybe for filmmakers that ditch the star attractions of the series (Jason, brief nudity and death) in favor of... gulp... a plot with some serious backstory to it! What were these guys thinking? That American movie-goers actually use their brains when deciding what movie they turn into a hit? Please! :-(
By - J.M.'The Horrormeister'Vargas
1/2
