The second film in the Friday the 13th series to claim to be the "final"
installment (and this one is just as incorrect as part 4), Jason Goes to
Hell starts off in familiar territory - Crystal Lake.  No explanation from
the end of Part VIII, and that's probably a good thing.  I'd like to forget
that Part VIII was made, too.  Anyway, a showering girl is attacked by Jason
and chased through the woods as she wears nothing but a towel.  And just as
Jason moves in for the kill - surprise, it's a sting!  The FBI open up the
flood lights and their weapons, shooting Jason from every angle.  And then
he's blown to bits by an unseen helicopter.  Could Jason finally be dead?
In the first 10 minutes of the movie?

Nope, but it might have been better if he was!  Jason's bloody remains are
taken to a high security morgue (?) in Ohio, where they're to be studied (I
guess).  Well, as the coroner is inspecting the heart (which is twice normal
size, we're told - Turns out Jason was a nice guy, after all!), it starts to
beat again.  This has some effect on the coroner as he decides to take a big
ol' bite out of the bloodied organ.  What the hell is going on?  Isn't this
a Jason movie?

Explanations come as the movie goes on.  Seems that some bounty hunter named
Creighton Duke has the secret of Jason Voorhees.  How does he know these
secrets?  Beats me.  But he claims that Jason is not dead, but that he is
searching for a new body.  He wears bodies like people wear suits, Duke
says.

Meanwhile, people in Crystal Lake try to make money on the Jason legend.
I'd like to try me one of dem hockey mask shaped hamburgers!  Yes, now it
seems everyone in the world knows who Jason Voorhees is, yet in all the
earlier episodes, people were totally oblivious, decided to vacation in
Crystal Lake.  So, anyway, Jason is heading back to his hometown (in
different bodies as he goes), killing all in his way.  It seems like he has
some sort of connection to a local woman and her daughter.

Mr. Duke fills us in with more details now (again, I'd like to know where he
gets his information), and he says that Jason's use of other bodies is only
temporary.  He needs the body of a relative in order to be reborn.  And yes,
you guessed it, the local woman (and her daughter, and her baby) are all
Voorhees.  There's even a Voorhees house in Crystal Lake (Why have we never
seen this before?).  So, the bounty hunter, the surviving Voorhees, and
various other people try to stand in the way of the immortal killer and
attempt to kill him once and for all.

If this movie weren't an installment of Friday the 13th, and didn't feature
Jason Voorhees, it might have been a decent horror flick.  But all this new
mystical shit doesn't sit well with me when we're talking about an
established (8 previous films!) character.  And I don't care for the look of
Jason in this film.  The hanging neck flesh, the seemingly growing head
outgrowing his hockey mask, the scraggly hair.  But, if you're able to put
all of that aside, there are some good moments in this film.  The acting
actually isn't all that bad, the tension and suspense are there.  And the
gore!  The gore is back!  I watched the Director's Cut, so I'm not sure how
much difference that made, but there are some great kill shots, plus a lot
of blood and organs and gross tongues and slimy creatures.  So, it's good
for the horror fan, not so good for the diehard Jason fan.
 
 

Did You Notice: Kane Hodder ("Jason") in a cameo role as a security guard.
 

Did You Notice #2: The nods to other horror films - the Book of the Dead
from Evil Dead, the crate from Creepshow, the mention of "Myers'", and
Freddy's gloved hand?
 
 
 

Quality: 2.5  Visuals: 4.5  Intensity: 4.5  Gore: 6.5
OVERALL RATING: 4.5