The Monthly Rag

We’ll start with the good, what little there is of it. The production value is leagues above the last few films. Harry Manfredini’s score is all amped up on new age technology. And let me say that the opening is very hokey fun; hell, if you just watch the first five minutes and shut it off thereafter, you can tell everyone you’ve seen the greatest FRIDAY since THE FINAL CHAPTER (it has a cool credit sequence!)

What happens after this is unfortunate. Sean Cunningham is back in producing, but this doesn’t at all help new young hip director Adam Marcus. The direction is passable, but it’s the screenwriting that goes quickly post mortum. I won’t say much about the intro other than the FBI manages to kill everyone’s favorite maniac, and without so much as a pause for a commercial break does the flick take a monumental nosedive.

Seems that “through a Voorhees was he born..only through a Voorhees can he be killed.” A contrived plot about how Jason was an evil born spirit that now has to be renewed through the blood of a family member surfaces and tries its best to mimic moments of credibility. The concept of Jason being a supernatural entity was already failing further with each outing, but making him an evil demon incarnate really just sinks it all into desperation. What’s worse is that he’s finally revived again, after jumping out of a possessed body in latex baby creature form, by quickly incubating in poor Erin Gray’s deceased cooter.

All this embarrassment aside, what it lacks in believability and competent storytelling, it makes up for in stellar make-up. To boot, this is a nasty looking FX-piece. Some of the make-up effects are just amazing thanks to KNB effects, and equally brutal death scenes are administered like a routine I.V. fix. But is this all the audience wants? Die hard gore fans, perhaps, but even such formulaic fodder should try for higher on the bar.

A bewildered Voorhees caught in purgatory in JASON GOES TO HELL.