'Jason Goes To Hell' isn't without some positives but they hardly make up for such a poor attempt at a sequel. This is the first of the series once Paramount sold the rights over to New Line Cinema (Now Warner Bros) and you can see that they've given it a better budget with it's slick look and the gore has been ramped up and is more extravagant than before. Don't get me wrong, changing things up once in a while with a long series like 'Friday the 13th' can work like with 'Jason Lives' but what 'Jason Goes To Hell' is attempting here is retconning lore that's been established for a decade and it's just far too late in the franchise to attempt such a thing. Revealing that Jason is a resurrected demon thanks to the necronomicon from 'The Evil Dead' series and his heart is a hell worm that possesses people is certainly an original idea but it just does not fit the 'Friday' formula. Even with such a drastic departure, the film still keeps the cheap thrills and tropes of the slasher films that came before so it's really just a new idea on the surface but the same rotten fruit underneath. It's my least favorite film in the franchise, but at least I can appreciate some things about it.
I know, I know, Jason in space, worst in the series, all that other jazz but so help me I do find this one enjoyable. Don't be mistaken 'Jason X' is a bad movie all around from the acting, to the cheaper look, and the weak kills aside from a fan favorite however unlike JGTH, this one is entertaining because of how bad it is. Whereas the previous film played its silly supernatural story completely straight and grim, 'Jason X' revels in its sillyness coming off almost as a spoof. It's a theatrically released SyFy original movie and it's a fun piece of trash to watch with some buddies. Kane Hodder would again reprise his role for the final time and as said with my previous reviews of part VII & VIII he does a good job as Jason but he's in the worst movies of the series. For the majority of the film his makeup and design is pretty weak and almost looks as if very little makeup was even applied. It's the same problem as the last film where the version of Jason you came to see is only in the final act. As for everything else, like I said it's like watching a SyFy original or an episode of 'Star Trek'. It's baffling to believe that this film has the budget this high for such a low quality product. Still, I've got much more of a soft spot for 'Jason X' than some others. Consider it my guilty pleasure in a series of guilty pleasures.
I don't really see 'Freddy vs Jason' as a 'Friday the 13th' film to be honest. It has Freddy as the primary antagonist with Jason just doing his thing and being a puppet for Freddy throughout. It also revolves primarily around Freddy regaining his powers and takes place in his hometown of Springwood. But it's in the box set so I have to give it a once over. This was the first major film of either series for myself growing up as I had only caught a few of each on TV late at night so while familiar with the characters I did not realize just how big of a deal this was. Looking at the film now as a big fan of both franchises, I can easily see why the audience was left disappointed. The film is surprisingly slow paced with a lot of the kill or horror scenes being spaced out or just being forgettable until you get to that final act when they finally fight each other. If it was just fighting for the entire running time, that would have had fans just screaming in their seats cheering on their favorite killer but the truth is that the film is so focused on the teens and their stories that it becomes a chore to avoid skipping to the end. This concept does not need a plot or characters really to make fans happy. Just have Freddy and Jason fight each other and kill tons of victims along the way until someone rises victorious. Just go insane with it rather than weigh it down with so much boring padding.
During the heyday of horror remakes very few were worth the effort of making or watching them and even those were more for their popcorn entertainment value and are mere afterthoughts of the genre. The 2009 'Friday the 13th' doesn't really ascend further than that but of the major horror franchises that got the remake treatment in the 2000's it's by far the best. It takes what works in the previous films and doesn't try to stray too far or use any kind of extraordinary plots like so many remakes would attempt but just plays like any other 'Friday the 13th' film. The film's biggest flaw is how it opens but not the opening itself. The opening is one of the best of the series with this 20 plus minute long prologue before the title shows on screen and you get to see the sheer brutality of Derek Mears' new Jason with some solid kills. It's after that amazing opening that it goes downhill in the middle when we meet the second group of teens which are far more obnoxious and forgettable. We also have a silly subplot involving one of the girls from the prologue being kept prisoner by Jason and her brother searching for her. This is just needless padding, something that seems to plague these more recent 'Friday' films but this is especially an issue because all these stacked subplots result in a nearly 2 and a half hour movie. A 'Friday the 13th' film can hardly hold itself together at 90 minutes let alone 2 hours which is a huge strike against this film. What I do enjoy aside from the opening is Jason himself in this film, who's a brutal survialist like Rambo who uses animal traps and bow and arrows etc. While this makes the kills themselves a bit dull, they are still nice and gory just not particularly creative. 'Friday '09' is overall a good sequel but a bad remake of the original that runs too long for its own good but is much better than the previous three entries.
Jason Goes to Hell: (D-)
Jason X: (D+)
Freddy vs Jason: (D)
Friday the 13th (2009): (C+)
We've finally come to the end of the movie portion of our review. Whew! We now will be going over the rest of the set in tomorrow's review including our final verdict for the set. Thanks for reading folks, and enjoy your Halloween.
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