2 out of 5

Directed by: Adam Marcus

Is this even a Jason movie?  While there’s a bit of thrill seeing series creator Sean S. Cunningham’s name pop up in the credits as a producer, and the opening sequence is a fun, cheeky bit of misdirection – Jason stalks a pretty girl, who leads him, purposefully, straight into an ambush of gunfire and grenades – once the story makes its general progression clear, you start to wonder if we’re ever going to see ol’ hockey-mask.  So, yes, Jason gets blown to bits in an exciting bit of overkill before the gloriously unanimated “Jason Goes to Hell” title drops on us, and is then being autopsied when his heart starts beating again.  The coroner becomes mesmerized, then takes a big bite of that heart with awesomely ridiculous fervor, scored by the quirky tunes of the returning Harry Manfredini.  So far so good.  Even though the film is following part 8’s shoulder-shrug methodology by not offering any explanations as to how Jason came back after the previous installment, the humorous and gore-infused opening (the effects of Howard Berger’s team brings a wonderfully fresh splash of blood and guts to things) – with light touches of meta humor – is a win.  But then the movie forgets what franchise it is.  Now Jason’s spirit can transfer from one body to another, which it does via a ridiculous mouth-worm gross-out gag, meaning we rarely see Hodder as Jason – rather, we watch a few other actors ‘possessed’ by the killer, until J can get to a particular bod, one belonging to lead female Jessica Kimble.  It’s up to Steven Freeman and bounty hunter Creighton Duke to warn Jessica.  In an odd bit of miscasting, John D. LeMay’s Steven is the character you’d expect to be a dork in any other movie, but he puts on a varsity jacket so then we realize he’s the hero.  As a horror movie it’s okay, but as a Jason movie, the extra and random mythology just sets it so far outside of the series proper that you really never feel like it’s a Jason flick, even when Hodder finally gets to don the mask for the final sequence.  The effects do deserve extra notice, as they’re probably some of the best in the series to date, and there are some inspired ideas – …like the Jason creature… – but nothing that ends up sitting right for the franchise.