When it comes to critical praise, theFriday the 13thfranchise has never been on the receiving end of many positive comments. However, of the 12 entries in the franchise, from its 1980 original through to the 2009 reboot, none received more of a slaughtering thanJason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. With the movie having celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this year, directorAdam Marcusrecently reflected on the intense backlash the movie received from critics and fans alike.
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday
While the franchisechurned out almost yearly sequelsduring the 1980s, most of which turned a reasonable profit thanks to low budgets and the horror boom of the decade, the ninth installment didn’t arrive for four years after 1989’sJason Takes Manhattan. However, absence did not make the machete-pierced heart grow fonder, asJason Goes to Hellbecame an equally poor performer, both in terms of reviews and profit.
In a recent interview withBloody Disgusting, Marcus recalled some of the extreme responses he received from fans, including being wished cancer. He said:
“People who don’t like Jason Goes to Hell are rabid. They’re not your average haters; they’re knives-out from the second you meet them. [Chuckles] When people go, ‘That’s not canon,’ I’m like, ‘No, bitches, it’s canon! I made Jason a Deadite. I did that!' If you were the right age when the movie came out, if you weren’t a Friday fan from the first movie but you came in the middle or right before my movie, those folks tend to love Jason Goes to Hell. If you’re my age, and you were a crazy fan from the first one on, we have a lot of talking that goes on between us. I ruined their childhood, they wish me ass cancer. All of these things happen on a regular basis. Everybody talks about Jason Goes to Hell. Everybody’s got an opinion. Every hater has a copy of it in their collection — and on multiple formats! The fans are amazing. The haters are kind of amazing too, even though it’s hard to wake up in the morning and see someone tweet about you being a fat nepo baby. That stuff does get under my skin, I’m not gonna lie. It’s crazy for people to think that their casual bullying doesn’t affect artists. We carry it with us the rest of our days.”
Related:Friday the 13th Prequel: Will We Actually See Jason Voorhees?
Jason Goes to Hell was Not The Franchise’s Finest Hour.
Jason Goes to Hellpresented a unique premise within theFriday the 13thuniverse. In the film, Jason Voorhees spends most of the movie as a malevolent spirit, seeking a means to resurrect himself following his death in the movie’s opening scene. Of course, not having your hulking killer on screen for the majority of the film never usually works well, especially when that killer is played bygenre icon Kane Hodderin his penultimate appearance as Jason.
The film grossed only $15.9 million against a budget of $3 million, making it the second-worst performing movie in the franchise. Aside from a lack of Jason, the other major complaints about her movie were its disjointed plot, and generally lackluster acting.
Jason Goes to Hellremains a contentious entry in theFriday the 13thfranchise, even 30 years after its release. Although the movie did provide the first tease ofthe horror smackdown that wasFreddy vs Jason, there are many fans who would have happily skipped Jason going underground and had him send something completely ridiculous like space…oh, yeah, of course, they did that as well.
Next up for the franchise is aprequel TV series heading to Paramount+, and more potential movies thanks to an agreement of sorts being reached in relation to who owns what from the horror saga.
