Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday 4K UHD Blu-ray Review

Arrow Video

4K UHD Release: May 20, 2025

Video: 1.85:1/2160p (HDR10/Dolby Vision)/Color

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0

Subtitles: English SDH

Run Time: 87:53 (theatrical cut), 90:47 (unrated cut)

Director: Adam Marcus

After being blown to smithereens in a sting operation, Jason Voorhees’ body is taken to the morgue in Youngstown, Ohio, where his still-beating heart possesses the coroner performing his autopsy. The new, body-hopping Jason begins hacking and slashing his way back to his stomping ground of Crystal Lake, where his last living relatives, Diana, her daughter Jessica, and her newborn Stephanie still reside. Only by them can he be truly killed and only through them can he be reborn. Can the last remaining Voorheeses survive long enough to finally send Jason to hell for good? (From Arrow’s official synopsis)

All film franchises must come to an end. Some of them can be reborn, but they have to die first and few franchises were as destined to die with the Reagan era than Friday the 13th. The original film was a surprise hit in 1980, so Paramount struck the iron at its hottest, producing eight films in nine years and sticking pretty closely to an established formula in hopes that it would generate money forever. Alas, 1989’s Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan was a box office disappointment. The gravy train had stalled and Paramount stripped the wagon for parts, selling Jason to rival New Line Cinema, home of Freddy Krueger, with plans in place to eventually set the two slasher mascots against each other.

But that was the future. For now, New Line and producer Sean S. Cunningham had to find a less difficult and expensive way to introduce Jason to a new generation of fans. Little did they know that they’d only manage to produce exactly one Friday the 13th over the entire course of the 1990s. After a lot of writing, re-writing, and pre-production, that sole project would eventually become Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) and it was the directorial debut of Cunningham family friend and former production assistant Adam Marcus.

It’s a tight field, but I’m pretty confident calling Jason Goes to Hell the worst Friday the 13th movie. It’s too bad, too, because New Line tried to do something different with the series, reimagining the simple stalk-and-stab structure as a supernatural thriller in the spirit of Jack Sholder’s sci-fi police procedural The Hidden (1987)*. Many detractors blame the change in formula for the film’s failure and, while it is strange to buy the Hockey Masked Camp Counselor Killer franchise and turn it into a possession movie, Jason Takes Manhattan proved that audiences were already souring on the formula at the time.

Rewatching the film for the first time in decades for this review, I did my best to approach it as a slasher variation of The Hidden and other possession-based action movies, like Brett Leonard’s Virtuosity (1995) and Gregory Hoblit’s Fallen (1998)**, because I think that fans enjoy the film for its differences. Unfortunately, it turns out that Jason Goes to Hell is a lot more interested in recycling old ideas than I remembered. The opening sequence, in which the FBI tempts Jason into a camp counselor honeypot, is a genuinely clever bait-and-switch, but, outside of a handful of John Waters-worthy characters (something that connects it to Danny Steinmann’s undervalued Friday the 13th: A New Beginning [1985]), the movie never gets back to that level, opting for predictability over fully embracing something new.

It is interesting to compare it to Rachel Talalay’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). The two films were released in relative succession, were both advertised as franchise cappers, and share the theme of family members being the only ones that can kill the unkillable monster (childhood houses are also featured). They are also both low points for their respective series, but for different reasons. Freddy’s Dead is a mess, but squeaks by on a good attitude. Jason Goes to Hell is more refined and slickly directed, but it’s kind of a drag. If we could combine their strengths, we might have had the ideal slasher villain sendoff. Alas, it didn’t work out that way.

If there’s one thing that sets Jason Goes to Hell above some of the otherwise superior series entries, is its commitment gore and creature effects. KNB EFX Group (who completed the film with help from Al Magliochetti) were arguably bigger stars than most of the actors at the time and Marcus showcases their work accordingly. Could it have been bloodier? Of course, and even the unrated cut (included here) is a little anemic compared to what the MPAA allows with an R-rating these days, but the melting man effect rules and tent-sex bisection is still high on the franchise’s best kills.

* David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975) – with its parasitic, phallic slugs – is another obvious influence.

** It’s not really relevant to this review, but I’ve always found it so strange that, between Oscar nominations, Denzel Washington starred in two Hidden-alikes over just a few years.

Video

The Friday the 13th franchise was always an MPAA target and constantly struggled to secure R-ratings, leading some borderline gore-free entries. Alternate cuts were rare, though. Only the original film had a slightly more violent international cut. Jason Goes to Hell broke the pattern when it came to home video and was offered in both R-rated and unrated cuts. The two cuts were also available on New Line’s initial DVD, as did the Warner Bros. and Shout Factory Blu-ray releases, which were only available as complete 10-movie collections.

Arrow’s new UHD features a brand new 4K scan of the original R-rated camera negative, which has then been coupled with 4K interpositive scans of the deleted material for the unrated cut. The restoration was approved by director Adam Marcus. The images on this page are taken from the Blu-ray and, while the grading is similar, the 4K transfer is presented in 1.85:1, not 1.78:1, so they’re mostly here for editorial purposes. Details and texture, including film grain, are decent (perhaps a twinge on the soft side), and color quality, though intentionally pretty muddy at times, is vivid when appropriate. Jason Goes to Hell is a very dark film. I remember renting the VHS tape and barely being able to tell what was happening half the time. The Dolby Vision/HDR10 upgrade does its job in boosting the primary colors and pumping up the necessary highlights, all without betraying the gloomy overall look.

Audio

Jason X is presented with original 2.0 and 5.1 remix sound options, both in uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio. Both mixes are aggressive and feature a lot of canned effects floating through the channels, all of which is very early ‘90s, as the industry was slowly moving over to digital audio formats (Batman Returns had come out the year before and Jurassic Park was released the same summer). The 5.1 option has an especially artificial quality, but is punchier, thanks to the discreet LFE, and I did enjoy the silly surround speaker spikes. The music was composed by series regular Harry Manfredini, who scored most of the Paramount Friday the 13th films and created the main theme. Manfredini’s compositions have a fun, busy throwback quality, and are very active in the stereo but the synthetic instrumentations have kind of a cheap, made-for-TV quality (I suppose in keeping with the rest of the mix). 

Extras

Disc 1: Theatrical Cut (4K UHD)

• Faces of Death (16:47, HD) – Special makeup effects creator and co-founder of KNB EFX Robert Kurtzman (he’s the “K”) chats about making Jason Goes to Hell, working with the cast & crew, and designing/executing the various make-up and practical effects. 

• Undercover Angel (11:55, HD) – Actress/stuntwoman Julie Michaels, who plays the FBI shower girl during the opening scene, recalls her upbringing, paying for college as a beauty queen, learning the ropes of acting and stunts, and being cast in Jason Goes to Hell, despite not liking horror movies.

• Mixing it Up (12:26, HD) – Composer Harry Manfredini looks back at his time on the series and the challenge of trying to do something different with the music.

• The Gates of Hell (36:03, HD) – Director Adam Marcus wraps up the Arrow-exclusive featurettes exploring the making of the film from his point-of-view. This is sort of like the CliffsNotes version of his commentary tracks on the second disc.

Shout Factory archive extras:

• 2020 introduction by director Adam Marcus (0:13, HD)

• Jason vs. Terminator (11:34, HD) – Adam Marcus on growing up with the Cunninghams.

• Über-Jason (28:22, HD) – Kane Hodder on playing Jason.

• Friday the 13th Props (1:08, HD) – A short tour of the prop museum/promo for the prop book.

• Additional TV footage with optional commentary from Adam Marcus and Peter Bracke:

  • Diner scene (3:33, HD)

  • Prank phone call (2:35, HD)

  • Cuffing Steven (0:16, HD)

  • Introduction scene (0:34, HD)

  • Giving Vicki the baby (0:53, HD)

  • Vicki and David (1:05, HD)

  • Vicki gets to work (0:34, HD)

  • Alone in Jessica's house (1:46, HD)

  • Steve and Randy's fight (1:24, HD)

• Theatrical trailer

• US and Canadian TV spots

• Stills gallery

• Behind-the-scenes/poster gallery

Disc 2: Unrated Cut (4K UHD)

• Commentary with Michael Felsher and Steve ‘Uncle Creepy’ Barton – The Red Shirt Pictures head honcho and co-founder of Dread Central team up to explore the making of the film, the wider franchise, the careers of the cast & crew, the state of Hollywood horror at the time, and their own evolving feelings about the film and Friday the 13th movies.

• Commentary with Adam Marcus and Peter Bracke – In this Shout Factory holdover, Marcus is joined by the author of Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday The 13th (Titan, 2006). This is the most focused and fact-filled of the three tracks and a good companion piece for Bracke’s book and Daniel Farrands’ mammoth 2013 documentary version of said book.

• Commentary with Adam Marcus and Dean Lorey – For his second Shout Factory original track, Marcus is joined by college friend and co-writer Lorey (who has a cameo). This discussion skews more towards the writing process, story changes, and reshoots. 

• 2020 Shout Factory introduction by director Adam Marcus (00:13, HD)

The images on this page are taken from the Scream Factory Blu-ray – NOT Arrow’s new 4K UHD – and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.