Jason Goes to Hell (1993) Review

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(More customer reviews)Elizabeth Marcus (Julie Michaels) is being chased through the woods by Jason. Typical Friday The 13th movie, right? Wrong. A bunch of bright lights flash on, startling Jason. The FBI comes out of hiding and shoot Jason numerous times. In fact, Kane Hodder, as Jason, had the most squibs ever on an actor. Jason is then blown to smithereens, causing body parts to go flying. It's a pretty cool opening sequence, but how are they going to finish the movie?
Jason's tattered remains are being examined by a professional. The man is hypnotized by Jason's black heart so much so that he eats it (there's some interesting acting). This brings the spirit of Jason into him. He continues to go from body to body, searching for his living family members (his sister, his niece, and his niece's baby). If he can get one of them to host his spirit, he will be reborn with into his old body, complete with mask and all.
He switches bodies multiple times throughout the movie, which is kind of cool. The downside of this is that there aren't many scenes with Jason as Jason -- that is, Kane Hodder as Jason. This is his third of four times playing Jason in a row. Hodder does have a short appearance as an FBI agent, but he gets killed.
The ending is pretty lame with the 'heart creature' and the giant hands from Hell. However, the sequence right before the credits is very exciting. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but let's just say that there's a very special cameo.
Aside from the cameo I just mentioned, there are some other interesting appearances. The book in the old Voorhees house is the Book Of The Dead from the Evil Dead movies. Additionally, the dagger used to kill Jason was the same daggeer used in Evil Dead. This didn't have anything to do with the movie, but it was cool that they used the same props.
This movie leaves many unanswered questions. Why does a movie titled Jason Goes To Hell never have a scene in Hell? How did Jason come back from the ending of the eighth movie? If the bounty hunter has been chasing Jason for his entire life, why doesn't he show up until the eighth installment? How did he find out how to kill Jason? More importantly, why is he even after Jason? Why was Jason's family never mentioned before this? Oh well, it's a movie. It's bound to have some plot holes.
On the plus side, there is actually some character development here, which most Friday The 13th movies lack. People are actually in relationships and have lives until Jason interrupts.
It was interesting to see how New Line went in a different direction with this film. The didn't do the same 'campers getting killed in the woods' thing, although they did include a few camper deaths in the movie, which was a good idea on their part. Let's face it: people complained about the lack of that, but if they would have done the same old plot again, people would have complained about it being boring and unoriginal.
The DVD is pretty good for this movie. It has some cool special features. One of those is the funny commentary from director Adam Marcus and screenwriter Dean Lorey, both of whom play small roles in the movie. They poke fun and make jokes but also tell interesting facts, so it's entertaining. Other features include alternate scenes from the television version, the original theatrical trailer, and jump to a death. The only thing missing would be a cool 'making of' segment.
The best part about the DVD is that it contains both the R-rated version and an unrated director's cut. The R-rated version is the one you saw in theaters. It shows a lot of deaths off screen. Sure, that adds a sense of mystery, but if you're a gore hound like myself, you'll want to watch the unrated version. It has a lot of bloody deaths that were so bad, they couldn't be shown in theaters. It's much better than the original, in my personal opinion.
It's not the Final Friday, as the title states, but neither was the fourth one, which claimed to be 'The Final Chapter'. They will continue to make movies as long as they can get money out of it. At least this one isn't a bad movie, like the next to come.

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Scare yourself into purgatory as the body count continues. The relentless, hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees returns for more bloody cranage in this ninth chapter of the frightfully successful Friday the 13th series. Year: 89 Director: Adam Marcus Starring: John D. LeMay, Kari Keegan, Erin Gray DVD Features:Audio CommentaryDVD ROM FeaturesInteractive MenusOtherTheatrical Trailer

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Freddy vs. Jason (New Line Platinum Series) (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been a bigger Friday the 13th fan than a Nightmare on Elm Street fan. The woods simply seem more inherently frightening and dangerous than a suburban street for horny teens. In any event, I feel that both of these series, especially Friday the 13th, have lost their lure in recent years. Trying to find ways to bring back our favorite slashers and attempting to do it in contemporary fashion have fallen short, in my opinion. I've remained a fan through it all, yet when they took Jason out of Camp Crystal Lake and brought him to New York City, he somehow became less imposing and some of the mystery was lost.
Freddy vs. Jason was an idea borne years before this film began pre-production. The premise of the film (Freddy calling on Jason to strike fear back into the children of Elm Street) is decent, but it seemed to me that something was missing...
I enjoyed the movie, especially the dream sequences, but I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong with the film. It just didn't feel like Friday the 13th to me. It felt more like a Nightmare on Elm Street film, but even those movies were scarier. This movie bordered on absurd at times and much of what we had come to know about Freddy and Jason was betrayed in this film by way of contradiction (i.e. Jason suddenly having a phobia of water after he had, on many occassions in the past, pursued people into the water to kill them).
I am glad that this movie was made and I will always remain a fan, but I feel that with all of the time and writing that went into this idea, it could have been a hell of a lot better. The story was not bad, but the movie was simply not scary or suspenseful at all. It's a must see for any fan of either series, if for no other reason than to see what your favorite classic slasher is up to - but don't expect to get that good old feeling you used to get when watching a Friday the 13th or a Nightmare on Elm Street film back in the 80s and 90s.
The bonus material is extensive and quite exhaustive. They cover every aspect of the film, including pre-production, direction, stunts, visual effects, make-up, audio commentary, deleted scenes, storyboards and galleries, etc.... The bonus disc amounts to a few hours of extra viewing, which is actually pretty informative and insightful. With cool, animated menus, this is a great DVD edition for something of a letdown film.

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It's the battle everyone's been DYING to see! Teenagers find themselves caught in the middle of a battle between two legendary boogeymen: Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. Who will win in the bloodiest and goriest showdown in history? DVD Features:3D Animated MenusAlternate endings:Alternate opening and EndingAudio Commentary:Commentary with Director Ronny Yu, Actors Robert Englund (FREDDY) & Ken Kirzinger (JASON)Comparison ScenesDVD ROM FeaturesDeleted Scenes:18 Deleted Scenes with optional commentary from Director Ronnie Yu and Executive Producer Douglas Curtis Documentaries:--Behind the scenes coverage of the films development - including screenwriting, set design, make up, stunts and principle photography --Visual effects exploration FeaturetteFull Screen Version:Both fullscreen and Widescreen on one discInterviewsMusic Video:Ill Nino "How Can I Live"StoryboardsTV Spot:Lots of TV spotsTheatrical Trailer

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Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) Review

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(More customer reviews)Freddy was always Wes Craven's baby. The Elm Street sequels, without the creator's active involvement, veered increasingly farther away from his original vision, and Freddy Krueger as we knew and loved him did die in the sixth film. Evil never truly dies, though, a fact made clear by this remarkable, visionary film. Only the most ingenious of scripts could bring Freddy back to us in an acceptable way, and Wes Craven was the only man who could do it. Hearkening all the way back to the fairy tales of old, we learn that Freddy was only one incarnation of what could be called the ultimate evil. Stories, so long as they are told, have the power to contain the forces of evil; when Freddy was killed and the Nightmare series ended, that evil was freed from its bonds and thus given the opportunity to cross over to reality. The whole idea behind Wes Craven's New Nightmare is simply brilliant and ingenious, and it works fabulously on more levels than I will have space enough to expound upon here.
Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy in the first and third films, plays herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare. She is joined by a myriad of cast members and contributors to the original Elm Street film, including John Saxon (who played Nancy's father), Robert Englund (whom everyone knows played Freddy), Wes Craven himself, and a number of the men and women who worked with Wes and New Line Cinema to bring Freddy to life in 1984. Craven is working on a new script that will revive Freddy and pit him against his old nemesis Nancy. The only problem is that fantasy is becoming fact for Heather and her family, and the script begins to mirror real life in a frightening way. Heather begins having horrible dreams of Freddy, and her son Dylan (Miko Hughes) begins suffering from his own nightmares. As crazy as it sounds, Heather is forced to conclude that Freddy Krueger is somehow becoming real, and she will eventually have to reassume the role of Nancy in an effort to stop him from passing through the final gate from fantasy to reality.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is to me the greatest Freddy film of them all. The idea of having cast and crew members of the original film serve as Freddy's conduit to true existence works amazingly well. Langenkamp gives a truly amazing performance in the highly personal role of herself, trying to save her son and her very sanity from the evil she once defeated as a character in a movie. Non-actors such as Wes Craven and New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye play their parts very effectively, and the images of Robert Englund that we see could not be in greater contrast to those of his character Freddy. There are a number of direct references and haunting similarities between the original film and this fresh and exciting new Freddy classic. Not only should these delight the Freddy aficionado, they serve to make the ultimate ending of this film believable and effective. Heather Langenkamp has to become Nancy once again to stop Freddy, only this time the battle is disturbingly real. Wes Craven's New Nightmare presents itself as real life rather than cinema, making this the most innovative horror sequel I have ever seen.
Some Freddy fans don't care for this film, while others such as myself absolutely love it. For some people, Freddy had become the witty, wise-cracking, over-the-top killer of the later Elm Street sequels, and these fans want this type of film to showcase Freddy doing his thing as many times as possible. To me, that is not the true Freddy. A Nightmare on Elm Street's original power was drawn from an incomprehensible foe that could kill you in your dreams and scare the audience to death in the process. He was evil; he just wanted revenge in the form of blood, guts, and terror, and he didn't need to make a big production out of it. It is that Freddy who now haunts Heather. This dark film may deliver far less of Freddy-ness in terms of body count, dialogue, and on-camera minutes, but that only makes Freddy all the more frightening and effective. Wes Craven's New Nightmare truly morphs the boundary between the real and unreal, delivering a level of suspense and evil that all the earlier Elm Street sequels could never hope to equal.
The DVD features a long-desired extra in the form of commentary by Wes Craven himself. He not only furnishes the reader with all sorts of fascinating trivia about the film, he also captures the true essence of Freddy as a monstrous villain and lends a philosophical appraisal of human nature and the archetype of evil in society. I see this film as a defense of the horror genre itself, one made abundantly clear in Craven's references to a career of anguish with the MPAA and censors in particular. It is the very existence of horror stories that allow evil to be contained in this world, and the eradication of horror films in particular, something a number of people would love to see happen, would truly let the genie out of the bottle and give free rein to evil in the hearts of men. Wes Craven's New Nightmare captures to a significant degree not only the attraction of horror but the absolute necessity of it.

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Heather Langenkamp learns the Nightmare movies were protecting the world from a real-life demon. Also starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.DVD Features:Audio CommentaryDVD ROM Features

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