After JASON TAKES MANHATTAN took a nosedive at the box office, Paramount offloaded their franchise into the hands of New Line. This was a fortuitous move since Cunningham had a long-standing dream of joining his lead character in a titanic tussle with their NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET nemesis Freddy Kreuger. Though this wouldn't beat fruit until 2003, it was a sufficiently exciting prospect to bring Cunningham back into the fray. Meanwhile, he reasoned, why not refresh his property to keep it in the public eye with another story?
To that end, New Line agreed to Cunningham's risky selection of a very young director to put in charge of Jay Huguley and Deran Lorey's script. Adam Marcus was a mere twenty-three years old, which arguably makes him the joint youngest Hollywood major studio feature director in history - aside from John Singleton with BOYZ N THE HOOD for Columbia in 1991. Even Orson Welles was just shy of his twenty-sixth birthday when his mighty CITIZEN KANE was released in 1941. Again, this could have augured badly for the resulting movie's fortunes but it proved to be an inspired choice.
Marcus's initial connection to Cunningham was that he was a best school friend of the latter's son Noel, who later studied at NYU Film School and sold a well-received screenplay to Disney that became MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK (1993). He campaigned hard for his mentor Cunningham to give him a movie to direct. When offered the next in the FRIDAY THE 13TH series, his was an understandable reaction to what was now a poison cinematic chalice: "Oh no! C'mon Sean I want a career!" he recalled in CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES. As a horror buff though, and with such a rare opportunity in his hands, he was smart enough to plow ahead with the very youthful zeal that would serve him well.
In hindsight, Cunningham felt that Marcus's take on the material ultimately moved too far away from the original conception and formula. At the time though, he gave his director the chance to break the chains that Marcus felt may well have inhibited any growth in the series. It certainly couldn't have hurt, as adhering to a more or less set template hadn't prevented a decline in the box office anyway. What did they have to lose?
Marcus turned out to be a solid and well-liked director on set. Like John Carl Beuchler, he maintained a fairly relaxed, light tone on set except for a grievance over filmed nudity between himself and Kari Keegan (as Final Girl Jessica) who was reluctant to be naked for one of her scenes. This seemed the only time that his lack of maturity in years let him down, as he admitted in later years. That aside, JASON GOES TO HELL is a refreshing boost to the run of films, which also aimed to excavate more of the Voorhees mythology.
A key benefit in this sequel is the higher standards on offer in actors and special effects. Almost all of the cast acquit themselves well, in particular the lovely Erin Gray as Jessica's mother Diana who adds a natural grace even as a waitress. She is supported hilariously by the odd couple of Rusty Schwimmer as her foul-mouthed force of nature restaurant owner Joey B (who delighted Marcus if not always her fellow cast by improvising additional lines during takes) and Leslie Jordan as her pint-sized paramour Shelby. The male lead Steven Freeman is well played by John D. LeMay, the only actor ever to cross over from the TV show to the movie franchise. He gave his role a gravitas that Marcus wasn't always at ease with but respected. This pays off in his sparky scenes opposite the stand-out choice of veteran screen actor Steven Williams essaying the enigmatic serial killer bounty hunter Creighton Duke.
Williams approached the role adamant that he wanted Duke to be a something of a cowboy, attending his audition with a cowboy hat, boots and a loaned outback coat. He stuck to his guns, as it were, and the film is much the better for his defined, intrepid oddball. As with LeMay, Marcus came to trust and value the commitment he gave to the part - watch the jailhouse sequence where he will only give LeMay vital information in return for breaking his fingers. Such perverse behaviour is oddly credible in a guy who's mindset is to single-mindedly pursue the most depraved hunters of humans.
Speaking of perverse, there's the premise of having Jason's spirit transmitted orally via a ghastly slug after his post-mortem heart is consumed. A portable parasite is a little too reminiscent of Cronenberg's early body horror gem SHIVERS (1975) and 1987's THE HIDDEN, but this conceit among others allows the writers and Marcus's effects team (the famous KNB - Kurtzmann, Nicotero and Berger) to achieve some strikingly gross set-pieces. Leaving aside the kinky face-shaving of one victim by Richard Gant's coroner patient zero, the kills in JASON GOES TO HELL are markedly more gory than in previous entries. Marcus realised that in the generation of sell-through VHS tapes, they could to some extent appease their frustrations about a purity of vision being compromised; they could release a tamer theatrical 'cut' and then a more gory version for home viewers. (The upward machete slicing of a female camper into two halves would never have been approved by the MPAA).
There are nevertheless two real weakness in the film. Firstly, the narrative pipeline is clogged with too many ideas to be explored. The idea that only a Voorhees can kill a Voorhees, Jessica's baby and her relationship with dubious mercenary TV show host boyfriend Steven Culp, the supernatural myth and resolution threads etc are so numerous that almost an hour of the movie had to be cut to simplify the plot.
The running time was a strange bone of contention, and worth briefly mentioning as a sidebar owing to a very unusual producer decision: Cunningham ordered the film to be shot at twenty-two frames per second like his DEEP STAR SIX due to his belief that actors perform too slowly. This resulted in an intended ninety-minute movie only being eighty minutes in actuality, hence needing another ten minutes. (Between this and the aforementioned over-running, it's a wonder the result is as coherent as it is).
The other controversial flaw is that the story's preoccupation with science-fiction trappings omit much of what fans love - the real Jason (a third time behind the mask for Kane Hodder) being seen slaughtering his prey. We only see him in action in the bravura opening SWAT-style machine-gunning entrapment and at the end, though at least he then becomes a much-awaited crowd-pleaser. Hodder was disapppointed but as a noted team player gamely went ahead and enjoyed the role as much as ever. And just to tantalise fans, the very end sees a familiar clawed hand clutch Jason's empty mask and drag it to Hell. Did this mean we were to finally get the two great Eighties horror icons together?
The fan's verdict on release was a box office of $15.9m. This would have been grim news under the old Paramount regime, yet New Line were happy enough; their aim was not to make a profitable second run for FRIDAY THE 13TH, merely to bait audiences while they awaited the teased FREDDY VS. JASON. Unfortunately, while the finer points of creative control were still to be thrashed out for the next nine years, the studio opted for another follow-on that most improbably of all would be 'out of this world'...
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