In the previous, the eighth film of the "Friday the 13th" franchise, they finally departed from a long-ago shabby template and created something new, but in this desperate attempt to save the franchise they went too far and made a movie so unconvincing that it's even duller than its predecessors. In the ninth, "Jason Goes to Hell", they managed to find the right balance. The story returns to the Crystal Lake, but instead of the continuous streaming of pointless massacre that does not lead anywhere, this time the film actually has a complete meaningful plot. There is a prologue, there are an introduction and familiarization with the characters (the previous films completely left out the characterization, because characters were mostly dying after only a few minutes on the screen), complication, culmination, dissolution and epilogue. Although the story is fairly straightforward and linear, this movie has many elements of a thriller, and Jason is becoming a much more complex supernatural being than the gigantic zombie we are used to, which makes "The Final Friday" much more interesting than the empty slashers that precede it. There's, unfortunately, less nudity than before, although the girls are top-class, the killings are more in the style of action movies than horror, and the film introduces some new interesting details. The movie somewhat reminded me of the series "Supernatural", mostly because of Jason's demonic nature, magic dagger, blood magic, and for a brief moment you will also see the legendary "Necronomicon". They have gone so far as to depart from the template that they even gave the movie kind of happy-end, although, of course, in the last scene, they left the door ajar for a possible sequel. This made me confused a little, because the next film is "Jason X", not "Freddy vs Jason". Well, I guess it will clear up to me tomorrow. The strongest impression on me has left the prologue, the scene before the opening credits, partly because of well-made unexpected twist and partly because of the beautiful nudity of Julie Michaels.6,5/10

Despite the plot holes and other mistakes, I enjoy this film. I thought it was better than the remake and it's good as Part 3. I haven't seen Jason X (2002), if I did then I know what I'm thinking about that film. The story may not be strong but I thought it was satisfying. Is the best Friday film? No. Is it enjoyable? Yeah. I know people will disagree with me but it's just my opinion. I put it on #3 spot on the Friday The 13th list. It's worth a watch.

Jason appears back at crystal lake looking like his old self with no explanation of how he traveled such a long distance or survived the toxic waste. Jason now has a rich mythology, maybe not rich, attributed to his character where he is a demon possessing worm that can hope from body to body and can only be truly killed by a Vorhees using a blessed dagger or being resurrected. Who came up with this? Did they not watch the series at all? What were they thinking? This time the series didn't shy away from what a ripoff it was and gave him a sister that was never mentioned or heard of until this film. A house where he grew up and still haunts. I'm guess Ellis got another woman pregnant after leaving his old family? Don't worry if your confused. The screen writer didn't seem to know what to do and made it up as they went along.It seems in a way that they wanted to create another Jason lives with nods to other horror films like the crate, necronomicon and sister angle. Yet this time it fell completely flat and was laughably bad. I liked his look at the beginning of the film and wished he kept it for most of the film instead of this worm demon thing. Duke was a cool character who seemed to have a history with Jason, I guess neither Feldman nor Mathews, wanted anything to do with this film after reading the horrible script. I even enjoyed the setup for Freddy vs. Jason by having Freddy's glove come up and grab his mask. I wish Freddy had a cameo of Jason in one of the nightmares to reflect each other. Otherwise this was the worst the series had to offer in my opinion. Only three points for the scenes I mentioned. Avoid at all costs.

This supposedly "final" entry in the series (although yet another has been recently, unwelcomely made) wisely takes the theme in a different direction from the repetitive stalk-and-slash antics of the previous entries. Unfortunately for us, the film decides to takes its inspiration from that underrated classic THE HIDDEN, turning Jason into an evil being that swaps human bodies by sliding from mouth to mouth! Sadly the producers still see fit to throw in a few moronic teenagers, plenty of dumb characters, and stupid dialogue. But they also make one of the slimiest, ickiest entries in the entire series and in my book, that deserves points. Whether we're watching the human vessels that Jason travels in being shot to bits, impale,d and generally destroyed, or witnessing the truly disgusting "body melt" that occurs after he leaves the body of one of his hosts (ROBOCOP has nothing on this), the special effects are pretty damn good.Although the general acting of the cast leaves something to be desired, as a bonus point for cult fans we get the appearance of Erin Gray (Wilma Deering from BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY) who shows up in a small but important role as a waitress who becomes one of Jason's victims. The male lead, who looks a lot like Ted Raimi, is actually quite good in his role, and the female lead isn't too bad either. However, the truly psychotic Steven Williams manages to steal every scene he's in as a sadistic bounty hunter following Jason's trail - just witness his totally unnecessary snapping of a man's fingers just for the hell of it. Of course fans of cult TV will no doubt recognise Williams as being the guy who played Mr. X in THE X-FILES, and the two characters are very similar: they shout a lot, throw their weight around and are generally fun to watch.So, for a Friday film, this offers us up a lot of action and violence, which is most welcome and makes things easier to take, a silly plot seemingly written on the back of a beer mat and designed to give Jason a motive (when they mentioned that Voorhees had a secret sister I groaned), and surprisingly good special effects. There are also a couple of in-jokes for movie buffs too, including the appearance of the Necronomicon from EVIL DEAD 2 and Freddy's gloved hand from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. The crazy finale sees Jason being dragged into the ground by a load of giant hands which are supposed to represent the demons of hell - I was expecting more from this, especially with the build-up, the title and the fiery box art, and thus left disappointed. This isn't bad stuff though, just not particularly original. It could be worse - just try watching numbers 2, 4, 5 and 7 in this series instead. It would have made a good conclusion if they'd just decided to leave things alone after all, but when there are bucks to be made, you just know they're somehow going to contrive a reincarnation, no matter how absurd it might be...