A pretty young lady arrives at Camp Crystal Lake. But nothing is as it seems.
I’ve never been a fan of Jason Goes to Hell, which is not-so-fondly remembered by most Friday the 13th fans. By the ’90s, the franchise had totally worn out the simple stalk ‘n slash premise that made it so successful, and in an effort to breathe new life into the whole thing, the idea was devised to have Jason die and then literally hop into the bodies of other people; turning them into crazed killers in the process. I suppose one has to mildly applaud the creativity, and at least somewhat celebrate Jason Goes to Hell for trying to be different, but alas, the film isn’t very good.
And don’t even get me started on the look of Jason in it. Yikes.
But the one thing I do love about Jason Goes to Hell (aside from the cameo appearance by Freddy Krueger at the end, of course) is the opening sequence, which has a level of brilliance you wouldn’t expect to find in the ninth installment of a dying franchise. In order for Jason to hop into the bodies of other people, he first had to be definitively killed off, and that’s accomplished in pretty clever fashion.
In the opening sequence, we see a black car driving to Crystal Lake, and at first, it appears to be a man behind the wheel. But once the car arrives at a cabin in the woods, we realizes that it’s actually a woman who has for some reason traveled to the iconic locale. She has her hair up in a ponytail and is wearing a baseball cap and jacket, initially making her look quite unlike your traditional Friday the 13th victim. And that’s because, well, she’s anything but your typical Friday the 13th victim.
After fixing a burnt out light-bulb, the woman heads into the bathroom to take a shower. She lets her hair down and gets completely undressed; the camera, in typical Friday the 13th fashion, lingers on her naked body. And this is where Jason Goes to Hell starts to feel very familiar. As if on cue, the lights cut out and ominous music begins playing. The door to the cabin mysterious flings open, and it’s not long before Jason Voorhees strikes. He begins chasing the towel-clad woman through the woods.
Eventually though, she stops running. Just as Jason is about to strike the fatal blow and end her life, massive spotlights light up the woods of Crystal Lake. The woman, clearly not a victim but rather a total badass who was expecting everything that just happened, acrobatically flips out of frame. FBI agents appear and blow Jason to pieces.
The reveal, totally unexpected to viewers at the time, showed that the whole thing was a setup. A beautiful woman, an FBI agent herself, was deliberately sent out to a cabin in the woods on a mission to bait Jason Voorhees so that he could be killed off once and for all. And in order to make sure he showed up, she was instructed to essentially play the role of a Friday the 13th victim. Get undressed. Take a shower. Wait for Jason. As expected, he showed up right at the very moment the woman’s clothes came off; when you think about it, a self-referential jab at the character.
You can almost see the “dammit, they figured me out” look on Jason’s face when he’s caught.
By this point in the franchise’s timeline, Jason had slain several groups of young people who dared enter his woods, and I just love the idea that the FBI had finally caught on and decided to use his penchant for attacking scantily clad young women against him. To see the franchise, within one of its films, acknowledge that beautiful women are Jason’s kryptonite was clever and pretty damn meta at the time, and though the whole “to catch a predator” concept of the opening went over my head back in 1993, I very much appreciate that whole sequence today.
Just when you think you’re watching another paint-by-numbers Friday the 13th sequel, Jason Goes to Hell quickly flips the franchise on its head, and for that, I can’t help but respect it.
As for the rest of the film… maybe it’s best we just don’t talk about it.