Editorials
I Don’t Like ‘Jason Goes to Hell’ But Absolutely Love the Opening Sequence
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.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
You must be logged in to post a comment.