Retrospective Film Review

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) • 30 Years Later — mind-boggling, arbitrary sequel

Serial killer Jason Voorhees’ supernatural origins are revealed.

Adam Marcus was 23 years old when he made Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. This fact answers every criticism and compliment laid at the feet of the writing and directing of this, his debut feature. For the ninth Friday the 13th, franchise co-creator Sean S. Cunningham entrusted Marcus, the apprentice editor of Friday the 13th: Part 2 (1981). Your maths is correct, Marcus would have been 11 at the time. He was likely hired because he was friends with Cunningham’s son.

Fast bloomer Marcus was fresh out of film school and already producing My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), written by his friend Dean Lorey. Walt Disney Studios balked at hiring a first-time director but Cunningham ignored them and gave young Marcus the latest Friday the 13th to cut his teeth on. A lifelong fan of the series, Marcus strove to surprise audiences and critics with an innovative sequel, but while Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) contained meta self-aware…