20 Films That Prove The 1990s Was The Worst Decade For Horror

A-ha, it seems there's a pattern emerging: another once-iconic 80s monster given a somewhat undignified send-off in the early 90s.

It always seemed a particularly odd move in this case, though, as 1993's Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday was the first Friday the 13th movie produced by New Line Cinema, who bought the rights from Paramount. It's always seemed a trifle peculiar that the first thing they'd do with their lucrative new purchase is kill him off (that said, they'd not long since killed off Freddy Krueger, and were trying to set up Freddy Vs Jason - although that wouldn't arrive for another decade).

Of course, this is hardly the only peculiar thing about the ninth Friday film. Debutante director/co-writer Adam Marcus took what must have seemed some bold moves in breaking with convention and radically rewriting Jason: rather than simply being invulnerable, he's now an intangible demon who possesses host bodies for a short time. As a result, we barely see the 'real' Jason here at all, and in its place with have a great deal of badly handled, quasi-mystical mumbo jumbo.

Still, credit where it's due: by contrast with Freddy's Dead, Jason Goes To Hell at least stays reasonably true to the spirit of Friday the 13th, with some half-decent gory kills and a bit of tent sex.