WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS<br /><br />Can a sequel be watched in isolation? When I saw the Halloween and Nightmare series I watched each entry in order. Yet other than the original several years ago I've never before seen a Jason movie.<br /><br />Maybe if I had then I'd be privy to lots of nuances and depth lost on me while watching Goes To Hell. Maybe if I had seen parts 2-8 then I wouldn't have thought this film was an insufferable piece of tripe.<br /><br />The movie opens with Jason shot by over a hundred bullets and blown apart by high explosives. Unperturbed by this, his brain lives on, telepathically urging the autopsy Doctor to eat it. Yes, really. The Doc does so in a full-gore depiction, while energy lights from Jason's remains fly out and possess him. This leap from body to body continues, so that even the dubious merits of seeing a murderer in a hockey mask are discarded in favour of secondary actors with mascara hamming a "possessed", zombie-like pallor. There is some Freudian perspective to be had from the Jason hosts' retractable black tongue, though this is surely unintentional. Jason is finally reborn after a red creature grows out of a man's slit throat and rapes a dead mother's corpse. Classy. The high fantasy element takes any level of reality, and therefore fear, away from the movie, but I guess no one bothered to tell the makers.<br /><br />Scares are non-existent. When a shot Jason (in the form of a police officer) "unexpectedly" comes to life and grabs a woman's leg, we see his eyes open several moments before the "shock" grab, thus negating any suspense. Most of the film works along the same principles, with all scares either signposted or pushed aside to make way for blood and guts violence that fails to compel. The flatness of the direction, coupled with possibly the world's most irritating incidental music, make the whole thing distinctly dirge-like.<br /><br />Charismatic Steven Williams is leagues ahead of his ultra-forgettable co-stars and is wasted in stuff like this. The fair majority of horror films are lacking in value, but Goes To Hell makes no attempt at artistic worth. The performances, dialogue and plot possess not an iota of inspiration. Didn't the first one have a low-key, independent feel? This one is the brightly-light product of a studio, while a series of gore-riddled set pieces vie for attention.<br /><br />You sense that parts are actually supposed to be funny, but as the "humour" is so lame and overstated a post-modern satire this isn't. Jason Goes To Hell is everything you associate with bad horror movies, threaded half-heartedly together in semblance of a narrative. The only scene that rises above tedious is the final shot where a claw glove grabs Jason's mask... a clever play on the much-touted Freddy vs. Jason flick. Maybe if Freddy had made an appearance it would've livened things up, for this is a thoroughly dull affair.<br /><br />Final marks then:<br /><br />Irrelevant macho fights that drag on and do nothing to further the plot: just the one.<br /><br />Gratuitous topless shots: 3<br /><br />Gratuitous and witless uses of the word "f***": I lost count, sorry.<br /><br />Film's score: 2/10.