By DR. BENNY GRAVES
“There’s a legend around here. A killer buried, but not dead. A curse on Crystal Lake, a death curse: Jason Voorhees’ curse. They say he died as a boy, but he keeps coming back. Few have seen him and lived. Some have even tried to stop him. No one can.”
– Friday the 13th: The New Blood
Legends never die. This is very true of the lumbering vengeance that is Jason Voorhees. Drowned, hacked, stabbed and burned, the man behind the mask has cheated death again and again. The question likely emerged early on: How? How did the doomed son of Pamela Voorhees gain his damned immortality? Enter JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY and with it, an answer that proved, for lack of a better term, divisive. The first film by Adam Marcus doesn’t end at the fireworks factory; it begins there. After a buxom damsel visiting Crystal Lake turns out to be an FBI agent, Jason ends up on the receiving end of a trigger-happy SWAT team. Have we witnessed the end of Jason Voorhees? “I don’t think so,” says Creighton Duke (Steven Williams), the cigar-chewing blacksploitation take on Van Helsing, who has been watching from the bushes. God damn, this movie rules! What follows is a tale of demonic forces, magical daggers, guys getting shaved while naked and an appearance by the Necronomicon.
The cult of Voorhees did not initially respond well to JASON GOES TO HELL. Where was the imposing visage of Jason? Why was there a supernatural element? I’m not here to dissect the reason behind the poor response. At my most cynical, I’ll say that people as a whole don’t like change. It can be challenging to see one’s creature comforts radically altered. In the case of horror fans, those creatures include a hulking, deformed man who bisects horny teens (Even if, at that point, said man is a zombie, had been turned into a kid by toxic waste and reanimated by lightning a la Frankenstein). I’ll also say that deviation from formula in these long-standing slasher franchises has largely yielded an initially mixed to poor response (Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Halloween III: Season of the Witch), and that in some cases, there has been a rightful reappraisal of the films that opted to break the mold.
My parents were far from the kind of folks who embraced the horror genre, so my initial exposures were relegated to perusing the horror section of my video store. Like many, I’d pore over these VHS covers, my mind extrapolating on the tales they could contain. There were a few slipcases that always drew me in: Hellraiser’s snarling Doug Bradley staring out from Leviathan’s realm, the side-eyeing skull of Evil Dead 2, the skull grinning from within the pulled-apart lips on the cover of Dead Alive. JASON GOES TO HELL beat the band, though. A chrome hockey mask emerges from a wall of hellfire. Weaving through its empty sockets is a fleshy slug-monster snarling out at the viewer. My little kid brain couldn’t process the sheer horrors that must be contained inside. Nor would I have to. I didn’t actually watch the movie until much later in my life, and much like the slipcase art, it made an impression.
JASON GOES TO HELL has everything. We get a bombastic introduction, a demonology-versed, wisecracking take on Halloween‘s Dr. Loomis, melting bodies, flash-fried bodies – and possibly the first instance (or at least the suggestion of) a shared horror universe tying in The Evil Dead and A Nightmare on Elm Street! Jason’s design is one of the coolest and most imposing of the series, with the eponymous hockey mask practically fused to his head. I could go on, but suffice it to say, I’m a fan. So, when Crypt Video Rentals announced it would be hosting director Adam Marcus for a showing of both JASON GOES TO HELL and HEARTS OF DARKNESS: THE MAKING OF THE FINAL FRIDAY, Dr. Benny had to get involved. I reached out to Tim Nugent, the mastermind behind the event, and informed him that I would be willing to have multiple fingers broken if it meant getting to Q&A the creator of one of my favorite Friday flicks.
Now, Crypt Video Rentals is worth the price of admission for the experience alone. Hosted at Neshaminy Creek Brewing in Croydon, Pennsylvania, the event is a combination of a video store experience, vendor market and movie screening. The expansive area, usually reserved for brewing beer, is transformed by the efforts of Nugent and his rogues gallery of weirdos (most of whom I count as my friends). Vintage View Cinemas handles the projection of the headlining flicks while Morningside Goods does the Devil’s work of 
showcasing a rolling selection of 16mm prints. (For this event, there was a 16 mm screening of Brian De Palma’s Sisters). I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the front area of the event space, which has a section furnished to evoke an ’80s style basement prepped for a movie night: tube TVs, wood-panel furniture and broken-in brown couches. The effect makes you feel like any minute now, you’ll be asked to pick out gifts from a Marlboro Miles catalog. Vendors offer everything from horror VHS and Beta to vintage Halloween decor. It is a true crucible of self-control that I fail at every time.
Looking to get some horror-inspired ink? Adam Lenhart of Hidden Hannya Tattoo is on hand to etch your favorite ghostie or ghoulie upon your flesh. If you haven’t had the pleasure and can make the trek, this is an unforgettable experience curated by schlock-lovers, for schlock-lovers.
The main event was fantastic on multiple levels. HEARTS OF DARKNESS: THE MAKING OF THE FINAL FRIDAY is a portrayal of, to quote director Michael Felsher, “the Herculean effort” required to complete a film. It’s a playful yet intimate look at how first-time director Marcus conquered the odds and pushed himself to complete his vision of a worthy Friday the 13th sequel. The insights into his work ethic and his relationship with the crew paint him as a true horror nerd looking to do right by all involved, with skeptics turned to believers by his sheer enthusiasm and boundless work ethic. From an effects standpoint, the work put in by KNB EFX Group gets a thorough dissection. There’s a black heart at the center of it that pumped pure creative evil into the project. The “how” behind some of the effects and the attention to detail is fascinating and plays out like an issue of Gorezone come to life.
After screening the documentary, I had the pleasure of hosting a Q&A with Adam Marcus, as well as his frequent writing partner Debra Sullivan and the documentary director Michael Felsher. All three were intimately involved in the creation of the doc, and their combined attitude is best described as relentlessly creative. Put simply: These are three monster kids at heart, and their enthusiasm is infectious. We talked about everything from the future of Creighton Duke (stay tuned if you’re looking for another taste of the Duke) to how Marcus bridged horror universes to the challenges of the writing process when it comes to ensuring your vision shows up on screen unaltered. The trio are champions of physical media. (Felsher is the architect of many fantastic Arrow Video horror releases) and more importantly, champions of sincerity when it comes to doing right by horror fans. At a time when the genre can sometimes seem populated by corporate and dispassionate elements, Crypt Video Rentals left me invigorated. Not as many inmates run the asylum as they used to, but rest assured, we’re still there, plotting all sorts of diabolical deviancy.
