8. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

This 1993 installment from director Adam Marcus begins with a scene that, for Friday fans, was long overdue: a targeted effort by law enforcement to capture and kill Jason Voorhees, ending over a decade of cops and other authorities dismissing Jason as “a myth” or “an urban legend,” despite the literal piles of corpses providing ample proof of his existence. Too bad their ambush doesn’t take into account Jason’s supernatural qualities—which include the ability to possess people from beyond the grave, something only bounty hunter/Quint-from-Jaws equivalent Creighton Duke (Steven Williams) understands.

Brash outlaw-for-hire Duke is exactly the kind of diverting character the flagging Friday franchise needed in its ninth film to propel the formula forward and the idea of a spinoff featuring the character has been floated, however hypothetically. But unfortunately, he’s not in it nearly enough, with Jason Goes to Hell dwelling on Jason’s tedious body-hopping quest to find one of his few remaining blood relatives (surprise! Jason had a sister all this time!) to be his permanent new vessel.

The main takeaway from this slasher—released three years before Scream turned the genre inside out—is the fun reveal in the final seconds, which sees the specter of Freddy Krueger enter Jason’s universe for the first time, though the boogeymen wouldn’t properly brawl onscreen for 10 more years. There’s also a cameo from the Evil Dead Necronomicon, but that longed-for crossover is even less likely than the 13th Friday to ever hit the big screen.