Why can't Friday The 13th's Jason Voorhees ever actually die? Friday The 13th rose above the tide of low-budget slashers that followed John Carpenter's Halloween by featuring some great scares and a fantastic score, and its surprise success saw Paramount pursue a sequel. With the original killer Pamela Voorhees very dead by the movie's end, her supposedly deceased son Jason became the killer of Friday The 13th Part 2. This made little sense in terms of the timeline but Jason himself soon became a horror icon.
Jason met his end in Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter but the continuing strong grosses of the series led to a fifth chapter regardless, titled A New Beginning. When that movie's ending revealed the killer wasn't Jason but a copycat, fans revolted. The sixth movie Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives made it clear the real deal was back, but this time in zombie form. Jason has been hacking and slashing his way through foolish teenagers ever since, though he hasn't been on the screen since 2009's remake.
There are currently twelve entries in the Friday The 13th franchise, with some being more beloved than others. One of the most divisive is Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday, where the title character ends the movie being dragged to hell. The producer really made the movie as a pretext for the Freddy Vs Jason crossover he had planned, which took a further decade to reach screens. Fans who followed Jason throughout the series may wonder why exactly he's immune to, well, death. He's been shot, stabbed, drowned, set on fire and so forth but he keeps on ticking. Well, Jason Goes To Hell attempts to shed light on that.
One thing that's important to remember about the Friday The 13th series is that the filmmakers themselves weren't planning ahead. Jason became a killer in part 2 because they needed one, and his ability to shrug off vicious injuries just made him more formidable; he came back to life in the sixth film simply because fans missed him. These movies were commonly made with new writers and filmmakers, who weren't paying strict attention to continuity. Knowing Jason Goes To Hell was intended as the "last" sequel, director Adam Marcus wanted to add a mythology and set of rules to the series, which he did - in the form of making Jason a deadite from the Evil Dead.
Marcus' logic is that in her grief, Pamela Voorhees got a hold of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and brought Jason back to life with it, but as a demon. That's why the book and the Kandarian Dagger from Evil Dead 2 - on loan from Sam Raimi - feature in Jason Goes To Hell. His demonic powers grant him immortality, though the movie reveals his soul is housed inside a parasitic being dubbed a "Hellbaby," so when his body is blown up in The Final Friday's opening scene, this creature jumps from host to host in search of a new permanent home.
It's worth noting not all fans are on board with Jason Goes To Hell's explanation for Jason Voorhees' powers or its additions to the franchise, so grains of salt should be applied. David Cronenberg's (The Fly) doctor in Jason X also reveals Jason has incredible regenerative abilities - though the film leaves out any direct links to his supposedly demonic origins.