Before the body-swapping plot of Jason Goes to Hell got set, Friday the 13th Part 9 almost saw Jason head to Los Angeles and interrupt a gang war. Jason Goes to Hell really should be a treasured entry into the Friday the 13th canon. The sequel contains nudity and an extended sex scene, and lots of gory kills, with some arguably laying claim to being among the best in the franchise. The only problem is that Jason himself is barely seen in the movie.
For the last seven movies - minus the original Friday the 13th, in which Pamela Voorhees does the killing - fans had watched Jason stalk and slash his way through dozens of victims, and the big lumbering lug had become a horror icon. Seeing Jason do his thing had become comfort food for horror lovers, which is why there was so much backlash to Jason only physically appearing for a small portion of Jason Goes to Hell.
Jason Goes to Hell was only a mild success at the box office, mostly due to its small budget of $3 million. The Friday the 13th franchise would enter hibernation for almost a full decade, resurfacing with Jason X in 2001. One wonders, though, if fans would've been more receptive to the original idea for Friday the 13th Part 9.
Friday the 13th Part 9 Almost Sent Jason to Los Angeles
Screenwriter Dean Lorey joined what would become Jason Goes to Hell after the first writer hired for the project turned in what producer Sean S. Cunningham thought was a terrible script. Cunningham then sat down with Lorey to hammer out a usable script in only four days, as Friday the 13th Part 9's production timeline had already been set in motion. In interviews years later, Lorey would reveal that his initial idea for the film involved sending Jason Voorhees to sunny Los Angeles, where the zombified slasher would get caught in the middle of a gang war reminiscent of the ongoing battles between the Bloods and the Crips. Jason would begin killing off members of both sides, forcing them to come together to fight him.
As cool as that sounds, and would've made sense to do after Jason Takes Manhattan, Cunningham nixed the plan, and the decision was made to go with body-hopping Jason. Jason Goes to Hell director Adam Marcus has previously said that Cunningham hated Jason's hockey mask and wanted it gone, so that likely influenced the final product, as the mask is rarely seen during the film thanks to Jason's physical absence.