Friday the 13th: The Pros and Cons of ‘Jason Goes to Hell’

via New Line

Pro: Harry Manfredini returned to the series to do the soundtrack

For the first six films in the series, composer Harry Manfredini had provided his original work. His musical score has since become just as synonymous as the title of the movies and even Jason’s iconic hockey mask. It’s pretty much not Friday the 13th without Manfredini’s music involved.

However, when they were filming The New Blood, Manfredini was tied up working on another film. Although he couldn’t provide the soundtrack, Paramount moved forward without him, and Manfredini didn’t compose a note for the film (although they did edit in some music from prior film soundtracks). Apparently, he wasn’t even asked about returning when Jason Takes Manhattan was filmed, marking two films in a row he hadn’t done music for. It seemed like he was officially done with the series.

However, Jason Goes to Hell does rectify this mistake. Manfredini was brought in by new studio New Line to do the score for the 9th Friday film. And this is just another thing that clouds my judgement on how to feel about the film. While it does throw some of the franchise’s continuity out the window, it’s very faithful to the prior films in other ways.