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1986 - USA Directed By: Tom McLoughlin. Starring: Tom Matthews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Kerry Noonan, Renee Jones, Tom Fridley, C.J. Graham, Darcy DeMoss and Vincent Guastaferro.
Aka
Jason Lives: Friday The 13th Part VI
Current Availability
Available on both British R2 and US R1 DVD from Paramount. The film is also available in the US as part of Paramount's Friday The 13th Box Set: From Crystal Lake To Manhattan which features the first eight films in the series plus a host of extra features. Unfortunately all the DVD releases of Jason Lives thus far contain only the R-Rated US theatrical print which was cut of all its goriest moments in order to avoid an X-certificate from the MPAA for its original cinema release in the United States. However, fans may find the version in the aforementioned box set more desirable as it does contain the bonus of an audio commentary featuring director Tom McLoughlin. The sets bonus disc also boasts a show reel featuring most of the graphic gore cut from the film itself. Hopefully one day Paramount will finally do the right thing and issue all eight films fully uncut with where possible all the gore scenes from the R-Rated theatrical prints restored. However, until the studio relents in its stubborn and illogical refusal to issue unrated horror material on DVD fans of the series will just have to learn to live with a disappointment.
Recommended?
For what its worth this is actually a reasonably entertaining body count film and certainly one of the best of the mostly interminable Friday The 13th sequels. As such it certainly warrants at least a mild recommendation.
Review (Contains Spoilers)
In 1980 Sean Cunningham’s seminal horror classic Friday The 13th proved to be an unexpected smash hit, raking in approximately $40,000,000 in the United States alone. While Friday The 13th was by no means the first slasher movie prototype it was undoubtedly the commercial success of Cunningham’s film that provided the catalyst for a wave of largely identikit stalk and slash efforts. Sequels were also an inevitability and Paramount – who had distributed Friday The 13th in North America – soon delivered both Friday The 13th Part 2 (1981) and Friday The 13th Part III (1982) which were both similarly successful and cemented the status of rampaging, seemingly indestructible human killing machine Jason Voorhees as a horror icon.
However, by 1984 the slasher craze which the original Friday The 13th had set in motion had lost its lustre thanks to a wave of identikit stalk and slash films and most were of the opinion that mainstream cinematic trends were turning away from horror. Therefore the decision was made to kill off Jason once and for all in the series’ fourth installment Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter released that year. However, Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter would prove a shock success, grossing an impressive $32,600,000 at the US box office off of its meagre $1,800,000 budget. While slasher films in general were yesterdays news the Friday The 13th series had clearly taken on a financially lucrative life of its own and Paramount were suddenly keen to give their backing to further instalments.
The only problem was that Jason had now been unceremoniously killed off once and for all. However, this was not about to deter Paramount from milking the series for all it was worth and sure enough the hastily conceived Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning soon followed in 1985 with a new killer cheekily assuming Jason’s modus operandi and famous hockey mask. Unfortunately most fans were disappointed and turned on the film upon realising that it was not actually Jason under the mask. With the fanbase having made their voices heard loud and clear Paramount soon acquiesced to popular demand as resurrected Jason for the aptly titled Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives written and directed by Tom McLoughlin whose previous credits had included the cult horror favourite One Dark Night (1983) starring Meg Tilly. Now rather desperately resurrected from the grave Jason would proceed to go on the rampage through both this and a further four direct sequels to the delight of his many fans and the scornful indifference of pretty much everyone else.
As a child Tommy Jarvis accomplished the seemingly impossible task of killing the seemingly unstoppable serial killer Jason Voorhees. In Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives the now grown up Tommy (Matthews) despite years of psychological counselling is still haunted by the memory of his terrifying childhood experiences with Jason and also a copycat killer who later assumed Jason’s M.O. to embark on his own killing spree. In a bid to lay his demons to rest Tommy along with a reluctant friend treks off to the notorious site of Camp Crystal Lake in order to excavate Jason’s grave in order to ensure that he really is dead. This ill-advised ploy takes a terrifying and unexpected turn when a stray bolt of lightning strikes Jason’s rotting corpse causing the dead killer to rise from the grave and resume his reign of terror.
In his terror Tommy flees to the nearby town where his mad tale receives a frosty response from the local Sheriff (Kagen). As it turns out the people of Camp Crystal Lake in order to distance themselves from the Jason Voorhees hysteria have changed the camp’s name to Camp Forest Green and any mention of Jason is now heavily frowned upon.
When Jason begins butchering the locals the Sheriff blames the killings on Tommy, believing that the troubled youth is murdering these people in order to lend credence to his fabricated tale that Jason is still alive. Fortunately Tommy finds s sympathetic ear in the shapely form of the Sheriff’s precocious teenage daughter Megan (Cooke) who believes Tommy’s insistence that Jason is once again at large. As Jason sets his murderous sights on a group of teenage camp councillors who are supervising a group of scouts up at Camp Crystal Lake, Tommy and Megan set out in a bid to end the resurrected killers reign of terror once and for all.
Jason’s much anticipated resurrection certainly starts off on very shaky ground to say the least. To be perfectly frank the opening scene in which Tommy and his reluctant pal dig up Jason’s mouldering corpse only for the dead killer’s cadaver to be reanimated by a coincidental bolt of lightening is the absolute pits. I realise narrative continuity is hardly the order of the day but this really does reek of desperation and precludes any potential suspension of disbelief from the outset. It should also be noted that the film completely ignores the ending of its much disliked predecessor Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning which heavily hinted that Tommy having completely flipped his lid was now set to assume the identity of Jason himself.
How pleasantly surprising then that following this dubious opening Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives soon transforms into arguably the most enjoyable film in the series since Steve Miner’s excellent Friday The 13th Part 2 in 1981. When all is said and done the Friday The 13th movies are simple uncomplicated body count flicks at heart and taken as such Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is one of the better instalments in the series. While no classic it is certainly an infinitely superior and more enjoyable film than either its misguided and lacklustre predecessor Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning or the positively feeble Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood which followed just two years later.
Tom McLoughlin directs with briskly paced panache and in addition the script encourages the viewers involvement in the formulaic proceedings by stacking the odds against hapless Tommy Jarvis in clichéd but effective manner as he finds himself not only with the reanimated Jason to contend with but also the unwelcome attentions of the resident sheriff who perhaps understandably views Tommy as a nut. The films benefits too from capable principal performances. Thom Matthews – best known most horror fans for appearing prominently in both the much loved zombie spoof Return Of The Living Dead (1985) and its lesser sequel Return Of The Living Dead Part II (1988) – elicits genuine sympathy as the tortured yet steely and determined Tommy. Comely blonde Jennifer Cooke who was previously a regular in the classic sci-fi series V also makes a positive impression as the sheriffs sassy teenage daughter Megan who assists Tommy in his quest to return Jason to the grave once again. Perhaps it is something of a shame that this would mark an abrupt end to her brief career in film and television as she decided to move away from acting to give more time to her personal life. For what its worth her performance as Megan is certainly a cult above that of your usual slasher movie heroine.
Fans of the series will no doubt be delighted that Jason wastes precious little time in announcing his return from the dead in his own inimitable and decidedly brutal fashion. By the forty minute mark Jason’s body count has already reached double figures and he eventually goes on to rack up a grand total of eighteen victims which was the highest body count in any film in the series up until Jason X far surpassed that total in 2001. Highlights from this particular wave of gratuitous mutilation include Tommy’s hapless grave digging accomplice getting his heart uniquely torn out and the show stopping simultaneous triple decapitation of three unfortunate business executives out in the woods for a weekend paintball contest. However, as with all of the films in the series Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives was cut heavily in order to avoid an X certificate from the MPAA for its US theatrical release and this truncated R-rated cut is the only one ever made commercially available . As a result the grislier details of Jason’s handiwork are either cut away from or not lingered upon at length. It should be noted that this is also the first film in the series to feature a pronounced streak of intentional humour. The aforementioned paintball party add some early comic relief and some of Jason’s kills have a grisly slapstick quality to them, in particular the laugh out loud moment where Jason takes possession of a victims machete with said victims dismembered arm still hanging onto the weapon. In addition there is also some rather knowing and amusingly wry dialog. Another welcome touch is the appearance of Jason himself who certainly bears the rigours of a long spell in the grave to say the least and beneath the hockey mask is now a mouldering, walking corpse infested with maggots.
Once Jason abandons his aimless slaughter of the entire incidental cast and resumes his old habits of cornering and killing annoying teenage camp councillors Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives does become highly predictable and as such soon begins to flag somewhat. However, the film does recover in time for its moderately effective conclusion in which Tommy and Megan finally confront Jason out on the brackish waters of Camp Crystal Lake itself. This finale is not only tense and well staged but also draws pleasingly upon the mythology of the Jason character which had been established across the earlier films in the series. If Paramount had possessed the good sense to leave the hockey mask wearing fiend at the bottom of Camp Crystal Lake then this would actually have made for a fitting conclusion to the series. However, despite the fact that this was the least commercially successful installment in the series yet with a gross of just under $20,000,000 this profit margin was still healthy enough to ensure that Jason was swiftly dredged up from his watery grave to resume his increasingly interminable killing spree.
Finally no review of Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives could possibly be complete without a mention for the gloriously cheesy heavy metal number "The Man Behind The Mask" by schlock rock god Alice Cooper which plays over the films end credits
Fans and apologists for the Friday The 13th series would perhaps argue that with these films you at least know what you’re getting. Of course this doesn’t hide the fact that the lions share of the Friday The 13th sequels are completely and utterly contemptible in their tiresome repetitions of the same old tired formula. However, having said that I will happily concede that Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is something of a diamond amidst the rough. Amongst the horror purists who found any of the other identikit instalments a chore to sit through Part VI probably won’t make too many converts. It’s totally predictable and more than a little desperate but it also does exactly what it says on the tin and does so with a measure of brutality, energy and humour that sets it aside from most of its predecessors and indeed the subsequent sequels which followed in its wake. At the end of the day could anyone really have expected as much? Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is thoroughly entertaining junk, nothing more but nothing less either.
Also Try… Friday The 13th / Friday The 13th Part 2 / Friday The 13th Part III / Friday The 13th: The Fina;l Chapter / Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning / Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood / Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan / Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday / Jason X / The Burning / Madman / The Final Terror.
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