Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)


It may not seem like it at this point but Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was, indeed, supposed to be the final chapter.  Jason Voorhees was, without a doubt, dead.  There was a hint that Tommy Jarvis, whose family was murdered by the masked killer, might take up the mantle and continue killing, but that is typical with most franchises.  Even when putting the final touches on a story movie studios appreciate a possible escape hatch.

The problem is that because it was the last one, happened to have a number of up-and-coming stars in it and featured Tom Savini returning to do the effects work the movie made quite a bit of money.  That meant that Jason still had life in him.  The problem was, Jason Voorhees literally didn't have life in him.  Instead of going the logical, if predictable and tired, route of having Jarvis become the next Jason, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning instead put him in a group camp with a number of damaged kids where a new serial killer showed up.  This time it was a random ambulance driver who happened to be the father of a kid killed by a hoodlum at the beginning who decided to don a hockey mask and get revenge.  

Fans were not happy.  Halloween III: Season of the Witch could be forgiven years later for not having Michael Meyers once it became clear that Meyers was not supposed to be the focus of the series.  But Friday the 13th without Jason - never mind that he was not in the original - was at this point unthinkable.  Once again, the ending teased that Jarvis was going to be the new villain.  It was a mess, though not as bad as its reputation.  Still, Frank Mancuso Jr. knew that if there was going to be a sixth film they had damn well better bring back Jason.

Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) and his friend Hawes (Ron Palillo) decide to pay a visit to Jason's (C. J. Graham) grave.  Despite what they were told it turns out the body was not cremated but instead buried in a cemetery in Forest Green, formally Crystal Lake.  The pair dig up Jason's body and Tommy prepares to incinerate it when a bolt of lightning strikes a fence post that Jarvis drove into the Jason's corpse, awakening the killer who dispatches Hawes and throws him in his grave. 

While Jason begins to head back to his old stomping grounds Tommy goes to town to convince Sheriff Garris (David Kagen) that Jason is alive and something needs to be done.  Garris quickly realizes who Tommy is and wants none of it, driving him out of town and telling him not to come back.  However, when bodies start coming up, Jarvis is suspect number one, with his only ally in town being the sheriff's daughter Megan (Jennifer Cooke).  She agrees to help him even as Jason starts to once again make his way through the camp counselors. 

Director Tom McLoughlin was originally hired just to write the script but was asked take on further duties as no one wanted to work with Danny Steinmann, who had directed part five.  They did try to get John Shepherd back, who had played a teenage Jarvis in A New Beginning, but he had since been born again and decided against doing another horror film.  Thom Mathews, who had been one of the leads in The Return of the Living Dead, took over the role.  He does a decent job playing Jarvis in the last movie in which the character would appear.

In fact, everyone does a good job in this.  Jennifer Cooke, in her last acting role before retiring, is the pretty blonde final girl that Mancuso ordered, but for the most part he let McLoughlin alone to do what he wanted.  They hired a good one as she imbues Megan with a bubbly, rebellious spirit.  Since David Kagen was her acting coach they also have a believable father/daughter dynamic, while the latter's lines are hilarious.  What McLoughlin wanted was to just make a fun movie, and one that poked fun at the others.  There are sly references to other horror films, previous Friday the 13th films, and even one that hints at referencing to A Nightmare on Elm Street.  There is also a bit of fourth wall breaking.

While the majority of the movie is pretty much a straight slasher McLoughlin does make it more action-oriented and avoids some the usual cliches.  It's the one movie out of the original series with no nudity and, in an odd twist, violence had to be added to it to get an R-rating as the producers were afraid that what McLoughlin delivered was going to get them a PG-13.  There still was some self-censorship - a triple decapitation was cut due to it simply not looking good - but in comparison to some of the other movies in the series it wasn't heavily butchered.

While amusing the survivalists being stalked by Jason just doesn't fit with the rest of the movie, especially since a different actor initially played Jason at that point.  Other than Sissy (Renée Jones) and Cort (Tom Fridley) this is the most forgettable group of camp counselors out of the series.  Still, C. J. Graham did make one of the better Jasons, and the zombie makeup at the beginning is well done. 

As much as I like this Friday the 13th Part 2 remains my favorite since that is the scariest Jason was while alive, and it is the one movie in the series that works as a pure horror film.  This is a good runner-up, and it is to McLoughlin's credit that he was able to right the ship this far into the series.  Unfortunately, the damage had already been done with A New Beginning, and the box office numbers began their inexorable slide with this entry. 

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Time: 86 minutes
Starring: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, C. J. Graham
Director: Tom McLoughlin

 

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