Jason Lives: Friday the 13th: Part 6

Jason Lives: Friday the 13th: Part 6 (1986)

Runtime: 86 minutes

Directed by: Tom McLoughlin

Starring: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Kerry Noonan, Renee Jones

From: Paramount

It's been a few years since I had reviewed a Jason movie for this page; I spent last year revisiting the first five movies for Letterboxd and this was the perfect time for me to finally seeing this installment; it's been a long time. As you'll read below, this is among the best in the franchise if not the best:

What better movie to talk about on Friday the 13th than one with Jason Voorhees; I rewatched the first five last year and the fifth movie was seen by me late last August so this was the perfect time to get that started again. I hadn't seen this in a long time and shame on me as this is a pretty entertaining film.

We all know this is where “Zombie Jason” began and this is the third & final appearance of the Tommy Jarvis character. Tommy and Horshack from Welcome Back, Kotter accidentally revive Jason a la Frankenstein's monster (i.e. lightning) and Jason heads back to Camp Crystal Lake, while Jarvis unsuccessfully tries to convince Sheriff Michael Garris (a nice reference for the horror fans) of what's about to happen.

The movie is nicely directed by Tom McLoughlin and an asset is how this installment has more humor than usual. It's not always hilarious and some of it is odd (this is the only media that has both a Jean-Paul Sartre reference and the word “farthead”) but it is a step above the comedy we usually get in the franchise. It is self-referential without being overly annoying about it, which I feel is a problem in too many movies these days. You know what sort of movie this is after seeing the opening titles, which actually rip off the James Bond opening titles. It is cool that there aren't too many camp counselors we have to follow so there's a good balance between following them & the kids at camp and the storyline where Tommy and the sheriff's daughter Megan tries to stop Jason.

I do have to mention that “the disbelieving adult” trope in movies isn't one of my favorite by any means. More often than not it's dumb and lazy. Here, I had little problem with it. I was glad that Sheriff Michael Garris wasn't cartoony evil or a buffoon. I probably would also have trouble believing a psychologically damaged Tommy Jarvis if out of nowhere he proclaims that a dead murderer is suddenly alive again; it's easy to understand how Tommy would look like he finally snapped from what he saw Vorhees do years ago. Sure, the sheriff is an overprotective father and a bit of a hothead but otherwise... I was glad he was not a crappy caricature like we got too often in the horror genre.

Anyway, there are memorable kills (if not exactly the best in the franchise), the score from Harry Manfredini was typically solid, and there are some bitchin' Alice Cooper songs... the movie's a lot of fun and if it's not the best in the series it's one of the best.