Tags:
Film: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Year: 1986
Director: Tom McLoughlin
Writer: Tom McLoughlin
Starring: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke and David Kagen
Review:
This was one of the Friday the 13th films that I only think that I’ve seen a few times now. It never seemed to be on the movie channels and it wasn’t until I got it on DVD that I believe I checked it out. I’ll be honest, I didn’t care for it as this one incorporates more comedy than the ones prior. I gave it another viewing as part of a horror movie challenge for October and then again now that I have the Blu-ray box set.
Synopsis: Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) goes to the graveyard to get rid of Jason Voorhees’ (C.J. Graham) body once and for all, but inadvertently brings him back to life instead. The newly revived killer once again seeks revenge and Tommy may be the only one who can defeat him.
As the synopsis states, we see Tommy in a pick-up truck with another guy from the hospital that he’s been living in. Tommy is on a mission to ensure that Jason is dead. On top of that, he wants to destroy the body. His vendetta against him has taken over his life and he’s not able to move on. These two dig up the body and Tommy goes crazy, stabbing the corpse with a metal pole, which he leaves in the body. It is then struck by lightening, bringing the killer back from the dead. The problem now is that he is supernatural. Tommy seeks out the local sheriff, Garris (David Kagen), who thinks he’s crazy. When the younger man won’t give it up, he’s tossed in a cell.
The next two victims are Darren (Tony Goldwyn) and Lizbeth (Nancy McLoughlin) who are on their way to the camp that’s now reopened. They’re the older counselors and supposed to be running it. They come to Jason blocking their way. Lizbeth wants to flee while Darren thinks it is someone messing with them. They soon realize this is the real deal. With them not returning to camp, this brings Megan (Jennifer Cooke), the sheriff’s daughter, into the station along with Paula (Kerry Noonan), Sissy (Renée Jones) and Cort (Tom Fridley). They are concerned about the two senior counselors and how they’ll run the camp if they don’t show up. Megan has another concern as she is attracted to Tommy. Sheriff Garris tells them to leave and that the other two will show up.
No one believes Tommy and while this is happening, Jason is running wild in the woods. He kills a group of executives on a team building exercise as well as anyone else that gets his in way back to camp. Tommy must prove he’s telling the truth before it is too late.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Having now watched this a couple times, I can say this isn’t as bad as I thought after seeing it all the way through for the first time. I like that this keeps continuity. That’s a big thing for me. This doesn’t acknowledge the previous one, which is fine. Tommy was in that one as well. The only thing can be said is that having killed Jason and then dealing with the fake one, that can help explain his obsession. I do like the psychological effect that this killer had on him. The issue I have though is that I feel like what brings Tommy there is a bit unreal, but I do like the Frankenstein angle of lightning bringing Jason back to life. It is also interesting with a song that Alice Cooper has on the soundtrack call ‘Teenage Frankenstein’.
I do have to give credit here that the franchise to continue had to keep raising the stakes. By making Jason supernatural, I can get on board with that. It does ramp up the kills now that he has super strength. The issue here then becomes Tommy and Jason grapple with a human being able to hold his own. It is a movie, so I get why, it is just a bit uneven there.
The last thing to cover here is the relationship between Megan and Tommy is a bit off for me. I don’t know if I buy that she would fall for him and go to the lengths that she does when she just met him. I do think she has a bit of a mischievous side and I dig it to be honest. Part of that is her father is the sheriff so there is an added incentive. It is intriguing though as slashers are known for their final girl, where this one kind of bucks that trend.
If there’s one thing, I can say about this is that it is fun. This comes in at 86 minutes, which I think is a solid length for a slasher. It doesn’t waste any time getting into Jason being revived and then the kills are right after. We get them at a good pace and this has a high body count. I do think there are kills don’t have a bearing on the story and just have groups here just so they can kill them off. I’m fine with this, this to me is one where we start to root for Jason and to see how he can kill his next victims. I also think the ending is a bit weak, but not enough to ruin it. It is a bit more brutal than I remember if I’m honest. It also makes sense that they don’t know what else to do with our supernatural monster.
I want to take this to the acting next. Mathews is good at taking over the role of Tommy. I could see Corey Feldman’s version growing into this one and the actor in the earlier film didn’t do it for me. I like his obsession here and I think he’s a solid actor overall. Cooke intrigues me because I love her personality. I don’t buy she would fall for Tommy as fast as she does, but I’ll let it slide. I think part of that is to annoy her father. She’s also attractive. I also like Kagen and no matter what, he doesn’t believe Tommy, especially since the evidence isn’t there. There isn’t a lot of time from the start to where we end. I thought Graham was fine as Jason. It is interesting here since he’s the first who gets to play him supernatural. It worked for what they were going for. I would say the rest of the cast rounded out the film for what was needed.
That takes me to filmmaking and starting with the effects, which I thought were good. They all seemed to be done practically, which was in line for the era. How Graham played the role of Jason helps, this film had more to work with so that they could go more outrageous with the kills. With that is the issue that can be a bit uneven at times. The blood and gore we got looked good. The cinematography was good as well to frame as well as capture the woods and the camp. This one has children so that’s cool. Historical significance that this is the first supernatural Jason. The last thing to cover would be the soundtrack. I was excited to see that this one still had Harry Manfredini. This isn’t his best in the series, but I like what he did with the theme here and there was some good musical cues throughout that worked. There were times that weren’t so much as well. I also must give a shout out to Alice Cooper, who did songs for the movie. I will say that I like ‘He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)’ and ‘Teenage Frankenstein’ as well as how they’re heard in the world of the movie as well.
In conclusion, my thoughts on this have come up after hearing podcasts and giving this a rewatches. I can see the arguments made and it did help me to appreciate this one more. At this point in the series the only thing they could do was go supernatural. I do think the reason behind it is a bit off, but I’m down for the Frankenstein angle. This does give them more creativity with the kills, which I liked. I don’t care for the comedy aspects of it, as it doesn’t always land, but it also doesn’t ruin this. There are inconsistencies with Jason’s strengths as well. I do think that the acting is solid and the score is good though. This is one of the more fun movies in the series for sure. I’d recommend it to slasher fans, especially if you like it when they go into the supernatural or if you just love this series. This is a good time.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10