Movie Review: Friday the 13th Part VI - Jason Lives

"Jason belongs in hell and I'm gonna see to it he gets there" says Tommy Jarvis, our protagonist for the last 2 installments of Friday the 13th franchise as the movie starts. Tommy is a miserable character in the sense that no matter how charismatic he tries to utter stuff like that, we all know that he is gone once and for all in this one. The producers wanted to take the story in a new direction with a brand new character donning Jason's machete but the fans reacted to it so badly that the attempt failed big time. Thus, they immediately headed to make a new movie specifically named J A S O N L I V E S aka we know we screwed up let us fix it puh-lease? written in huge fonts so that short sighted fans will not pass it by. The only reason I sat down to watch Part 5 was because I was curious how Tommy would die.

Yet, he survived.

Let's be honest. Part 6 is so much better than the pathetic Part 5 (check out how lame it is here) with its "back to where it all began" setting and higher level of acting. There's bit of humor sprinkled here and there which is brand new for the franchise who had remained strictly on the thriller/slasher side up until that point. Sure, there are comical characters in the previous films such as Ted (Stuart Charno) from Part 2 and Reggie from Part 5. However, they rarely provide comic relief because the series are predominantly gory. This time we have a silly paintball sequence in the woods and plain sarcastic lines from the characters themselves like the following:

Elizabeth: Darren, we'd better turn around.
Darren: Why?
Elizabeth: Because I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly.

Elizabeth is one of those rare characters in slasher movies who are sensible enough to make comments like that and backpaddle immediately. However, to compensate her meaningful approach, there's almost always a meaningless friend next to those like Elizabeth who causes them to end up dead. Same with Allen who accompanies Tommy at the very beginning and keeps begging him to stop as he first opens Jason's coffin, then keeps poking his decaying corpse with an iron fence before attempting to burn him with gasoline. The poor guy's rightful complaints dissolve in the air as an enraged Tommy keeps messing with the grave and finally causes the vacuous resurrection.

Afterwards, we have yet another sarcastic line, this time coming from the caretaker once he finds the open grave:

Caretaker: Why'd they have to go and dig up Jason? Some folks sure got a strange idea of entertainment.

These lines drag Part 6 a little away from your average slasher sequel border because the film is able to make fun of itself. Resembling Scream, these lines outline some of the basic rules of the genre that if avoided, might help you save your life.

Other than that, Jason Lives goes back to the original setting where the legacy began at first place, Crystal Lake. Part 3 was in a country house, Part 4 was in the woods, Part 5 was in a halfway house and all of them were a failure on their own. Part 5 goes back to Crystal Lake and it really works. Seeing Jason terrorizing camp counsellors once again was a breath of old air that was long missed.

A personal surprise for me was to see Jennifer Cooke in the female lead. As a fan of Visitors the TVSeries, re-uniting with the "Star Child" was a nice treat. She's quite good, too as the bold, adventurous daughter of the sheriff. As for Thom Mathews in the shoes of Tommy Jarvis, well, he is your 80s all-American college boy with chiseled features, blonde hair, blue eyes, denim jacket and jeans. He constantly pops his eyes and asks everyone to believe him that Jason's back.

I mean would Jaws be Jaws if Mayor believed Brody at first place?

If you can completely ignore how Jason returns to life, Friday the 13th Part 6 is overall a successful sequel in the series. It causes a few jumps and have a happy ending. Sure we have people who drop dead by being folded in two or have their brains crushed with bare hands but isn't that what this is all about?