Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives

Jason belongs in hell, and I’m going to see that he gets there.

Director Tom McLoughlin was responsible for not only bringing back Jason—much to the chagrin of the haters—but using Frankenstein as a template to have him rise from the dead through the use of lightning (hitting a gate’s rod stabbed into his torso by his ultimate nemesis, Tommy Jarvis (now portrayed by an adult Thom Matthews of Return of the Living Dead fame)) as a powerful undead force to be reckoned with, now given an excuse to take shot gun blasts and pistol fire without blinking (from his one good eye). 

When we first get a glimpse of Jason Voorhies, his body is a rotten, maggot-infested corpse that barely has the shape of a man…that is until those bolts of lightning give his shape form and he rises from his grave, punching a hole right through Horshack, Ron Palillo, getting a nice, firm hold of his heart. It kind of sucks that Palillo, his Hawes from the same institution that held buddy Tommy, dies like in the opening minutes because I can only imagine he’d been a fun character for the movie. 

Thom Matthews shows no signs of psychosis or the same inner torment that was conveyed by the unstable Shepherd in the fifth film, just a very lucid, determined, expressive urgency towards Forest Green (the new name for Crystal Lake as to remove the notoriety attached to it) law enforcement (preferably Sheriff Mike Garris (David Kagen) to get out there, find, and put down Jason Voorhies. Garris, of course, has a daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke, quite appealing), who is drawn to Tommy, the two eventually trying to get to Jason, while the sheriff does what he can to get rid of the nuisance Jarvis. Meanwhile, camp counselors are once again on Jason’s kill list, in his sights, and executed with all the weapons associated with his character, a gate rod, machete, and, especially, his own hands. Jason’s hands are like a vice in this film, the way they crush skulls, including pulling one counselor’s head right off (her eyes even turning into the back of her head). When he literally presses a victim’s face into a wall, her facial details actually forming while doing so, is the crème de la crème of surreal Jason murder set pieces. Oh, but the gold standard of surreal Jason murder set pieces is when he takes a character and literally folds the poor joker in half (Ouch!). This film places a ridiculous emphasis on Jason’s powerful abilities to destroy humans as already mentioned previously.

Thankfully, this film does some things different like actually having fun with the formula by saying aloud in the humor just how silly this whole franchise is, and several of the victims, including a liquor-guzzling, beleaguered gravedigger, characters from a company engaged in paint-gun shooting, and a couple who were to be the head counselors of Camp Forest Green (including Tony Goldwyn and the director’s wife), have engagingly fun personalities. These characters, while having a short time on screen, give Jason a different type of victim to annihilate.

Unique method for removing Jason from the situation by having Tommy chain him to a boulder and drop him into Crystal Lake. It does seem as if Crystal Lake is like kryptonite because he loses some of his power when trying to kill Tommy and, eventually Megan (who, like tough heroines in the past, uses a rotating boat motor propeller to upend the pesky Jason grabbing her ankle as she attempts to rescue her man) at the end.

Director McLoughlin, I think, goes out of his way to compose shots with Jason in full view more than most directors in the franchise. We see him constantly: walking about the forest, outside windows, appearing from out of nowhere or around the corner, but the most badass shot to me is on top of the burning, turned-over RV after disposing of the love-making couple inside. I especially laughed at one moment when Jason stabs a man in the lower torso, hoisting him high in the air and over his head, tossing the poor guy out of distance. Also, interesting, is that this was the first movie that actually has kids attending the camp (with one girl singled out from the cabins as seeing Jason often) where Jason lurks, actually, to me anyway, adding an extra bit of suspense to the proceedings. He even approaches the bed of the girl who often sees him, leaning over towards her, interrupted by the sheriff and his deputies before perhaps hurting her…but we’ll never know, will we?

Certainly a major part of this film is Sheriff Garris’ inability to accept that Jason is on the rampage in his county, and this tug-of-war with Tommy Jarvis, for whom he just doesn’t trust. He locks Tommy up, even at one point attempting to take him to the end of Forest Green with the instructions of getting out of his jurisdiction.  Megan is stuck in the middle because she sides with Tommy despite the worried urgings of her father to stay away from him. This is an old story strategy that has been used cinema immortal: it is just too hard to believe that somebody that was declared dead and had been buried for several years could be walking around killing people, not to mention the source of his revival has been confined to an institution. There is just no reason to believe this is at all realistic. Also when bodies starting turning up, Tommy is just as viable a candidate as any, until factors prove otherwise. It is only at the very end that Garris learns the hard way how real Jason’s resurrection really is.

My favorite image of the film.

In McLoughlin’s film, anyone in or around Crystal Lake is fated to die; it is the wrong place, wrong time scenario the Friday series is known for. It simply sucks you were at this location in New Jersey while Jason walks.

 When I was a kid, Jason Lives was one of my first horror films. It was kind of a test of how much I could tolerate. While it would be a few years later when I watched a marathon on sci-fi channel featuring the likes of Phantasm, The Evil Dead, and The Puppetmaster (the year Vincent Price died, as a matter of fact) before the full-fledged horror fan would bloom into the fanatic I am today. Still this film, House (1986), and The Gate would be the firstfruits of a horror genre nut, and I hold them in fond regard for doing so. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Alice Cooper, as his songs are quite a memorable part of Friday the 13th: Jason Lives, especially The Man Behind the Mask (his Teenage Frankenstein, I used to rotate on audio cassette..yea a format the kids are puzzled about), arising as the film closes on Jason's hockey-masked face still alive and well, just dormant, resting in Crystal Lake, awaiting his rise from the watery depths for the next sequel.