Director Tom McLoughlin
Genre Horror | Thriller
Cast Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, C.J. Graham
Rating R
Release Date August 1st, 1986
“Tommy Jarvis goes to the graveyard to get rid of Jason Voorhees’ 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.”
In an effort to mix things up a little we decided to integrate random Throwback Movie Reviews into our site content, because well, why not? Plus when you own as many Blu-ray’s as I do, replay value takes on a life of it’s own. And in honor of the fact that we will have a Friday the 13th in December this year (yupp, you read that right) as well as the fact that today is Halloween, we chose to start with a movie from our favorite slasher franchise, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. The poster’s tagline, “Kill or Be Killed”? How about we change it to “try and kill Jason (again) yet failing miserably, and getting yourself killed instead”.
This certainly isn’t the highest rated film in the franchise or the lowest for that matter, but it is one of my favorites for a few reasons. First of all, I absolutely love the opening sequence. Nothing better than Tommy Jarvis and his buddy fresh from the loony bin (are we still allowed to refer to it as that in 2019?) on a road trip to finally kill Jason once and for all. This is also a great PSA for not giving in to peer pressure because Tommy’s buddy wasn’t super pumped about this adventure to begin with, and of course once Tommy botches the entire thing, Jason wakes up and the buddy ends up getting murdered and that slippery Tommy Jarvis gets away. Typical.
Things really get going from here because let me just say, the only thing Jason hates more than that little bastard Tommy Jarvis is getting murdered over and over again only to come back to life more pissed off than the last time. I mean seriously, he really hates this blond-haired jean jacket wearing smart ass and he will do anything to exact his revenge. Now Tommy had what he thought was a good plan, go to the cemetery where Jason is buried and not bothering anyone might I add, and make sure he is finally dead for good this time. Meanwhile, Camp Crystal Lake has finally reopened for the next generation of bright eyed kids and horny lazy counselors. Unfortunately the grand re-opening is ruined because, yeah you guessed it, idiot Tommy leads Jason right to the camp so Jason figured he’ll murder some other unsuspecting victims along the way because well, that’s how he rolls. Now if this wasn’t enough, Tommy decides he’ll make moves on the local sheriff’s young and clearly “hell-bent on doing things to piss daddy off” daughter. I’m not sure that’s the best way to make sure law enforcement will protect you from the masked murdered on your trail Tommy but hey, worth a shot right?
Things move along as expected, the oblivious counselors get picked off one by one because apparently they prefer it that way and haven’t heard of the buddy system. You also have a pretty cool scene with the kids hiding under a bed but escaping unscathed because Jason prefers that his victims hit puberty before he murders them, which if you think about it that’s certainly one of his better qualities. The film is somewhat lacking in the “eye candy” category compared to others in the franchise, but things move along fast enough to where you can let it slide. Now after all of this commotion, Tommy takes some time to brainstorm how he could possibly piss Jason off even more. “Hmmm, I think i’ll go out on the lake in this little boat and try to recreate Jason’s childhood death which was basically the domino effect that started this entire Camp Crystal Lake nightmare”. Yet another great plan from Mr. Jarvis. Now he somehow pulls this off because Jason is basically seeing red at this point and too pissed off to think clearly, and because of that he gets a front row seat to the bottom of the lake. But as it goes with the Friday the 13th films, just as you start to accept a somewhat happy ending with at least 2 survivors, by the time the screen fades to black you know that you haven’t seen the last of Jason. One thing is for sure, Tommy better get his ass out of dodge fast because you know damn well that lake ain’t holding Jason for long.
I think it goes without saying that this was more of a funny play-by play than it was an actual review, but give me a break this movie came out 33 years ago which is well beyond the spoiler statute of limitations. Either way, this is one of my favorites in the iconic franchise so find some time to check out Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives this Halloween or any day for that matter, it’s worth it. You can even make it into a drinking game, take a shot every time Tommy does something to make things worse for everyone else. Good luck with that!
