Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) Review

Following A New Beginning’s attempt to depict a Friday the 13th film without the iconic Jason Voorhees. Jason Lives seemed to have no choice but to bring the bastard back from the dead and also give Jason his own James Bond style opening sequence.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives also wraps up the Tommy Jarvis trilogy, with Thom Mathews taking the Jarvis mantle, He is now an older, but still fanatically obsessed Tommy.

On a dark and stormy night, Tommy visits the cemetery with his friend, Hawes, to confirm that Jason is dead. After digging up the body, they discover Jason’s rotting corpse and Tommy proceeds to repeatedly stab him with a piece of metal fence. Job done, right? Well as luck would have it, lightning hits the fence.

Oh Tommy!! (You will all scream this at the TV)

Jason returns from the dead, kills Hawes with a fist through the chest and after staring down Tommy, returns to Crystal Lake. After two movies of trying to stop Jason, Tommy has accidentally brought him back to life. Gone are the make-up effects and the martial arts this around.

Jason has had a major overhaul since we last saw him. C.J. Graham’s Jason is no longer simply a horribly disfigured man surviving against the odds, but a supernatural monster. He is no longer forced to run from his victims; he stalks them with self-confidence, knowing exactly where they’re going to end up.

Jason Lives manages to change the tone considerably; there is more humour and self-awareness this time around. It never fully becomes a comedy. An example being the paintball sequence, Jason runs into a group of adults playing soldier in the woods and the movie enjoys mocking them.

Stan in particular is unpleasant to watch, complaining about the only woman playing and making sexist comments about them only being useful in the kitchen. Jason seems unimpressed with his opinions too, tearing the man’s arm off and throwing him into a tree.

Fair enough, right? Then we have Roy who attempts to buy a branch back on a tree and he gets his own theme tune.

The counsellors are also likable, with Megan (Jennifer Cooke) becoming Tommy’s ally and potential love interest, and her father Sheriff Garris believing Tommy to be the madman behind recent events at Crystal Lake.

Tommy isn’t exactly making himself looked upon as innocent. Deputy Rick Cologne gets one of my favourite lines when aiming his laser-sighted gun at Tommy, telling him “Wherever the red dot goes, ya bang!” This is another example of how this film has a slightly more tongue-in-cheek attitude.

Sheriff Garris remains under the impression that Tommy is behind it all until he finally encounters Jason himself in the finale. This is a cool sequence where the Sheriff and deputies arrive at ‘Camp Forest Green’ and Jason picks them off one by one. Harris gets a full blown showdown where he attempts to smash Jason’s head to pieces with a rock.

In turn, Jason folds him in half!

Tommy does his best to convince everyone throughout the movie that Jason is back, whilst knowing he is the idiot who brought him back in the first place, which he openly admits.

There are some great kills along the way, with Cort meeting his end inside the RV, Paula getting absolutely splattered in the cabin, and Jason continuing to prove he’s not improved in terms of his violent nature.

Alice Cooper’s soundtrack provides the film with its personality, particularly the brilliant “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)” which seems the perfect song to announce Jason Voorhees’ return.

The finale sees Tommy and Jason face off at Crystal Lake itself, with Tommy concluding the only way to stop Jason is to return him to the place where it all began. After chaining him up to a massive rock and sending him to the bottom of the lake, Tommy has finally faced Jason off.

It’s a fitting end to Tommy’s story arc.

Jason Lives seems to be a genuine turning point for Friday the 13th. Parts 2, III and The Final Chapter provided us with a Jason who, although difficult to kill, was ultimately human.

That Jason is no more.

C.J. Graham gives us a bigger, stronger, unstoppable and supernatural Jason. Add in the humour, likeable characters, memorable kills and a genuinely fun performance from Thom Mathews, and you have one of the franchise’s most entertaining sequels.

Tommy Jarvis spent three movies trying to escape Jason Voorhees.

In the end, he accidentally brought him back to life just so he could put him back in Crystal Lake.