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Friday The 13th Part 6: Jason Lives
[Paramount]
1986; color
Directed by Tom McLoughlin
Starring: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Kerry Noonan & Renée Jones
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Jason Lives is kind of a pivotal entry in the series, as it lays much of the groundwork for future sequels by establishing Jason Voorhees as a super-human, unstoppable killing machine. (Up until this point he was more of a regular old, crazy, socially maladjusted lunatic.) This one also has a lot of black humor, at least three Alice Cooper songs, and one of the best openings in the series thus far. Let's dive in, shall we? As Snoopy would say, "It was a dark and stormy night…" We see a truck careening down a deserted road. Cut to inside the vehicle where it's inhabitants are revealed to be Tommy Jarvis (not Corey Feldman, or the kid who played Tommy in part five, but the blond dude from Return Of The Living Dead) and Arnold Horshack. OK, I know he has a real name, it's Ron something, and his character in this film has a name but, you know, everyone who saw him sitting there thought the same thing - i.e.: "Hey look, it's Arnold Horshack." But I digress. Also riding shotgun is one well worn hockey mask, which we can only assume means they're going to a costume party. Just kidding - they're totally going to Jason Voorhees' gravesite with the intention of digging up his lifeless body; to assure Tommy of his deadness, of course. Once they arrive at the cemetery & get proactive on the burial ground, the wind kicks up, along with some thunder and lightning. Once the coffin is revealed and Tommy reveals the badly decomposed corpse contained therein, replete with maggots and other assorted forms of ickiness crawling all about the place, he starts to have an audio flashback to when he was Corey Feldman… uh, I mean a young boy. (Interestingly enough, I believe this is the first entry which does not feature one or more clips from previous films.) This inspires him to rip a loose wrought iron fence post from it's home in the muddy dirt and thrust it repeatedly into Jason's grave. Moments later, as the two turn towards the rest of their gear, lightning strikes the still protruding fence post - not once, but twice; completely disproving that whole lightning never strikes the same place twice theory - causing an explosion of sorts, not to mention the sudden arrival of eyeballs in Jason's skull. Tommy doesn't know about the eyeballs yet but decides it's a good time to remove the still smoking post from the grave. On his way out, Jason pops up and tries to stop him. Tommy evades his grasp, grabs his trusty gasoline container and matches and proceeds to throw both of them in Jason's direction but has no luck, as rain has begun to fall on the cemetery grounds. Horshack has the forethought to whack him from behind with a shovel but - of course - is met with nothing but quick and violent death for his troubles as Jason punches through his chest and rips out his heart in one fell swoop. Tommy makes it back to the truck and drives off while we get a great shot of our villainous hero picking up the pointy object that helped to give him life, as well as the conveniently dropped hockey mask which he carefully places on his maggot-filled head before turning to mug for the camera while his trademark music plays in the background. After a fabulous James Bond parody & the credit roll we're returned to Tommy's ever careening truck as it pulls up to a police station. He runs inside and starts babbling incoherently to the cop on duty who, once he realizes who Jarvis is and his connection to the town formerly known as Crystal Lake, promptly locks him up and dismisses his pleas for help. Meanwhile Jason is playing murder in the dark, literally, with two would-be camp counselors, both of whom get intimately acquainted with the fencepost. Back at the station, a gaggle of teens have arrived to ask for the police's help in finding their "missing" co-counselors. One of the girls, Megan, turns out to be the daughter of the sheriff so, naturally, she takes a particular interest in the boy behind the bars. (Based on my movie viewing experience and some girls I was friends with in high school, daughters of cops tend to have a thing for criminals.) This makes Johnny Law even more intent on running Jarvis out of town so while the teens return to the former site of Camp Crystal Lake and some unnecessary-to-the-plot-but-let's-throw-em-in-anyway-to-up-the-kill-count paintball warriors are dispatched by Jason in the woods, he does just that. By now, just as we know Tommy's exile from town will only last long enough for the police cars to disappear over the horizon, we know that before long Jason will make his way to the campgrounds where he will menace the children and murder the teenagers. Except Megan of course who will team up with Tommy - despite her father's stern warnings - to help him find and "kill" Jason. I'm not trying to spoil the plotline or anything but let's assume that if you've seen any of the other films in the series, or any other slasher movie from the '80s, you already figured out all of that in the first twenty minutes.
—Bunny
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Cause Of
Jason's Re-Birth:
lightning
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Setting:
Forrest Green (formerly Crystal Lake)
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Body Count:
17
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Methods Of Death:
heart ripped out (1)
impaling (2)
thrown into tree (1)
beheading (3)
stabbing (3)
machete (2)
head shoved through side of Winnebago (1)
head torn off (1)
skull crushing (1)
snapped in half (1)
misc. (1)
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Cause Of
Jason's Death:
propellor
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