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

Hasten Jason

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives on DVD

This may be my favorite of the Friday the 13th series, mainly because of the winking, insider humor; it's almost like a precursor to Wes Craven's Scream ten years later. Characters even talk about having seen lots of horror movies, though it doesn't help them much in escaping Jason's machete. It begins with Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews); the events of the previous films are mostly ignored, except for the fact that Tommy has had "hallucinations." Tommy has decided to dig up Jason and destroy his body in an effort to find peace. But everything goes horribly wrong and a bolt of lightning not only revives Jason but also turns him from an ordinary serial killer into something supernatural. (From now on in this series, anything goes.) The usual band of idiot teens turns up to work as counselors for a group of camping kids. One of them, Meg (Jennifer Cooke), is the sheriff's daughter and becomes fascinated by Tommy, who warns everyone of Jason's threat. The sheriff (David Kagen), of course, thinks Tommy is behind all destruction. Some of the jokes, conceived by writer/director Tom McLoughlin, are still really funny. When the old caretaker discovers Jason's dug-up grave, he lets loose with the greatest line in the whole series: "Some folks have a strange idea of entertainment." Tony Goldwyn briefly appears as one of Jason's first victims, but went on to greater success both as an actor and as a director. McLoughlin's next outing was Date with an Angel (1987).

DVD Details: Paramount has released a super-deluxe DVD, timed to coincide with the DVD release of the new 2009 series "reboot." It comes with a commentary tracks by McLoughlin and some others. We also get a "look back" featurette, and part three in a series of fake "reports" about the Jason attacks in Crystal Lake. McLoughlin shows us his original concept for the ending, featuring Jason's father; There's also "Lost Tales from Camp Blood Part VI," which looks like some kind of fan film, deleted scenes, and a trailer.

With: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Kerry Noonan, RenŽe Jones, Tom Fridley, C.J. Graham, Darcy DeMoss, Vincent Guastaferro, Tony Goldwyn, Nancy McLoughlin, Ron Palillo, Alan Blumenfeld, Matthew Faison, Ann Ryerson
Written by: Tom McLoughlin
Directed by: Tom McLoughlin
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 87 minutes
Date: June 15, 2009