Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Summary

I will be reviewing films from the Friday the 13th Collection: Deluxe Edition box set released by Shout! Factory until the entire box set has been covered. Stay tuned!

Editorial Note: there are some spoilers for the previous two films in the first paragraph and the synopsis has some minor spoilers (I have tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible in the review.)

“Happy Friday the 13th.”

In 1985, Paramount had managed to get around the inconvenient fact that they had pretty handily killed Jason at the end of The Final Chapter by replacing Jason with a copycat killer in A New Beginning. Once again, Paramount must have been scratching its head as to how they could keep the money making machine printing cash. Utilizing screenwriter and director Tom McLoughlin they returned to the idea of a resurrected Jason from the beginning of the prior film, but this time around they just went for it and allowed Jason to come back to life. The prior film had been ridiculous enough that this turn of events does not feel totally surprising, but instead feels like a natural step further from reality and towards supernatural territory. Fans of the prior films should be happy to see the hockey masked serial killer come back full of maggots, nearly invincible, and ready to kill unsuspecting camp counselors. I sat down and watched the film recently on the new Shout! Factory Blu-ray featured in the deluxe box set.

As the film begins, Tommy (Thom Mathews) arrives at the cemetery with his friend Horace where Jason lies buried with one task in mind – sending Jason to Hell. It is a stormy night filled with lightning in the sky. Opening Jason’s coffin, Tommy finds his decomposing body. Enraged by the sight of his tormentor, Tommy stabs a fence post into Jason’s maggot filled body and throws the hockey mask into the grave. Suddenly lightning strikes the metal post and the body of Jason is reanimated. Jason raises from the dead and immediately kills Horace. Shocked, Tommy flees the cemetery. Jason places his hockey mask back in its proper place and begins his typical reign of terror. Tommy goes to the cops and warns them about Jason. The police don’t believe his ridiculous story and they lock him in a cell. Since the events five years earlier the town of Crystal Lake has renamed itself into Forest Green and nobody wants to relive the events that besmirched the good name of the town. On a dirt road two camp counselors are killed by Jason when their car gets stuck in a puddle. Camp counselor  Megan and her friends go to the cops to ask about their missing friends’ whereabouts. Megan interacts with Tommy who warns her that Jason has come back. This makes the Sheriff angry because Megan is his daughter. At Camp Forest Green the counselors are dismayed to see all the kids arrive. With Tommy locked away and the counselors none the wiser, Jason begins killing as many counselors as possible.

Where Friday the 13th Part V had a strange sense of humor but still was somewhat rooted in reality (…somewhat,) Part VI completely jumps the shark and elevates Jason into an immortal creature that not even death can stop. With Jason Lives, the series of films has reached its natural next step as a supernaturally charged and ridiculous slasher film. Tom McLoughlin understood that the prior film had basically allowed these films to become much more comedic, and so he took that one step further and essentially allowed Jason Lives to be a horror-comedy. If you look through sequences in the film, there are all sorts of hints that this film takes everything that is occurring onscreen with a grain of salt. The opening sequence features a hilarious knod to the James Bond films within its beginning credits. A child no older than twelve reads No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre, which is funny on numerous levels. Jason easily rips off the arm of a paint ball enthusiast and almost seems surprised by his strength. The first two counselors to die by Jason’s hands run through the horror movie tropes they need to avoid to survive in a meta sequence that would inspire filmmakers like Kevin Williamson when he wrote Scream. While the plot of the film is certainly ridiculous, the film succeeds in entertaining from beginning to end. It also gives fans of the series what they wanted – more Jason, not some imposter. The film is less violent and sexual than prior entries in the series, with a noticeable lack of nudity that sets it apart from the other films (especially considering A New Beginning preceded it.) The only downside to the approach by Tom McLoughlin is that the film is one of the least frightening films in the series. The film’s climax does provide a couple moments of intensity, but those are just outliers in the overall equation.

Overall – there is a lot to like about Jason Lives. While the film never reaches the heights of some of the earlier entries, it still is an enjoyable entry in the series.

Video

Shout! Factory presents Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives in their Deluxe Box Set with a good looking transfer. Using an MPEG-4 AVC codec in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the film does not rely on a new 4K scan, but like A New Beginning, the transfer looks very healthy. Visually, Jason Lives is a step up from A New Beginning with a slightly more polished look from cinematographer Jon Kranhouse. The film is not as visually impressive as The Final Chapter, but it is still one of the better looking entries in the saga. Colors onscreen feature blue and orange tones that are very pleasing to the eye. Fine detail is pretty good, although it does leave you wondering what a 4K scan of this film would have looked like. Overall – fans will still be very happy with how this film looks on Blu-ray.

Audio

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives features a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track alongside a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track that is new to this release. I chose to watch the film utilizing the surround track, but I was pretty impressed with the Mono track as well. Once again Harry Manfredini scores the film. Clarity is very good. Fans will be pleased with both tracks.

Supplements:

(These are just the supplements included on the disc for the sixth film. This does not include the supplements on the bonus discs.)

• Audio Commentary: Peter Bracke and Actors Thom Mathews, Vincent Guastaferro, Kerry Noonan, C.J. Graham, and Cynthia Kania.
• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Tom McLoughlin.
• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Tom McLoughlin, Actor Vincent Guastaferro, and Editor Bruce Green.
• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Tom McLoughlin and Fans/Filmmakers Adam Green and Joe Lynch.
• Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part 6
• The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited – Part III
• Jason Lives: The Making of Friday the 13th, Part VI
• Meeting Mr. Voorhees
• Slashed Scenes
• TV Spots
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery
• Fangoria Articles: Accessible only via PC Blu-ray drive.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 4/5

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is where the series finally jumps the shark, resurrects Jason, maggots and all like some version of Frankenstein’s monster, and makes Jason essentially invincible. The film delivers what the fans want to see – Jason killing camp counselors – but it also refuses to take itself seriously and becomes an appealing horror-comedy. The film is less violent than prior entries and is also notably absent of any nudity (an anomaly in the series.) The Shout! Factory Blu-ray features good audio and strong video with a number of audio commentaries. Overall – I liked the direction that director-writer Tom McLoughlin took the film and found it to be a solid entry in the series, even if it never reaches the heights (or intensity) of some of the prior films.