Review of Jason Lives - Friday the 13th Part VI (1986) by Lucien L — 09 Mar 2015

This is one of the best of the "Friday the 13th" series. It is nicely written and directed by Tom McLoughlin (Date with an Angel, Stephen King's Sometimes They Come Back). The whole movie has a tongue in cheek affair that most "Friday" fans were pleased with and some were not, of course. Since the character of Jason Voorhees truly died in "Friday the 13th:The Final Chapter". Now Jason is back as a supernatural Zombie, which he can't die.

It is been years that Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews from "Return of the Living Dead" fame) that he is still haunted by Jason. Since Tommy is been recently released from the mental hospital, he and his best friend (The late Ron Palillo from the hit TV series "Welcome Back, Carter") decides to go, where Jason Voorhees is been buried, dig up his body and burn it. Once his body is dig up, lighting storm with a metal pole resurrected Jason (Before his resurrection, Tommy is been taking out his anger on the killer's corpse). When Tommy's best friend dies, he tries to warm the hard-headed sheirff Garris (David Kagen, who kinda looks or acted like the recent Oscar-Winner:J.K. Simmons) that Jason is back to life but of course, the sheriff doesn't believe him. Jason is heading back to Crystal Lake (Now he is re-named Camp Forest Green) to where he is belong and killing anyone, who gets in his way and especially horny camp counselors.

For a supposedly mean-spirited slasher movie, this one has a light tone in its storytelling. McLoughlin has a loving tribute to his visual style of old horror movies and for the most part, his dialogue on his character are often clever and quite funny. Also his script has some of the same ideas that were later used on "Scream", when it comes to make fun of horror movies with a knowing wink. Interestingly enough, "Fright Night" did the same thing in a way, making fun of old hammer Vampire movies.

Some gory moments were cut from the MPAA board but since the tone of the feature is so different from the other "Friday" films, I don't think, making it gory would have made any better (expect for "Friday the 13th Part 7:The New Blood", since it has some bloody outtakes that exists only in Rough Cut VHS form and the uncut version of "Jason Goes to Hell:The Final Friday"). Mc Loughlin's film does have an likeable cast, some great in-jokes, some cool kills and a couple of good Alice Cooper rock songs thrown in for good measure. Mathews has one of the more appealing performances of the "Friday" series and former actress Jennifer Cooke is amazingly cute and flirty as the rebellious Sheriff's daughter in a good way. Even non "Friday" fans can enjoy this. Grade:A-.