FRIDAY THE 13th PART VI:
JASON LIVES
Such as it is, the series' shining hour and a half

I don't have the stats to back this up, but I think this was the first Friday movie to actually flop at the box office. All I know is, around here, it was around for about three days and just disappeared. Which is kind of a shame, because when you get right down to it, this is possibly the most entertaining movie in the series.

  Thom Matthews, from Return Of The Living Dead, plays the same guy who we thought had gone insane and "became" Jason at the end of Part V. He's normal in this movie, so we can pretty much pretend that Part V didn't happen. He's having some serious problems accepting the death of Jason, even though he's six feet under - not buried Fulci-style (that is, two inches under the ground). So he and his friend (are you ready for this? It's HORSHACK!) zip on off one night to Jason's grave and dig him up, and make sure he's dead. (of course, if he's not, then they're opening a can of worms)

  Anyway, when this guy sees Jason's body (maggots, slime and everything - and I guess nobody paid to bury him in a suit, cuz he's still in his overalls), he goes a little batty.  He rips a big steel post off of the fence and starts stabbing Jason with it, totally disregarding the lightning storm brewing overhead. So anyway, what happens is...exactly what you think happens. And it's that kind of goofball shit that makes me enjoy this movie more than pretty much any other entry in this series. 

So Horshack dies, and Horshack dies ugly - and our hero bravely turned his tail and fled. (copping one from the Python here) Jason puts on his mask (oh, looks like our hero kept the mask all these years and he tossed it into the grave, for some reason) and makes his way to Camp Crystal Lake. Even though the whole damn town has changed its name (to Forest Lawn or something like that) to get away from Jason, he can still find it. But things have changed - nowadays, summer camp actually has kids! Yes, none of this "striking the counselors before the kids get here" shit this time around - yes, counselors die, but the kids are, in theory, on hand to watch. Plus there's the supposed extra factor that the kids are in danger too, but we all know that this movie just isn't going to kill a bunch of kids in front of us. 

(additional note - I was actually once a camp counselor stalked by a psycho, but he never actually really tried anything) (phew!)  

And what unfolds is, by all accounts, actually a good movie! IT HAS A PLOT!!! It's rather thin, but our hero's journey from the graveyard to his final confrontation with Jason on a boat on the lake is actually a little convoluted. IT HAS CHARACTERS!!! Some of the kids are a hoot, and our hero and heroine (Jennifer Cooke, who had the ill-fortune of once appearing in a movie called Daddy, I Don't Like It Like This) are both really likeable. IT HAS LAUGHS (and quite a few of them)!!! Favorite: when a chick is grabbed by Jason when she pokes her head out a window, and she's grabbed so quickly that her bunny slippers stay where they are. IT HAS GORE!!! Probably more than any in the series until Part 9. Fist-impalements, whole-room blood-splatterings, bodies folded in half, crushed heads...ah, it's joy, guys, it's joy. 

On the downside - come on, this movie's just good, not great, so it's gotta have a downside - the ending is a bit of a letdown. It features one of the worst songs Alice Cooper ever recorded, "He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask"). There's no nudity at all, which makes it the only movie in this series without it. And it's not like anybody really tried rethinking the series here - all that's changed is the approach, not the meat of things. 

Goofiest death: when three paintballers are decapitated, simultaneously, with a machete. (I seem to remember that if you look closely at the bottom of the screen, you can see the platform on which the headless dummies stand) Definitely a hoot n' a howl. Wouldn't scare a five-year-old, but this series ran out of chills 'round Part 4.  

Interesting note - the chick who gets that big fence spike right in her mouth is the wife of the director, Tom McLoughlin. Perhaps a commentary on the state of their marriage, and a possible reason for it? Anyway, McLoughlin mostly directs TV these days. Jason's played by C.J. Graham, who if you ask me makes for as good a Jason as Kane Hodder does (not like they really have to do much). 

I remember seeing a chick reading the novelization of this movie in junior high. Even then, I wondered why. Apparently, the novelization has a subplot involving Jason's father, a person who is never mentioned or hinted at in any of the movies. That'd be kind of interesting, I have to admit. C'mon, we all know about his wacky mom - aren't you a little curious about dad? 

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