I know this is a fan favorite (it hit 50% on the Tomatometer!) but I can't say I was engaged by a lot of Jason Lives. The movie is noted for its comedic bent but I was baffled by a lot of the jokes, things like a nerd doing goofy calisthenics during a paintball match or a child asleep in his bed with a copy of Sartre on his blanket. They set a tone that doesn't really gel with the rest of Jason Lives.
But I'm glad they got a new actor to play Tommy Jarvis (he was pathetic and irritating in A New Beginning). As a character he still doesn't have much use, though. Besides resurrecting Jason in the beginning and tying him to a rock at the end, he simply spends the movie in various states of incarceration.
The only Friday to be written and directed by the same person, showrunner Tom McLoughlin refuses to be comply with certain slasher tropes (this is the only Friday movie with zero drugs or nudity) and gives his movie the self-referential treatment, stopping short of Wes Craven territory. One character balks incredulously that his car stalls in the face of impending doom. Another states she's seen enough horror movies to know hockey mask-wearing dudes are probably bad news. And at one point, this crazy guy looks into the camera and says, "Some folks have a strange idea of entertainment."
This is the first incarnation of Jason the super-zombie and McLoughlin does fashion some interesting character quirks. Whereas Jason usually teleports from place to place, in Jason Lives we have a few eerie shots of Jason traveling alone back to Crystal Lake. Here, he looks like Robert Frost contemplating the woods on an overcast day:
We're also re-introduced to the contemplative Jason head tilt (last seen at the end of Part 2 and The Final Chapter), which comes out whenever he encounters something new, whether it be 80s butt rock:
Or, his new found strength:
Or, little girls:
There's a childish curiosity that emanates from zombie Jason, endearing in its own twisted way, that I think audiences really respond to. That's probably one of the reasons he endures, even if his movies aren't great: there's just enough little imperfections in his backstory that opens the character up to interpretation. He's a maniac. He's a zombie. He's a mama's boy. He's a stupid child, lashing out at the world, as he tries to find home again.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives Vital Stats:
- Body Count: 18.
- Survivors: 2. Plus a bunch of little kids.
- Number of stalled cars: 1
- Average amount of time it takes for characters to get over a friend's death: 2 minutes
- Number of Jason-approved weapons: 5. Alcohol bottle, spear, machete, knife, dart.
Memories of Crystal Lake:
- Luke Y. Thompson of LYTrules: "Part six was the first one I saw, which is perhaps why I have more affection for 'Zombie Jason' as the definitive incarnation than 'Deformed Jason.' The Alice Cooper music video was my first exposure to the franchise, period; and the movie was the first sequel to really embrace the over-the-top nature of the story, with lightning bringing Jason back to life, and the classic "don't come until the song ends" sex scene. The NECA action figures of this Jason are my favorite Jason toys, by a long shot."
- Steve Barton of Dread Central: "Paramount learned really quickly that you couldn't have a Jason film without Jason so as a mea culpa to fans, they brought back the man behind the mask for real. Jason Lives plays like a rock and roll horror comic book with nods to some of the great Universal monster movies of Hollywood's golden age (i.e., raising Jason with electricity a la Frankenstein's monster). Plus we have Arnold Horshack. They should have billed this movie as Jason vs. The Sweathog to attract the Seventies crowd, too!"
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