Directed by Tom McLoughlin (who also wrote and directed One Dark Night)
For the second Friday the 13th of the year, back in July, I watched a Jason double feature. The first movie in the double feature, Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI, continues where A New Beginning leaves off. Jason Lives is one of my favorite in the series because the cinematography is excellent for being this type of movie, and it is really entertaining to watch. You can tell the director and crew had a lot of fun making this thing. A soundtrack by Alice Cooper and slapstick gags performed by children add some levity to its morbid subject matter.
Tommy Jarvis and a pal who looks like a nervous Daniel Stern head to the town formerly known as Crystal Lake on a mission to find the place Jason has been buried. The residents of Crystal Lake have decided to give their town a makeover and rename it Forest Green to quote, “forget about that Jason stuff.” (Because a name change is going to erase the citizens’ memories of dozens of people being murdered in the woods for the better part of a decade.) Tommy and pal find Jason’s grave in the local cemetery. They dig up his body in an attempt to burn it, but magical lightning strikes, reanimating his maggot-infested corpse.
“What does he think I am? A fart head?”
Tommy goes to the police for help, but they lock him up for being a nutcase pulling a prank, then kick him out of town. Meanwhile, Jason kills a bunch of people in the woods, in highly ridiculous ways like punching through bodies with his bare hand. When the cops start to see a body count, they think it’s Tommy taking his prank waaay too far, so they re-arrest him. The sheriff’s daughter Megan develops a crush on Tommy, and blinded by limerence, believes his crazy necromancy story. She breaks him out of jail, and uses her badass sports car to try to help him hunt down Jason.
The sheriff gets word that some shit is going down at Camp Crystal Lake, I mean, Forest Green, and shows up to find a bunch of traumatized children and a gory murder scene. Surprise, surprise. Tommy and Megan show up at camp to try drowning Jason in the lake again (because that worked so well all those years ago…). They end up chaining Jason to a boulder that anchors him to the bottom of the lake. Clearly a metaphor for capitalism.
This movie inspires more questions than it answers. For example:
Who paid for Jason’s headstone? I can only imagine a Boy Scout troop sitting behind a folding table at the entrance to the local Wal-Mart asking for donations to the Jason Voorhees Burial Fund.
How many years in a row have people been murdered at this summer camp? And they keep trying to have camp here? At this point it’s just irresponsible.
What is the symbolism behind all of the red-headed women in this movie?
Super sarcasm aside, this is one of the best movies in this series. Not only is the quality of the film excellent, but there are visual motifs that add an air of sophistication to this late-stage horror franchise sequel. One motif is a sort of chiaroscuro effect: the use of contrasting shadows and light in all of the night-time scenes. There is also a noticeable blue and peach color scheme.
This movie has a healthy dose of humor as well. It’s the first time in the series that campers actually stay at Camp Crystal Lake, and the children are put to good use for comic relief. In one scene we see a child asleep in his bed clutching a copy of Sartre’s No Exit. When a counselor tells the kids to hide from the murderer, they dive onto the floor in exaggerated, slapstick movements, and then make jokes about their own mortality.
“So, what were you going to be when you grew up?”
The director is a master of time economy. This movie is the shortest F13 film, which works in its favor because every second is put to good use, and the movie never drags or becomes boring. Also noteworthy is that there is not a single naked woman. There are a couple of benign sex scenes, but again, the movie does not waste too much time on them.
If you are not convinced of this movie’s greatness yet, I’ll leave you with this: The trivia section of its IMDB page says that it inspired Kevin Williamson to write Scream, and that Tom McLoughlin was invited to direct it, but declined. I’m too lazy to verify if this is true or not, but it’s a nice thought.
Someone is not a fan.
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