Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives! (1986)

Starring: Thom Matthews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen

First off before I start – GREAT FUCKING SEQUEL.  Many might give me shit about it or say its cliche’, but this really is a great sequel.  It’s even better if you watch it right after Part 4. They both go together very well. This is the Part 5 fans really wanted, because Jason really does come back, for real this time! Tommy is back too and played by the awesome Thom Matthews from Return of the Living Dead.  Him and his buddy from the institute (played hilariously by Ron Palillo from Welcome Back Kotter!), are out to dig Jason up and make sure he’s dead.
Right off the bat, the film has horror and comedy nicely combined. There’s an energy to it faster than the previous Fridays. Tom McLoughlin’s direction is spot on.
Of course things go horribly wrong when they try to dig Jason up. Jason rises from the dead after Tommy impales his corpse with a metal rod that gets hit by lightning. Yes! The moment fans were waiting for.

 

 

They even do a joke James Bond style opening.

Tommy runs to the sheriff’s office of Crystal Lake now called “Lake Forest Green”. The Sheriff played by David Kagen plays the perfect asshole counterpart that doesn’t believe a word Tommy says and thinks he’s crazy. He decides to lock Tommy up for the night.

In the morning when he awakens he sees the Sheriff’s hot daughter Megan (Jennifer Cooke), and her friends getting ready to open Camp Forest Green. Of course, she takes an interest in Tommy. Sheriff definitely doesn’t like that.

He basically gets kicked out of town once they see Jason’s grave is dug back up thanks to the drunken caretaker of the cemetery, Martin.
The locals and counselors are picked off by Jason, and the cops of course think Tommy is doing it. Megan finds out and meets up with Tommy to get him back at the camp to get everyone out of there. The Sheriff interrupts many times to annoy us, but once it all comes together, Tommy faces Jason one last time on the lake. It’s a decent ending, keeps the door open for a sequel.

Apparently there’s an alternate ending where Martin the caretaker (who was already dead anyway, so it doesn’t make sense), shows Elias Voorhees (Jason’s father) visiting his grave. That would’ve been very odd.
There are some great kill scenes, including company people playing paintball in the woods, and then later in an RV. All classic Jason moments.

 

 

CJ Graham is one of my favorite Jasons, too. He totally pulls it off.

It really is a fun time — great cast,  great soundtrack songs too by Alice Cooper! Couldn’t ask for a cooler movie. My only real complaint for this entry of the series is that is the first one (until Jason Goes to Hell) that has a lower amount of gore than usual. Definitely cool kills, but wheres the extremely bloody and gory details? By today’s standards, it almost feels PG-13. Ugh. They really needed Tom Savini for this but he was probably busy with Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 at the time. There is no nudity in this one either. While 4 is probably my favorite of the sequels, and despite the minor flaws, this comes as a close second. Another essential Jason to see.

RANDOM THOUGHTS/OBSERVATIONS

Jason 2.0 looking more zombie-like, which is awesome but if Tom Savini was doing the FX would’ve been a step in the right direction in that department.

Not only is there no nudity, but no stoners get killed in this one either.

Always heard mixed reviews for this one over the years, which I thought even for Jason fans was weird. I never understood how anyone could hate this sequel. It’s too essential for the series and the continuing Jason story. Just my thoughts. Oh well. Everyone’s got an opinion, just like everyone has an asshole.

Updates Mar 2018

Hello friends/fans,
It’s been a hectic winter to say the least. Luckily its coming to an end, and with the arrival of Spring comes the Scars Like These shows. We already have a good amount of shows booked and ready. We have copies of the new Defiled EP ready, too!
I want to get more movie reviews going, and work on MoonCandle as well. It’s a lot of work on top of my regular working life, so as usual I must be patient.
Check back soon!
DM Dave

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)

First let me get this out of the way for Part 5. Unlike some of these so-called fans (ha), I still loved and enjoyed the shit out of Part 5.  Unfortunately all my first Friday the 13th viewings were out of order. I saw Part 4 and 6 before seeing this one. For the moments leading up to the first viewing of Part 5, I kept wondering what the hell was going to happen in between 4 & 6. The cover didn’t give away anything, it’s just a cheesy looking hockey mask. The pictures on the back of the VHS tape just show a chick crying, holding a chainsaw, Junior about to be decapitated, and maybe the kid making a scared face.

The description of the film was also very vague. It was something along the lines of the typical, cheesy description “Jason Voorhees is back and more murderous than ever in this blood-soaked installment to the classic slasher franchise, etc.”
It must be pointed out that Tommy Jarvis is the first character since Alice and Crazy Ralph to show up in a following sequel.
It’s nice (but only for a brief moment) to see Corey Feldman play the Tommy we remember in the very beginning of the film. Right away we see him wandering through a Crystal Lake-looking forest. He ends up at the grave site of the deceased Jason Voorhees.
2 random dudes with shovels randomly run over to the grave and just start digging him up. Really? Now I’m confused as shit thinking how the hell is the beginning of Part 6 supposed to get to that point?
We find out its really just a nightmare of Tommy’s, who now appears to be older and in a van on its way to somewhere… Roll opening credits.

So at this point early on in the movie, I see it has something going for it. Tommy is now at a mental institute in the form of what looks like a “recovery” house run by Matt and pretty blond Pam. We learn that Tommy’s been in and out of these kinds of places because he can’t seem to shake Jason Voorhees out of his head (Who wouldn’t after the events of Part 4?). He suffers from hallucinations of Jason, only to leave the audience wondering. Unlike the Tommy Jarvis in Part 4 and 6, this Tommy (played by John Shepherd) is very quiet and mentally unstable. If people mess with him, he will fight back like a motherfucker.

Tommy isn’t the main focus believe it or not, as the story progresses. We learn that some of the locals don’t like the “nut house” including a wacky redneck lady Ethel and her son that looks oh so much like Uncle Eddy Dennis Quaid, “Junior”.

There’s a shocking moment in the beginning of the film where one of the nuts kills another. The slow, fat kid Joey annoys the shit out of a guy Vic, who is chopping wood. I was actually not expecting that at all even though i was thinking Vic might do something to Joey if he keeps pissing him off.   And whaddya know, Vic attacks Joey with an axe. Why not?

Want a chocolate bar?

 

After that incident, murders begin to happen again. First its random locals, then it seems to be people around the area of the nuthouse.  Basically everyone in this cast, one by one. Even though most of these are typical Jason-like kills (some of them are actually creative I’ll go over my favorite kills a little later), something felt off about the killing scenes while watching it.
This has the Part 1 & 2 feeling of the mysterious killer. In Part 3 and 4, we knew clearly it was Jason. In this one, the killer is hard to figure out. It couldn’t be Jason, the murderer’s hands are too clean-looking instead of the usual rotting Jason flesh, and unlike the other 4 there is hardly any POV of the killer. While I was confused about all that, I was also starting to realize the body count is very high compared to the previous 4.

Finally by the end, we find out the killer isn’t really Jason, but a copycat. It ends up being Roy the paramedic who was earlier in the film bagging up Joey’s corpse. When Roy was called to the scene, he realized it was his own son that was killed by Vic. He took it upon him to vow revenge Jason Voorhees-style.
Unlike Jason, Roy wasn’t a zombie, so he did meet his own fate in this one. This has a bad effect on Tommy, one of the few survivors left at the end. I’ll ruin it for you, Tommy dawns the Jason mask Roy was wearing, and…

This is why it was a big disappointment to a lot of people. But you have to realize that they wanted “A New Beginning”. That’s why the ending sucked. Tommy the new Jason after this one? Get the fuck out of here.
It’s hard for me to completely dismiss this one though. I do agree that Part 4 and 6 follow each other very well and with this one in between it feels like a mess, BUT it’s still Friday the 13th-like as it always is, and I love that. The kills are very creative. My favorites kills include the flare in the mouth, the cleaver to the face landing in a pot of hot soup, and when Demon (played by Miguel Nunez from Return of the Living Dead!) gets killed in the shitbox after singing “oooo baby” to his girlfriend, etc. Classic.

If you know this going in, and just watch it for what it is – a Friday the 13th movie! So chill out and stop hating, you can always skip it after Part 4 and go right to Part 6.

RANDOM THOUGHTS/OBSERVATIONS
— Anyone else think Pete and Vinny were weird dudes looking like they’re teens from the 50s?
— Before their deaths, Ethel and Junior would’ve been a great spin-off comedy.
— Joey’s Munchies chocolate bar. Wish I had an authentic one!
— Violet the emo chick looks ahead of her time.

— Reggie the Reckless screams at a pitch almost higher than a little girl. I laugh at that every time. Turns the horror to comedy every time 🙂