Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Tommy Jarvis returns to the graveyard to make sure Jason Voorhees is dead and accidentally brings him back to life. Now it's up to Tommy to stop Jason's mindless killing and put him back where he belongs.
Jacob O’Neal reviewedJune 13, 2025
There are few things I love more than a fun 80’s slasher film that doesn’t take itself too seriously but knows where the line is. It’s still a horror movie first and foremost, not Freddy’s Dead. Tom McLaughlin did just that with Jason Lives. Sure, there was overtly silly James Bond nod at the beginning, but that was to set a tone. After that, it was humor in tone with the moment. But did he deliver on the scares and kills? Well…yes and no. He did, but the stupid MPAA cut all the fun stuff, like the slice that removed the heads of three paintballers in one stroke. We see the before and after. Thanks to the MPAA, the during has been lost to us. But the kills were creative and fun.
Thom Matthews takes his first crack at Tommy Jarvis. He does well. In fact, he’s come back to play Tommy unofficially a few times now in fan films that continue his story. They’re pretty decent. You should check them out. In this film Tommy was just released from the loony bin with Horshack from Welcome Back, Kotter. They go to Jason’s grave and dig him up so Tommy can burn the body. But evil has other plans. Jason’s corpse is revived by a magical bolt of lightning (marking the first official supernatural moment in the film series). Jason starts his killing rampage anew. As for Tommy, well, everyone thinks he’s the killer except for the sheriff’s daughter who has a crush on him…Tommy, not her dad. This isn’t the adult parody version. In fact, there’s no nudity in this film. This is the only one in the franchise without at least a nipple.
Here’s what’s cool about the movie - they still kept and built upon the sense of dread that Jason can and will kill kids after seeing him go after Feldman’s child Tommy. This time the summer camp is active. There’s kids sleeping right near the counselors getting murdered. That was a smart move on the film’s part. It helped ramp up the tension. Also, because there was no nudity, they didn’t use the same rules and tropes for the killing the whole time. Sometimes it was just random. Tom McLaughlin made a movie that still feels and fits into Friday The 13th with all the familiar things - summer camp, hot people in peril, cool kills, etc…but what he didn’t do was follow all the rules. He added more humor. It felt more like a Joe Dante movie than Sean Cunningham’s original. Adding in the supernatural element works for Jason. He can’t be killed and comes back infinitely throughout time. That’s scary too. Finally, I have to give it up for Harry Manfredini. I should have mentioned him before now in these reviews. His score had notes of Bernard Herrmann and I heard notes that reminded me of The Shining with a higher musical register. Rather than sounding like the music was coming from a contrabassoon it sounds like a higher pitched synthesizer.
There’s not much I don’t like about this movie. If I had to say anything didn’t work were a few jokes that fell flat, some of the performances and maybe the Jason performance. He was walking too fast and smashing through walls. I don’t blame the guy playing Jason. That falls on McLaughlin. But the mask looks awesome in this one.
Next time, we will discuss if Weekend At Bernie’s is secretly a sequel to Friday The 13th Part 7. And in the final review I post in a few days for the reboot, I will include my rankings of all 12 official Jason movies.