Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on June 11, 2009, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
Every slasher fan has their own choice as the best in the original Jason Voorhees film series, and mine is Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. From its opening title that winks at the James Bond flicks, this entry provided a welcome sense of knowing humor to the by-then repetitious proceedings, without making fun of Jason himself. (As writer/director Tom McLoughlin has often stated, and does so again on Paramount’s new Deluxe Edition DVD, that was one of franchise producer Frank Mancuso Jr.’s directives when McLoughlin took this gig.)
Those light touches, and the general panache McLoughlin brings to the film, were a refreshing change from the crudities of the previous A New Beginning (which doesn’t actually sport a Part V on screen—and, as mentioned on its own Deluxe disc, was actually called Repetition during filming). Director/co-writer Danny Steinmann does bring a rude energy to this entry, but there’s a gamy, trashy feeling to the whole thing, which packs in more onscreen deaths than any of its Paramount cohorts—22 in all, including the climactic demise of its “pseudo-Jason,” the element that has inspired no small amount of debate among Friday devotees.
Parts V and VI comprise the mini-saga of the adult Tommy Jarvis, grown up from The Final Chapter’s makeup-loving kid (Corey Feldman, who makes a brief reappearance in V’s opening) and played by John Shepherd and Thom Mathews, respectively. The former sees him as a deeply disturbed, quiet, passive sort (aside from his occasional outbursts of violence), relocated to a halfway house whose unique approach to treatment includes assigning the angriest of the residents to chop firewood with a huge ax. With such an extensive body count, this one sets a Friday record for completely incidental characters introduced to provide murder fodder, most of whom swear like sailors—adding profanity to sex, drugs and drinking on the list of activities guaranteed to doom you in one of these flicks. Despite Steinmann’s marching orders to “make Tommy the new Jason,” and assorted blood-red herrings, it couldn’t be more obvious which of the players is actually the mystery killer from his very first scene, though there are distractions in the dialogue (like young Shavar Ross’ “You scared of spiders?” bit) and the singing stylings of the lovers played by Miguel Nuñez Jr. and Jeré Fields (“Hey baby, hey baby…” “Oooh baby, oooh baby…”).
Though last seen in Part V literally assuming Jason’s mask, Tommy returns in VI as an active hero, determined to rid himself of memories of the masked one by exhuming and destroying the villain’s corpse. But when you bring TV’s Horshack (Ron Palillo) with you for help, things are bound to go awry, and soon Tommy is trying to convince anyone who’ll listen that Jason…well, lives, and that he himself isn’t responsible for the resulting kill spree. The first Friday to actually return to Camp Crystal Lake (though the town has been renamed Forest Green) since Part 2, this movie has bigger action to go with its more humorous bent, including the franchise’s first car chase and an impressive RV crash. Most importantly, it centers on a bunch of genuinely likable protagonists, with funny supporting characters (love the survivalists and their “DEAD” headbands), and Tommy’s quest adds an urgency to the scenes between kills that’s lacking in many of the other Jason adventures.
Both films are presented in widescreen transfers that appear a tad cleaner but are otherwise not noticeably different from those that appeared in the previous Friday boxed set. A more significant upgrade has been given to the soundtracks, which are now in Dolby Digital 5.1 and more active than before. Each movie also comes with a commentary track, a making-of interview segment and new installments in the Lost Tales from Camp Blood and The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited featurette series begun on the prior Deluxe discs.
Part V’s commentary promises to team Steinmann with “cast and crew,” though only the former are represented, in the persons of Shepherd and Ross. The three have a fun old time joking about the movie and their memories of making it, which is enough to sustain enjoyment in the absence of much hard production detail. Steinmann offers a series of quips about handling the costuming, props, bird wrangling, etc. in lieu of discussing his actual job of directing, offers explanations for how the peripheral victims are connected to the main plot and backstory for rednecks Ethel and Junior, etc. On a slightly more serious note, he also explains what got lost from the gore scenes to the MPAA’s scissors.
On the New Beginnings minidocumentary, however, the filmmaker reveals that a sex scene suffered the most ratings-board ire. This piece offers a few amusing observations from assorted actors (Tiffany Helm recreates her robot/pantomime dance), while Dick Wieand and Tom Morga explain just how they got into the villainous mindsets of Jason and his imitator. There’s also a fun cameo, albeit one that seems to belong with The Final Chapter, from Tom Savini, intruding on a chat with DVD supplement honcho Michael Felsher, who also chimes in on the commentary and in both places attempts to make a case for Part V as an unrecognized gem.
No such sentiment is shared by editor Bruce Green, who cut both V and VI and disdains the former on the commentary for the latter. This track also features McLoughlin (gamely sitting down at the mic again after doing a solo commentary several years back for the boxed set) and co-star Vincent Guastaferro, who share a trove of trivia and anecdotes. Everything from how to shoot effectively through prison bars and in historical cemeteries to the casting of the supporting victims is addressed—and this is certainly the only Friday commentary where Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd are cited (and perhaps the only one where it could be done with a straight face). The Jason Lives featurette offers a few unpretentious observations on the moral implications of violence (McLoughlin took advantage of Jason’s new superhuman status to stage “impossible” kills) and, even better, visual highlights ranging from a peek at film reels bearing Part VI’s code title Aladdin Sane to video of one of Jason’s hockey masks in the process of creation.
There are extra bonuses on Part VI as well, including Slashed Scenes, an assortment of very rough footage revealing the grisly punchlines trimmed for ratings reasons—as well as the initial version of one demise that was actually subtler the first time around. Meeting Mr. Voorhees presents McLoughlin’s originally intended ending via a storyboard montage, in which the graveyard keeper (voiced by returning actor Bob Larkin) has an encounter with Jason’s dad. Only quibble: Where’s the cool music video for Alice Cooper’s end-title song “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)”?
As for the Lost Tales, they remain undistinguished chapters in an overall killer-in-the-woods (sans hockey mask) narrative that doesn’t seem to possess any true connection to the Friday features—or, consequently, much of a point. More entertaining are the Crystal Lake Massacre bits, created by His Name Was Jason director Daniel Farrands; these are mockumentaries in which survivors of the assorted rampages (the first Friday’s Officer Dorf makes a reappearance, now as a deputy), cash-in authors and conspiracy theorists discourse about Jason and Tommy’s exploits. Too bad the briefly seen www.crystallakecoverup.net URL doesn’t lead to an actual working site…
