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Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

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Friday the 13th Part VI- Jason Lives 1986 poster 2

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (stylized onscreen as Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI) is a 1986 American slasher film written and directed by Tom McLoughlin, and starring Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, and C.J. Graham. It is the sixth installment in the Friday the 13th franchise and the last one to feature Tommy Jarvis (Mathews) as the protagonist. Continuing on from the events of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, the plot follows Tommy after he accidentally resurrects mass murderer Jason Voorhees (Graham) while attempting to destroy his body to ensure he will not return. While Jason returns to Crystal Lake for another killing spree, Tommy must overcome his fear of the masked killer that has haunted him for years, and find a way to stop him once and for all.

The original storyline had Tommy Jarvis become the series' new antagonist, but after the poor fan reception of A New Beginning, the producers instead brought Jason Voorhees back. In resurrecting Jason, McLoughlin made him an explicitly supernatural force for the first time in the series. This version of Jason, an undead and more powerful superhuman, would become the standard depiction for the rest of the series. The film also introduced metahumor, gothic horror, and action film elements, including shootouts and car chases, into the series.

Jason Lives was the first in the series to receive some positive reception from critics since the original. In the years since its release, its self-referential humor and numerous instances of breaking the fourth wall have been praised for prefiguring Kevin Williamson's Scream series. Jason Lives is considered a fan favorite of the series, in addition to receiving positive notice from horror film historians. It grossed $19.4 million at the U.S. box office on a budget of $3 million. The film was followed by Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood in 1988.

Storyline[]

Plot[]

Years ago, Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) killed infamous hockey-masked murderer Jason Voorhees (C.J. Graham), and the intensity of the experience has landed him in a mental institution. To end his torment and achieve a level of closure, Tommy escapes from the hospital and heads to the graveyard where Jason is buried, intending to dig up the body and cremate it. But, before this total annihilation can occur, a freak electrical accident resurrects Jason from the dead, and the terror begins anew.

Genres[]

  • Horror
  • Slasher
  • Teen
  • Thriller
  • Cult film
  • Supernatural

Motion Picture Rating[]

  • 18 (Argentina)
  • R (Australia)
  • 14 (Brazil)
  • R (Canada)
  • R (Canada) (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario)
  • 13+ (Canada) (Quebec)
  • 15 (Denmark)
  • (Banned (Egypt)
  • (Banned (Finland) (1988)
  • K-18 (Finland) (2002)
  • 12 (France)
  • 18 (Germany)
  • 18 (Ireland)
  • VM14 (Italy)
  • C (Mexico)
  • 16 (Netherlands)
  • R16 (New Zealand)
  • 18 (Norway) (video premiere)
  • M/18 (Portugal)
  • 18+ (Russia)
  • 18 (South Korea)
  • 18 (Spain)
  • 15 (Sweden)
  • 18 (United Kingdom)
  • 15 (United Kingdom) (2002, re-rating)
  • R (United States)
  • 18 (West Germany) (video premiere, cut)

Images[]

Cast and Crew[]

Director[]

  • Tom McLoughlin

Writing Credits (WGA)[]

  • Tom McLoughlin
  • Victor Miller (based on characters created by)

Cast[]

  • Thom Mathews as Tommy Jarvis
  • Jennifer Cooke as Megan Garris
  • David Kagen as Sheriff Mike Garris
  • Kerry Noonan as Paula Mott
  • Renée Jones as Elizabeth "Sissy" Baker
  • Tom Fridley as Carter "Cort" Andrews
  • Darcy DeMoss as Nicola "Nikki" Parsley
  • Nancy McLoughlin as Lizbeth Mott
  • Tony Goldwyn as Darren Robinson
  • Alan Blumenfeld as Larry
  • Matthew Faison as Stan
  • Ann Ryerson as Katie
  • Ron Palillo as Allen Hawes
  • Vincent Guastaferro as Deputy Rick Cologne
  • Michael Swan as Officer Pappas
  • Courtney Vickery as Nancy
  • Whitney Rydbeck as Roy
  • Bob Larkin as Martin
  • Wallace Merck as Burt
  • Roger Rose as Steven Halavex
  • Cynthia Kania as Annette Edwards
  • Michael Nomad as Officer Thornton
  • Justin Nowell as Billy
  • Tommy Nowell as Tyen
  • C. J. Graham & Dan Bradley as Jason Voorhees

Producers[]

  • Don Behrns (produced by)

Details[]

Country[]

  • USA

Language[]

  • English

Release Dates[]

  • August 1, 1986 (USA)
  • August 14, 1986 (UK)
  • October 10, 1986 (Japan)
  • October 30, 1986 (Argentina)
  • 1987 (Peru)
  • January 14, 1987 (France)
  • February 1987 (Turkey)
  • March 2, 1987 (Brazil)
  • March 13, 1987 (Denmark)
  • March 21, 1987 (Netherlands) (The Weekend of Terror)
  • April 1987 (West Germany) (video premiere)
  • April 1, 1987 (West Germany)
  • April 9, 1987 (Philippines)
  • September 10, 1987 (Netherlands)
  • October 22, 1987 (Portugal)
  • August 11, 1988 (Mexico)
  • September 25, 2001 (Canada) (DVD premiere)
  • April 17, 2002 (Finland) (DVD premiere)
  • April 24, 2002 (Spain) (DVD premiere)
  • September 5, 2007 (UK) (ITV broadcast) (Network premiere)
  • February 5, 2009 (Australia) (DVD premiere)
  • June 13, 2013 (Italy) (DVD release)
  • April 13, 2018 (Netherlands) (Imagine Film Festival)
  • October 15, 2021 (Spain) (Madrid - Artistic Metropol) (subtitled version) (event)

Reception[]

Box office[]

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives opened on August 1, 1986, in 1,610 theaters and grossed $6.7 million in its opening weekend, ranking number two at the US box office. Ultimately, it would go on to gross a total of $19.4 million, ranking at number 46 on the list of the year's top earners.

Critical response[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives holds an approval rating of 46% based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 4.90/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Friday the 13th: Part VI - Jason Lives indeed brings back ol' Voorhees, along with a sense of serviceable braindead fun." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Variety described the film as predictable but "reasonably slick". Caryn James of The New York Times called it "a gory waste of time", citing numerous logic problems and stating that McLoughlin's injecting humor into the series, while successful, was not enough to liven up the predictability of the story. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune similarly judged that while the film's self-referential humor was good enough to make it the best film in the series, it was not enough to take away from the story being essentially the same as in the previous five installments. He gave it 1 1/2 stars.

In a 2012 retrospective review, Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress wrote that it "may not be exactly a good movie in the strict sense, but it's easily the best in the series", noting that he had seen all ten installments which had been released at the time. David Nusair said the film has "probably the most effective pre-credits sequence in the entire franchise ... just the sort of appreciatively ludicrous interlude that's generally been sorely missing from this pervasively dull series". However, he felt the bulk of the film, while an improvement over the previous two installments, suffered from tedious pacing and a lack of gore. He gave it two out of four stars, the same rating he gave to six out of the series' ten installments.

Company Credits[]

Production Companies[]

Distributors[]

  • Paramount Pictures (1986) (USA) (theatrical)
  • Paramount Home Video (1986) (USA) (VHS)
  • CIC Video (1987) (West Germany) (VHS)
  • Paramount Home Video (1988) (USA) (VHS) (reissue)
  • Paramount Home Video (1988) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
  • Paramount Pictures (1988) (Mexico) (theatrical)
  • Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment (2002) (Mexico) (DVD)
  • Paramount Home Entertainment (2001) (Spain) (DVD)
  • Paramount Home Entertainment (2002) (Germany) (DVD)
  • Paramount Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
  • Paramount Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (Blu-ray) (deluxe edition)
  • Paramount Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD) (deluxe edition)
  • United International Pictures (UIP) (1986) (Argentina) (theatrical)
  • United International Pictures (UIP) (1986) (Japan) (theatrical)
  • Argentina Video Home (Argentina) (VHS)
  • British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (1992) (UK) (TV) (BBC1)
  • CIC-Taft Home Video (Australia) (VHS)
  • Finnkino I (2002) (Finland) (DVD)
  • Malo Video (Canada) (VHS) (dubbed)
  • SBS Viceland (2020) (Australia) (TV)
  • Scream Factory (2020) (USA) (Blu-ray) (deluxe collection)
  • Sky Deutschland (2010) (Germany) (TV) (as Sky Action)
  • TNT (1998) (USA) (TV)
  • VideoVisa (Mexico) (VHS)
  • ITV (2007) (UK) (TV) (Network premiere)

Special Effects[]

  • Reel Efx (special effects) (as Reel EFX, Inc.)

Technical Specs[]

Runtime[]

  • 86 mins

Color[]

  • Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio[]

  • 1.85:1

Trivia[]

  • Film debut of Tony Goldwyn.
  • Filming lasted 40 days.
  • The opening title sequence is an obvious nod to the 007 James Bond openings. Rather than a swift turn to the camera with a gunshot from a PPK it is a swift turn to the camera with a machete slice.
  • The opening cemetery scenes were shot on a sound stage.
  • The first film in the series to be recorded in Ultra Stereo.
  • First film in which Jason doesn't run he speed walks.
  • This is only the 2nd film in the series (the first since the original) that actually takes place on Friday the 13th.
  • When Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives made its UK television debut on ITV1 on Wednesday 5th September 2007, this is the first film on ITV since Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. This is the last Friday the 13th film to be aired on ITV at 9:00pm on Wednesday evening, following The Bill.

Connections[]

Follows[]

Followed by[]

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