Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) attempts to mutilate the body of Jason, but accidentally reanimates him when lightening strikes. Jason heads to the old campgrounds to kill anyone there while Tommy warns the police. But no one will believe him except the sheriff’s daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke), who is a councilor at the newly reopened camp. It is up to the two of them to stop Jason.
So, now Jason’s a zombie. At least that makes some kind of sense (although reanimating dead psychotics is a bit easy). Why is he stronger than any mortal and able to withstand almost anything? Because he’s a zombie. OK, I can work with that.
Part VI is the same old story, but with a new tone. It is noticeably lighter than its predecessors with actual jokes. And ten years before critics fell over themselves praising the post-modern Scream, this film already had all those self-referential qualities. When a girl driving down the road suddenly stops, we get this exchange:
Girl: “We better turn around”
Boyfriend: “Why?”
(Jason is shown standing in the road)
Girl: “Because I’ve seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask isn’t friendly.”
Or better still, the gravedigger, remarking on Jarvis’s opening of Jason’s grave, but really talking to the audience about the film:
“Why’d they have to dig up Jason. Some people have a strange idea of entertainment.”
They do indeed.
Part VI also introduces the radical idea of kids at the camp. For the first time, the camp has a purpose. And the children aren’t used for annoying “cute” scenes. They raise the tension and have a few good lines without getting in the way.
Megan is a surprisingly sympathetic and strong character for a Friday the 13th film. She takes action, is slightly smarter than everyone else (which isn’t saying she’s smart), and shows signs of normal emotions. The film does teach me that girls really go for guys who rant about legendary killers. That must be considered really hot as Megan is attracted to Tommy as soon as she sees him, and she doesn’t let anything like suspicion of murder detour her from getting close to this unknown male. I never realized how charming apparent insanity is to girls, much less the whole felon thing. There’s no other reason for her to like Tommy as he is devoid of humor and the ability to speak in conversational tones. He brings nothing to the film either, and Mathews gives the role the dullness it deserves.
For a film about Jason killing people, there is way too much time spent on the sheriff hunting Tommy. He may not know that Jason is back, but we do, so it’s obvious that these scenes can lead nowhere.
I’m also uncertain when Tommy became an expert on the occult. He grabs a few books and suddenly he knows how to kill Jason. Those must be great books. But then Jason is no threat around Tommy anyway. He breaks through doors, rips a girl’s head off in a few seconds, and slices through three people’s necks at once. But when he gets his hands on Tommy, he takes forever to do anything. The same is true of Megan, who the mighty Jason can’t even hold underwater. Considering his strength in the rest of the film, Jason turns out to be a real wimp.
Friday the 13th Part VI is nowhere close to being a good film, but for this series, it’s reasonably entertaining. There’s no frights, but then Jason was never scary. The gore is a bit light (though if more of the murders were shown, it would be pretty extreme), and it is missing any nudity, which is a mistake in a film going for mindless thrills. Luckily, humor counts for a lot.