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Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

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Overall Rating 66%
Overall Rating
Ranked #2,429
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Connections: Friday The 13th

Tommy Jarvis goes to the graveyard to get rid of Jason Voorhees' body once and for all, but inadvertently brings him back to life instead. The newly revived killer once again seeks revenge, and Tommy may be the only one who can defeat him. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: May 2, 2005
In part six of the series, we once again catch up with Tommy Jarvis (now played by Thom Matthews, of The Return Of The Living Dead fame). It seems as though Tommy has escaped from the mental institution that he is now locked up in, and along with his buddy Allen (Ron Palillo, better known as Horshack), he plans to visit the grave of Jason Voorhees (with C.J. Graham behind the mask this time) and send him straight to hell, courtesy of a can of gasoline and a match. The two idiots dig up Jason's grave and see his prone body lying in the coffin, rotting away and covered in maggots. With the memories of Part IV still ringing in his ears, Tommy rips an iron bar off of the cemetery fence and stabs Jason in the chest over and over. Satisfied and this little bit of vengeance, Tommy prepares to pour the gasoline on Jason's corpse and get it over with... when suddenly, a bolt of lightning hits the bar that is still sticking out of Jason's chest, breathing new life into the mass murderer. Jason is back, he's pissed, and he now has the super-hero strength that we've come to know and love... no longer can he be put down by something as trivial as an axe to the head or a shotgun blast to the chest. Allen has his heart ripped out of his chest, while Tommy high-tails it back to the car and drives straight to the sheriff's office. Like any good policeman, Sheriff Garris (David Kagen) quickly discredits Tommy's story and locks him up for the evening. Tommy tries to convince Garris that Jason is back and headed towards Camp Forest Green (aka, Camp Crystal Lake), but the sheriff and his deputy will have none of that. It also just so happens that the camp has just reopened on this very day, with counselors Megan (Jennifer C. Cooke), Cort (Tom Fridley), Sissy (Rene Jones), and Paula (Kerry Noonan) attempting to control a swarm of children. Jason leaves a bloody trail on his way back home, but will Tommy and Megan, who just so happens to also be the sheriff's daughter, be able to stop him in time?

Sequels to highly successful movies usually tend to lose that certain something that made the movie popular enough to warrant this many sequels in the first place. The F13 series, however, has shattered this normally spot-on trend, and the streak continues in part six. While the whole storyline aspect that I gushed over in my review of part five has been replaced here with a back-to-basics approach (Jason goes from point A to point B, killing people along the way, someone attempts to stop him), I felt that the formula once again worked out and resulted in a damned entertaining horror film. Nearly everything that you'd expect from a F13 movie has its spot in this entry - an insanely high body-count (eighteen kills in eighty minutes), some very creative kill methods, and just a touch of premarital sex (though surprisingly, no nudity whatsoever).

On the acting side of things, we find more of the same from the previous entries. Most of the cast is bland and forgettable, but there are a few exceptions to the rule here. Thom Matthews is the first, and although I may be a bit biased (hey, he did co-star in one of my personal favorite movies of all time), he pulled out a pretty nice performance as Tommy. Nothing award-winning for sure, but he more than adequately portrayed the typical F13 hero, and you can't ask for much more than that. The second exception would be Ron Palillo. Now, for the younger audience reading this review, Ron Palillo played Horshack in the long-running comedy series "Welcome Back Kotter", and has most recently been seen kicking Screech's ass in Celebrity Boxing. This isn't to say that the man can't act in a horror movie, however... although he only had a small part in the film, he thoroughly surprised me with his acting abilities in a non-comedic role. The final quality actor in this film would be David Kagen, the sheriff. Although his acting abilities weren't perfect, he did do a good job with presenting an entertaining character, and the chemistry between him and the character of Tommy Jarvis was handled very nicely.

Overall, this is one of the best entries in the long-running series. I'm sure some may disagree with me, as everyone seems to have their favorite film chapter, but in my eyes, it doesn't get much better than this. 9/10.
Crispy #1: Crispy - added May 16, 2005 at 5:53pm
By far one of the better films, however I think the Tommy Jarvis of part 5 was better casting
Tristan #2: Tristan - added May 7, 2007 at 1:14am
Some of the worst acting I've ever seen in this movie. I know it's typical of a horror movie, especially one in a long running series, but this was really pushing it. 6/10
Nirrad #3: Nirrad - added July 7, 2008 at 1:40am
This used to be my favourite one. Part 3 took its place, but this one is still damn entertaining. Some great deaths, and the scene with Jason walking towards the boat is awesome. It is best!
Rest Easy Soul #4: Rest Easy Soul - added January 24, 2010 at 8:28pm
The opening is what made this movie. Jason's resurrection was priceless and a shout out to the old Frankenstein.
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