Despite being perhaps the single most formulaic film franchise in history, the FRIDAY THE 13TH series is weirdly inaccessible to newcomers. God only knows how many teenagers have been left scratching their heads after renting the original 1980 film, only to realize that infamous hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees is barely even in it. So you go to the second one, only to realize that Jason is just a big dumb guy with a bag over his head. The iconic image of Jason Voorhees in the public’s mind doesn’t make its appearance until the last act of PART 3, which makes finding an easy entry point surprisingly difficult. (The 2009 Michael Bay-produced reboot attempts to rectify this by introducing both maniac and mask in the first installment, but is fatally hobbled by the fact that it is a Michael Bay-produced reboot)
At least, that’s one way to look at it. Once you know that there is no officially anointed single “classic” of the series, pretty much any installment is as good as any other for your semi-annual-or-so Friday screening. It is in this spirit that the Coolidge presents 1986’s JASON LIVES: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI for your midnight viewing pleasure. What’s easy to forget about PART VI is that it was actually something of a reboot in its own right: Jason was “killed” in the now-hilariously titled PART IV: THE FINAL CHAPTER, and the killer in PART V: A NEW BEGINNING is ultimately revealed to be a copycat (uh, spoiler alert for a shitty thirty-year-old slasher flick). Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with the Fango set, so PART VI opens with Mr. Voorhees being officially resurrected in classic lightning bolt fashion. In a way, this is where the last piece of the Jason puzzle falls into place: it is the moment where Jason officially becomes undead, unkillable, and truly superhuman.
As for the movie itself, it has more than enough going for it to satisfy your slasher itch. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD’s Thom Mathews plays protagonist Tommy Jarvis (oddly, the same character played by twelve-year-old Corey Feldman just two years earlier, but never mind that), and the pre-credits victim is played by Ron “Horshack” Palillo. The deaths are appropriately gooey, including a memorable set piece in which Jason massacres a paintball team. And it has one of the all-time great ‘80s theme songs in Alice Cooper’s cumbersomely titled “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask) (The Theme from JASON LIVES: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI).” Is it great cinema? Of course not; don’t be a smartass. If you’re looking for a gory, reliably dopey way to close out the 13th with some friends and some beers, however, this is exactly what you’re looking for.
JASON LIVES: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI (1986) DIR. TOM MCLOUGHLIN [86 min.]
Friday, 6/13, and Saturday, 6/14, 11:59 PM
$10.25
Coolidge Corner Theatre
290 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02446
