Intro
It’s Friday the 13th in October. Isn’t that a perfect chance to review a film from the Friday the 13th series? The question is, which one? There’s over 12 different options. As this is my first review for this series, why not start with the first one? The answer is, it isn’t very good. Most of the films in this franchise aren’t. Though there are a few exceptions, such as Part VI.
Context
Before I begin to explain the plot, I need to give some context. This is the final part of what is dubbed the Tommy Jarvis Trilogy, which began in the fourth film. The trilogy has one consistent character that we follow throughout called Tommy Jarvis. In the fourth film, he is a kid who likes making monster masks and manages to kill Jason. During the fifth film, Tommy has grown up and is dealing with the trauma inflicted on him by Jason while also dealing with a new killer. At the start of the sixth film, he escapes from a mental hospital to deal with his trauma.
Plot – Intro
And that is where the sixth film begins. Tommy, played by Thom Mathews, heads to the Crystal Lake Cemetery with his friend to deal with his trauma. They arrive at the town, renamed Forest Green to distance themselves from the murders at Crystal Lake in the midst of a thunderstorm. Though his friend protests, Tommy insists on digging up Jason’s corpse and opening his coffin. Upon seeing the corpse, Tommy has a hallucination of the night he killed Jason and goes into a rage. He rips out a metal fence post and stabs it into the corpse multiple times, leaving him impaled. As Tommy prepares to burn the body, two lightning bolts strike the fence post and bring Jason, played by C.J. Graham, and in one scene, played by an uncredited Dan Bradley. Jason kills Tommy’s friend, and Tommy flees into the night. Tommy makes his way to the Sheriff, Mike Garris, played by David Kagen, at the police station. Sheriff Garris, aware of Tommy’s institutionalization, does not believe him and has him jailed for the night. Meanwhile, Jason encounters two camp counselors who got lost. He kills both of them without much effort.
Plot – The Boy Who Cried Wolf
In the morning, Megan, the Sheriff’s daughter, played by Jennifer Cooke, arrives with her friends and fellow camp counselors to report the two who got lost as missing. Tommy overhears and claims that Jason killed them, warning them about Jason. While she doesn’t take the warning very seriously, Megan finds herself attracted to Tommy and goes back to the camp with her friends. Of course, while this is happening, Jason keeps on killing, massacring a group of corporate executives in a paintball game. As they get killed, the counselors welcome the children to the camp, while Sheriff Garris decides not to turn Tommy in for fear of causing a panic. Sheriff Garris escorts Tommy to the town border, but Tommy makes a break for the cemetery. Tommy makes it to Jason’s grave before he is recaptured and discovers that the caretaker had filled it back in to cover up the vandalism. The cops continue to disbelieve Tommy’s story and take him to the border. Of course, that night, Jason continues practicing his favorite hobby, killing, this time targeting the camp counselors.
Plot – The Wrong Suspect
However, the police discover the bodies of the two original camp counselors and the corporate executives. Sheriff Garris believes that Tommy is responsible for the murders, finally going off the deep end. Meanwhile, Tommy calls the police station to get help with Jason. Megan answers the phone and agrees to help him. She heads in her car with the supplies he needs and picks him up. They end up getting in a police chase and get caught by Sheriff Garris at a roadblock. Sheriff Garris locks Tommy up and receives a call about more bodies being found. After finding out the time of death, Megan tells her father that Tommy was with her during that time and thus couldn’t have committed the murders. The Sheriff is not convinced, and has Tommy remain locked up while he goes to the camp to inform them of the deaths.
Plot – The Pieces Are Set Up
Upon arriving, the sheriff and two deputies split up to look for the counselors. The two deputies are picked off by Jason while Garris finds some of the counselors’ remains. Garris eventually comes across Jason and realizes that Tommy isn’t the killer. Even though he empties his shotgun and revolver into Jason, Jason isn’t stopped, and Garris is forced to flee into the woods. With Megan’s help, Tommy escapes, and they make their way to the summer camp. When they arrive, they find evidence of the murders and Tommy has Megan take care of the kids. After having the kids hide, Megan heads to her father’s cop car and discovers the remains of one of her friends, prompting her to call out for her father. Jason hears this and begins heading towards her, but her father notices, and in order to protect her, attacks Jason. Though he gets some good hits in, Jason kills him by bending his back backwards, snapping him in half.
Plot – Climax
As Tommy heads out in a motorboat, Jason breaks into the cabin with the children. Megan springs to their aid but is grabbed by Jason. Before he can kill her, Tommy gets his attention by taunting him. Seeming to remember his killer, Jason drops Megan and heads into the lake. Tommy and Jason fight, with Tommy slipping a chain attached to a boulder around Jason’s neck. Before he can push the boulder into the lake, Jason jumps onto the boat and breaks it in half. Jason is dragged to the bottom of the lake but pulls Tommy down with him. Jason chokes Tommy until he drowns. Seeing this, Megan dives in to help him and also gets grabbed by Jason. She uses an outboard motor to slice into his neck. He lets her go as it is broken, and he becomes paralyzed. Megan grabs Tommy’s unconscious body and drags him to shore. She performs CPR on him and manages to resuscitate him. She hugs him as they celebrate their victory. However, the camera shows Jason’s eyes still open, revealing he is still alive, just trapped, and could be set free at any moment.
Review Time – Plot
And that was the basic plot. I didn’t cover every kill, but they aren’t all plot relevant. So now, with that in mind, let’s review the movie. Beginning with plot, it’s not the Mona Lisa of slashers, but it is one of the better examples of the subgenre. The characters are written in a way that feels believable, and they are also somewhat likable, which is not common for slashers. Most of the time, the characters are written as assholes, which makes the death scenes more enjoyable, but this makes every other scene with these characters insufferable to watch. However, in this film, the characters are likable, which makes the time we spend with them more enjoyable and their death scenes more horrific.
Review Time – More Plot
There is also the matter of the tone. The movie plays things tongue-in-cheek with a large amount of meta nods and jokes throughout. It knows that it’s a dumb slasher in a bloated franchise, and it has fun with that. It doesn’t have the same notoriously slow pace of most slashers and clips along quite quickly with a lot of jokes in the early acts. Of course , it would be annoying if the jokes were bad, but they aren’t. They typically land quite well. One such example is when the cemetery caretaker is filling in Jason’s grave and lamenting the idea that some kids dug up the grave to see a dead body. After he says this, he looks up into the camera and says directly to the audience, “Some people got a strange idea of entertainment,” before continuing with his work. These sorts of jokes keep the film feeling fresh.
Review Time – Are You Sick Of Plot Yet?
Another unique facet of the plot is the sex scenes. Or rather the lack thereof. There is only one in the entire movie, and the participants are mostly clothed with no visible nudity. This is a very large departure for the series, as it was rather for the large amount of female nudity in its movies. Heck, the last movie was directed by a porno director who paid special attention to the sex scenes. The series has always been and would continue to be very sleazy. But this movie doesn’t have that, and it ultimately feels very refreshing for a subgenre that is, as a whole, quite sleazy.
Review Time – Special Effects
Outside of the plot, credit should also be given to the special effects department. There are a lot of effects in the movie, even outside of the solid gore effects. The RV crash, car chase, and fire on the lake come to mind. Each effect has a lot of care put into it, and that comes through on screen. Unfortunately, the gore effects are somewhat neutered in this movie. It was around this time that the MPAA, the organization in charge of movie ratings, began to crack down on gore in movies, and they took a very special interest in the Friday the 13th series. One of the few things the series is known for, besides creating nearly every single slasher trope, is for its phenomenally grotesque gore. Because of this, the MPAA would keep sending the film back as an X rated movie, box office poison, unless the filmmakers cut down on the gore. The filmmakers did, and it does hurt the final product, but they kept enough to keep the effect. Ultimately, it almost helps the film by being more in line with its lighter tone and less sleazy atmosphere.
Review Time – Everything Else
The rest of this movie is quite average. The acting doesn’t wow, but it serves the movie well with a couple of good performances. Most of the performances are done tongue-in-cheek, which keeps with the tone of the movie and adds to it. The editing also isn’t anything amazing. It’s mostly serviceable and doesn’t stand out a ton. The soundtrack is filled with songs by Alice Cooper, though they aren’t used prominently enough in the movie to stick with you. Of course, the songs are still good, with orchestral music being used for most of the movie, which is also well made and helps add in the needed tension to certain scenes.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, Friday, the 13th Part VI is not a masterpiece, but it is one of the strongest showings in the franchise. The story, with its humorous tone and great special effects, stands out on a backdrop of serviceable acting and editing with a solid musical lineup. If you enjoy horror movies that take a lighter tone but still can pack a punch, then this might be the film for you. However, if you are allergic to comedy in your horror or just don’t like horror, this film will not win you over anytime soon. Thus concludes my review, see you next time with my review of… – ♤
