Dir. Tom McLoughlin
Not content that mass murderer Jason Voorhees is actually dead; Tommy Jarvis exhumes the brutish serial killer’s coffin and impales the body with a metal rod. Moments later a bolt of lightning strikes the rod, jolting life into Jason’s corpse, which rises and sets off on another killing spree at Camp Crystal Lake. Naturally. Can Tommy convince the authorities that Jason stalks the area again? Well, it’s a mid-Eighties’ slasher flick, so what do you reckon?
Director Tom McLoughlin sticks to the basic rules of the series, but he slyly injects much needed humour into proceedings, without ever tumbling into out and out parody. The humour is evident from the opening titles; Jason adopts the role of 007, strutting into the centre of the screen and chucking his machete right at us – blood flows down the screen to reveal the titles. Much like Part V’s underrated opening scene, this instalment also begins in atmospheric and irresistibly Gothic fashion; with two friends digging up the grave of Jason Voorhees. Wind howls, thunder rumbles and lighting strikes, et voila: Jason’s lifeless body is reanimated Frankenstein’s Monster style, and he has now become the iconic unstoppable killing machine/force of destruction fans know and love. What does he do with this new found immortality? Why he takes it right back to Camp Crystal Lake where all these slashing shenanigans began, of course. Only thing is, it's now called Camp Forest Green in order to distance itself from its bloody history…
“You mean the Jason of Camp Blood?”
The other characters that populate this new look Crystal Lake, sorry, Forest Green are all likable enough. We have a new batch of counsellors, a group of young kids staying at the camp (a first in the series), a quick-witted sheriff and his plucky daughter Megan (Jennifer Cooke). There's also the usual plethora of random fodder including the caretaker of the graveyard, a young couple celebrating their engagement, and a troupe of business execs on a paintballing/team-building excursion. The violence in this seems more OTT too – limbs are lobbed off, bodies are bent backwards, heads are crushed into walls, throats are slashed, stabbed, throttled, beheaded and in the case of poor Paula (Kerry Noonan), one of the camp counsellors, so eviscerated (off screen) by Jason, little of her remains except blood. Which of course saturates the walls of her cabin. One fairly tense and creepy scene occurs when Paula goes to sooth the distraught homesick kids who are claiming to have nightmares about a scary man. As she makes her way back through of the cabin, Jason can be glimpsed through the windows following her from outside. While more care seems to have been lavished upon the script, this film also seems to have had a bigger budget than its prior instalments – as illustrated in the scene with the explosive crash of the Winnebago, and the Alice Cooper songs on the soundtrack.
As Tommy Jarvis, Thom Mathews is very likable, charming even, though his performance (naturally) is very different from that of John Shepherd, who starred as the troubled character in Part V. Again, the character’s presence lends the film a relatable anchor amidst the carnage. This Tommy Jarvis seems more determined and driven than the last incarnation – something else that in hindsight further sets Part V apart from the pack: it at least attempted to explore survivor guilt and trauma. It just never really did it in any great depth.
Jason Lives is strewn with visual gags, particularly with regard to the killings; for example when Jason rams a metal peg into the middle of someone's forehead, we immediately cut to a shot of a dartboard. While slashers are often referred to as ‘stalk and slash’ movies, the Friday the 13th series progressively moved away from the ‘stalking’ aspect, and just went straight for the slash. Characters wander around, usually alone, oblivious to the danger they’re in. They hear a noise. They stop, look around. When they turn back again, Jason is standing there waiting to attack them. In other words, while much fun is still to be had watching these flicks, any semblance of tension has completely gone. Even the climactic chase scenes the likes of which featured in earlier instalments (notably Parts II and IV) have abated.
What Jason Lives does offer though, is a dash of the aforementioned sly humour – most evident in the dialogue. A particularly delicious self-reflexive moment occurs when two counsellors, trying to locate the new camp, have taken a wrong turn down a dirt road in the forest. They suddenly stop the car when they see Jason blocking the road ahead. The woman (Nancy McLoughlin) exclaims “I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly.” Bloody mayhem ensues. Another slyly humorous moment occurs when Martin the Irish grave-digger, discovers Jason's grave has been dug up and exclaims "Some folks sure got a strange idea of entertainment," before wryly looking at the camera. And us.
A marked improvement from the former instalment, Jason Lives benefits from likable characters, snappy dialogue, brisk pace, assured direction and a much needed shot of dark humour.