(music)
Welcome to the Kill Count! Where we tally up the victims in ALL our favorite horror movies named Friday the 13th.
I’m James A. Janisse and TODAY we’re looking at Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives,
released one year after A New Beginning disappointed fans everywhere.
Jason Lives is an interesting entry, not only as the conclusion to what you could and should call
the Tommy Jarvis trilogy, but because it marks a tonal shift in the series.
Again, don’t expect it to stray from the “masked guy kills teens at a summer camp one by one”
template too much, but writer/director Tom McLoughlin sought to play around more within this framework
and the result is a much more self-effacing, ironic and humorous film than Parts I through V.
Also, obviously, Jason is back.
A series centered around Roy Burns will remain one of history’s biggest “what-ifs”,
but the people spoke and they clamored for Jason.
So here we have Tommy Jarvis played by a new guy who’s not as hunky
but who’s much more of a functional human being.
He and his wisecracking buddy resurrect Jason with lightning like he’s Jasonstein’s Monster or something
and for the rest of the movie and the series, Jason is now a supernatural being.
He will never again be the lumbering mentally-deficient oaf with a pillow case on his head,
he is a new and arguably more iconic being now. Jason is dead. Long live Jason.
Anyway, I hear dying leaves you starving for killing, and Jason’s got quite the appetite,
so let’s get down to the kills!
(music)
First up is obviously Tommy’s toady Hawes, who didn’t even want to be there in the first place.
Melty skull Jason punches right through his body,
ripping his heart out through his back and revealing some nails in serious need of a manicure.
Don't be afraid of self-care, Jason.
Tommy escapes the scene and we get a huge clue into the tone of this movie
with the fuckin' Bond parody intro to the credits.
Post credits picks up the story right away with Tommy running to a police station
and greeting Sheriff Garris, a very charming guy.
"Don't piss me off, Junior, or I will repaint this office with your brains!"
Tommy winds up in a cell for sounding crazy with all his Jason talk. Kinda like someone else we know.
"They didn't believe me."
Now we do, Ralph.
Then we meet a couple on their way to the newly renamed Forest Green Lake and you know they gon’ die.
In a line predictive of Scream a decade later, the woman Lizbeth is aware of the rules of horror movies
"I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly."
(ominous music)
but that doesn’t stop husband Darren from getting out of the car like a dummy.
Jason takes a bullet like a pro and spears Darren through the chest
before tossing him behind his back like a rag doll.
I’d love to see “Yuppie Spear And Toss” as an official Olympic event.
Lizbeth tries to bribe Jason, which is definitely a first, but he kinda teleports away
and reappears behind her, drowning her in a puddle with his spear.
Fun fact: Lizbeth was played by Nancy McLoughlin, the director’s wife.
Even more fun is the fact that her credit card floating away says “American Excess”.
Cheesy pun or biting cultural commentary? Jason kills, you decide.
We finally meet our core group of camp counselors after this.
They’re super '80s and led by the vulgar sheriff’s spunky daughter Megan,
who takes an immediate liking to Tommy. And this new Tommy actually reacts like a human being.
Remember New Beginning TJ?
Yeah, that guy probably would've tried to strangle her between those prison bars.
We also meet Martin the gravedigger, who I’m guessing is Crazy Ralph’s cousin or something,
and he actually one-up’s Lizbeth’s self-aware line by SPEAKING TO THE FUCKING AUDIENCE.
"Some folks have a strange idea of entertainment."
Yeah, that’s how meta this movie is. It breaks the fourth wall.
Martin is also involved in a good editing joke.
"Does he think I'm a fart-head?"
"Yes!"
That’s what I mean about the tone of this movie being different,
and also note - there are actually kids at the camp. That’s a first, too!
Then we get one of those scenes with random characters who are just there to die.
It's like the greasers with car trouble or the biker gang in Part III,
it’s almost like a sketch or vignette that exist only to increase the body count.
This time it’s a group of corporate execs on a paintball retreat,
which sounds like a much better company outing than a picnic or barbecue.
Everyone involved is kind of a wacky character but, whatever, Jason’s gonna kill them all immediately.
First up is Burt, an angry fella who doesn’t do a great job masking his misogyny.
"Dumb broad! She shoulda stayed in the kitchen where she belongs!"
"A woman shouldn't even be allowed in these games!"
Jason whips him into a tree facefirst so hard he leaves an imprint.
And listen, I know a lot of people love this, but the bloody smiley face
he leaves in the tree trunk - it's just too hoakey for me.
It confused me as a kid because it was so unrealistic
and it confuses me as an adult because, like, why?
But like I said, people fuckin' love this thing, so here, relive it one more time. Stupid.
Meanwhile the sole woman on this expedition, Katie, is being a badass and taking out Stan and Larry,
two guys who may be a little bit more than just co-workers.
"You become this whole other person when we're out here, Stan. I don't like it."
She makes them wear some pretty meta headbands
before Jason drops in and takes them all out at once with a triple decapitation.
This was one of the kills censored a lot by the MPAA.
Early versions apparently had the heads falling into frame. Shame we missed out on that.
The sequence ends with Roy, the final paintballer and human embodiment of Bugs Bunny,
running away with Jason hot on his trail. Don’t worry, we’ll catch up with him later.
In another change of tone for the series, we get kind of an action scene as Tommy continues trying
to convince law enforcement that he’s not crazy.
He doesn’t succeed and instead learns how much of a douchebag Deputy Rick is.
"Wherever the red dot goes, ya bang."
Yeah, Rick? You gonna try to make your own catchphrase? "Ya bang?" Okay.
While the camp counselors like Cort try to entertain their campers,
Gravedigger Martin gets drunk and delivers ironic lines.
"You're gonna be the death of me."
It’s ironic because Jason stabs him with the broken liquor bottle.
Get it? Like, it actually WAS the death of him? It's not bad, it's a pretty good joke.
Jason makes sure he’s dead by hacking him up a bit more then looks super fuckin' scary
when he stops and notices Steven, some fool who was out picnicking with his fiancée Annette
in the middle of the god damn night.
Jason eventually chases them both down and double impales them with his machete for a twofer.
These two deaths and Martin’s were added after feedback from early screenings
saying there weren’t enough kills, so, thanks test audiences!
The movie gives us a breather with a little bit of standard camp stuff.
A little girl says she saw Jason and is all afraid,
the counselors make reference to Jason the legend using a card game,
and then we’re in a Winnebago where Cort and some girl named Nikki have PG-13 sex to '80s hair metal.
Another fun fact for ya: This is actually the only Friday the 13th film without any nudity.
(music stops)
Although, now that I say it, it doesn’t sound very fun.
No nudity but there is a LOT of hair metal in this movie. Three Alice Cooper songs. Three of 'em!
Including one that had a music video heavily featuring Jason. The '80s were weird, man.
Cort’s lady lover Nicki is killed while he’s driving obliviously, having a good time.
"This is great. I am having a such a good time."
Jason slams her face through the trailer’s tin walls in a
MUCH BETTER VERSION of that tree kill that everyone loves, because look at that! It makes sense, alright?
Jason then takes care of Cort with a knife through the head.
I like to think he stabbed him in the ear as a favor so he wouldn’t have to listen to any more hair metal.
With Cort dead at the wheel we get another action sequence.
Like I said, this movie’s a little different, adding humor and '80s action movie tropes.
Here we have a sweet vehicle flip and Jason looking like a badass on top of a burning RV.
This awesome shot was the last thing they filmed for the movie, and I think it’s pretty damn cool.
The cops find that paintballer guy’s body, or at least parts of it,
so now we get to add Roy to the body count, pushing the kills to an even baker’s dozen.
Mmm. It's the best way to order your victims!
While the cops suspect Tommy for this gruesome murder because he’s crazy or whatever,
Jason finally gets to the camp, and although he seems a little confused by both the name change
and the morals it upholds, he marches in, ready to be as friendly and sportsmanlike as he can be.
Which, for him, means tanking counselor Sissy out of her window and twisting her head around.
Gotta give this movie credit, despite the ratings board trying to censor it
it was always trying to come up with fun, inventive ways to kill people.
Megan picks up Tommy and in ANOTHER high-energy car chase to ANOTHER Alice Cooper song,
tries to avoid the cops while Tommy stares at her crotch.
They eventually get caught by her father and Tommy’s put back in the jail cell,
while at Camp Forest Green Jason stalks Paula, the last remaining fodder counselor, and eventually
kills her after they do what I presume to be some kind of art project involving buckets of red paint.
Tommy and Megan craft a sexy plan to get him out of jail, and they lock up Deputy Dipshit in his place,
who gives the worst single-line performance in the series.
"Megan."
They then race back to camp as Jason leans in to kill that cute little scared girl.
But don’t worry, he’s obviously not gonna kill a kid. They’re not gonna have Jason kill a kid, guys.
The cops get to the camp and find Jason’s abstract art project,
then the handsome one gets killed when Jason throws a freakin' knife into his face, knocking him into a boat.
You see that knife toss, man? I bet Jason is a great hustler at Renaissance fairs.
Another cop tries to calm the little girl before Jason pops up out of nowhere and crushes the guy’s skull.
Another kill highly censored, although the sound design is pretty nice.
(head crunching)
Papa Sheriff then tells the kids to hide and they prove that they’re just as snarky as everyone else in this movie.
"Whaddya think?"
"I think we're dead meat."
Oh hey! Hey, he said the thing! He said me! That’s me!
Sheriff Garris, finds the body of Officer Expendable then has a badass standoff with Jason
before shooting him a whole bunch of times. Like, a lot.
This movie is the first time Jason’s been shot and he shows
that it is NOT an effective way to take him down.
Despite the sheriff’s competency, he meets his end like any sexed-up teen in the woods
when Jason chases him down and cracks his spine in half, folding him over like a plastic picnic table.
Sheriff Garris is actually the first character in this series whose death made me kinda sad.
I wanted to see this guy live! He was smart and a good dad and wicked funny.
"With all the grief you've given me, you should be leaving wearing your balls as earrings."
Rest in peace, Sheriff.
The rest of the movie is Tommy and Megan hatching his master plan to kill Jason by calling him mean names.
"Hey! Asshole! Come on, maggot head! Come on, chicken shit!"
"Come on, I'm standing here waitin'! Come on, you pussy!"
Just kidding, his plan is to return Jason to the bottom of the lake by chaining a boulder onto him.
Also he lights Crystal Lake on fire like it’s Lake Erie in the '80s.
Despite also getting lit on fire, Jason fights back for a bit before the boulder drags him down.
After almost drowning Tommy too, Megan saves the day by introducing Jason’s head to a boat motor,
cracking his neck and giving us some nice gory flotsam to show Jason’s finally dead.
Just kidding, his eyes open at the end because producers like money.
More Alice Cooper plays us out to the credits
and there you have it, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.
Let’s do those numbers.
(music)
Jason kills 18 people in Friday the 13th Part VI, twice the number of his
initial outing in Part II, so guy’s come a long way.
His vics include 12 guys and 6 girls, a gender imbalance of 2:1,
which kinda goes along with the whole '80s action style of the film.
At 85 minutes long, that comes out to a kill every 4.72 minutes,
so that should keep you entertained as you search in vain for T&A.
I’ll give the Golden Chainsaw award for Coolest Kill to Sissy. Mostly because I’m a huge Exorcist fan.
Anyone see the show on Fox? I liked that show. It wasn't bad.
And I’ll just go ahead and piss everyone off by giving the Lamest Kill to Burt.
Okay, I can’t really, because I do like the moment when they show Jason still has his arm.
I just hate that damn smiley face.
Real Lamest Kill goes to Paula, who’s killed mostly offscreen,
although I’ve gotta admit that none of the kills here were completely devoid of coolness.
Like, that's a lot of blood. That looks fun.
And that’s it y’all! With this movie finished we are now halfway through this series. Holy crap.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, which many fans consider their favorite because of its humor,
was released in 1986, written and directed by Tom McLoughlin, who does deserve some credit
for doing something interesting with the material.
Next up will be Carrie vs. Jason in Part VII: The New Blood,
which is also the introduction of Kane Hodder as Jason!
But until then, I’m James A. Janisse. This has been the Kill Count!
Hey guys, thanks a lot for watching the Kill Count for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives,
most everyone's favorite movie in the series.
Is it my favorite? I don't know. Some of the jokes don't really do it for me.
I would put it top three with The Final Chapter and, y'all are gonna hate me for this, but Jason X.
I really like Jason X.
But tell me if this is your favorite, I'm sure it is, in the comments below.
Also, be sure to subscribe to this channel, guys. Really important.
Thanks a lot, see you next week.