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| Kill Or be Killed |
We open up with Tommy Jarvis riding with a friend named Hawes to go check Jason's grave and make sure he is still in his grave. They venture out to a cemetery we assume is on the Crystal Lake grounds. Upon finding the grave site, Tommy says he has to be sure and he proceeds to dig. They strike wood and Tommy insists they open the coffin. The coffin gets open, however, upon seeing the body Tommy goes running to the nearest gate in the cemetery. He rips off a metal bar and proceeds to stab the rotten, maggot infested corpse of his once pursuer, ending with him running the metal rod through Jason's chest and leaving it there... in a thunderstorm. Well, lighting strikes the pole and Jason is resurrected, with Tommy barely escaping the cemetery with his life.
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| Jason newly revived and ready to spread terror |
The intro is different. No title explosion. Instead, we a double 07 intro with Jason walking in on the right. He stops, turns, and slashes to bring the title up in blood.There is also no flashback intro. John Shepard is not acting the role Tommy Jarvis in this movie which is a shame. In his place, we get Thom Mathews.
Tommy comes off as more of an obsessed child who needs people to pay attention to him rather then a survivor with mental health issues. Both New Beginning and Jason Lives seems to forget about Tommy's resourcefulness, In part 4 we had a smart kid beating Jason by outwitting then murdering him, now all grown up he has lost a lot of intelligence and charm. Replacing the charm is a weird almost stalker vibe.
The setting in part 6 is a forested area called "Forest Green", a new name given to Crystal Lake to help people forget about the massacre that took place a decade ago. There is a lot going on here. The camp is actually open. There is a corporate retreat complete with competitive paint ball games. The police are chasing after Tommy and Tommy is trying to find a way to finish Jason off. As per normal, Crystal Lake has the most awkward weather of nice sunny days followed by rigorous nightly thunderstorms.
Casting in this movie feels right with the exception of Tommy. The sheriff who takes no guff from Tommy does a great job in particular, his trigger happy deputy does not get a lot of lines but we can at least get a sense of his personality from his actions. Drunk grave keeper also was cast great rather then reporting the open grave he reburies it not wanted to get in trouble, we feel for him as the town drunk and the actor looks like he would have a serious alcohol problem.Camp counselors don't get too much character development or even character at all. Sissy is the black councilor, Cort is the only guy, Paula hangs out with Sissy, and Megan is the sheriffs daughter.
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| Left to right: Megan, Sissy, Cort and Paula |
There is much less sex in this movie then part 5 maybe the studio realized people are not watching Friday for soft core porn, though there are a few sex scenes, its no where near as much as part 5. The dialog is the opposite of part 5 as well with more substance then random cussing.
In this outing we actually get to see campers, little kids who come for the outdoors. There a bit of a side story with the kids, one girl in particular who see Jason outside her window a few times. Paula and Sissy address her fears that there is a monster outside. The girl shows up later scaring Paula awake with a bloody knife but Paula still thinks its a joke from Cort. The children have little dialog and are mainly there to make the audience think if Jason would really kill little kids. Spoiler he won't
Megan plays an integral part of the story as the female lead. She is the only one who believes Jason is back, and is also Tommy's love interest much to the chagrin of her dad, the sheriff. She is wily and adventurous. Megan is a counselor but is never really at the camp, mid day we see her give a speech to the kids about how much fun they will have then she leaves to talk to her dad, I guess it was a long talk because she does not head back to camp until it is late night. Megan helps Tommy pick up the supplies he needs to stop Jason and gets him back to the camp, she also plays a large roll in defeating Jason.
Undead Jason is suppose to be neigh unstoppable, though he takes little punishment in this installment. A few shotgun blasts, handgun shots, and few blows to the head with a rock. In the end, its not about him dying as it is about him being restrained. I feel they could have made him more powerful simply by having him take more damage.
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| You can not drown to death twice. |
This movie is pretty lax on the kills as well, its not that we don't get enough of them its how they are executed. While the deaths are on the screen its more of a Jason swings, jump cut to a wider angle, heads roll off kind of this. There is little gore to kills and quite a few take place off screen. A new Beginning had so many kills and most of the deaths happened in front of our eyes, take the leather strap kill, we see the strap go around the guys head, then "Jason" turns the strap. Cut back to the guys head as it is getting squeezed, back to Jason turning more, back to the guy bleeding, then he dies. This movie does not have that kind of feel to it, though one person does get folded like a wallet.
Body count-18
Audio 8/10
More rock music was added to this installment and I have to say, I like it. Teenage Frankenstien by the Alice Cooper was a good choice. The score is amazing as well and it took Jason 6 movies to get a right proper theme. Harry Manfredini has been the composer of all the friday films thus far and has been making progress with each movie.
Video 8/10
The quality of this movie looks good it has a very mid 90's feel to it despite being made before the decade began. there are a few times they reuse shots.
Effects 5/10
Considering how much the craft has advanced and how well the visuals of part 5 where there was no reason this movie should have had less. Nikki (a girl who is in the movie for 3 minutes) getting her face indented against the RV was a nice effect but there are not enough of those moments to make me score it higher, especially when part 5 had such great visuals. Jason looked great but the lack of practical effects on kills is mind blowing. there are a few kills that you only know happened because of the sound effect like neck snapping or head crushing..
Story 6/10
Tommy comes back to make sure Jason is gone for good, why does it take him him so many years? The better question is how did he even get out of the mental hospital? We assume part 5's ending is not canon or is a dream, so I'm not sure how you can let this mentally and emotionally scared man out of rehabilitation. This is the 2nd movie with Tommy and we still do not know what happened to his sister, for some reason this really bothers me.
The camp is actually open, adding kids was a nice touch as the other movies happen the day before the camp opens. There is side stories with the kids and the sheriff's ever growing hated toward Tommy, they add depth to the "cabin the woods" overarching story. A plot device I have a problem with is how they make crystal lake shallow, lets say Jason is 7'1 tall, during the finale Jason is able to reach up and grab Megan's leg whilst being at the bottom of the lake. This would mean the lake is only about 10 feet deep, one of the shallowest lakes in the world, but crystal lake is incredibly big in all the movies and I can't see a mile long lake only being 10 feet deep.
Overall: 59/100
While the story was alright and the audio was superb I want to see people get killed in horror movies I want newly risen unstoppable Jason to kill people with the ridiculous power he has. This installment fails to deliver the scream factor and the kills are lacking. what was a solid production visually, auditory and story wise is sadly a step back from the practical effects. aside from the reverse folding of a human being (which the act kind of happens on the screen) and the RV crash there is not much that is visually pleasing about the murder that take place in front of the viewers eyes. I think the original plan was for Tommy to die in this movie because he is not in the last chapters. This is probably the 3rd worst movie in the franchise for me I would recommend others to see it as they may have a different opinion but I'm not a big fan of this chapter
-Rosanderman.
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