Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives DVD Review

In Part 6 Jason has returned from the grave for real this time and even the subtitle to the movie assures us that this man behind the mask is no impostor.

By Kevin Hall

Tommy Jarvis is back once again in his third Friday the 13th movie. This time, we join an older Tommy as he tries to put an end to his memory of Jason Voorhees once and for all by burning Jason's remains. Tommy drives out to Jason's graves and unearths his corpse to cremate what is left of Jason's body. While attempting to finish off the remains of Jason, Tommy accidentally causes Jason's revival through his ill-fated luck and a more super human Jason rises from grave ready to wreak havoc in the nearby Camp Crystal Lake area.

Camp Crystal Lake (or Camp Blood) has been renamed as "Camp Forest Green" in an attempt to forget about the horrors that took place in the area. Tommy runs to warn police but they lock him up for his seemingly crazed story while Jason makes his way to Camp Forest Green as a new team of counselors are about to make residence in the area. Many of the characters throughout the movie tell tales of Jason to make light of his story in a slight comedic performance but each of those characters soon learn the true terror behind the masked killer.

Like already mentioned, Jason acts more super human in this installment and uses his bare hands to kill off some of his victims. Crushing a person's skull with bare hands is not an easy task, but Jason can now do such things. The deaths are more violent than the last installment, and many of them are very bloody. The camera still turns away during many intensely gory deaths however. The DVD contains many extra death details in its extras section that were most likely cut from the actual movie by the ratings board.

Jason is shown in plain view throughout most of the movie and the kill scenes are not limited to only the site of his hand like many of the other deaths in the previous installments. The creators don't want hide Jason in the shadows anymore for this installment. Part 6 is one of the first installments that gives Jason the memorable slow stalking that we all know him for as he walks fast after his victims. Even though they run, Jason will always find a way to catch up as he walks quickly after his prey, never breaking into a run or dash.

The entire movie holds up much better than the previous installment and the true Jason is once again back. What happened to Tommy after the events of Part 5 are never truly discussed in Part 6. It's almost as if the creators ignored events of Part 5 or left it up to the viewer as to how to incorporate those events. Either way, Part 6 is much more serious and gives Jason a more modern type of feel that he is now well known for. He is back and ready to kill anything that gets in his path without mercy.

Part 6 contains about the same amount of extra that all of the other Friday the 13th DVDs have in them. The usual Behind the Scenes feature is present and so is another Tale from Camp Blood. The overall presentation of the movie of the movie is just as clear as the other Friday the 13th DVD releases and the sound has been remastered just as well. The film still has some slight grain in dark areas like the other Friday the 13th DVD releases, but it's not really that noticeable unless you're looking for it.

Overall, Part 6 is a very worth pickup on DVD and it basically establishes the more modern super human Jason that we are all familiar with today. It's definitely worth picking up if you enjoyed Parts 1-4 and want a continuation of Tommy's story from Part 4 and 5.

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