‘I’ve seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly...’
After the dumpster fire that was Friday the 13th: Part V, something had to be done to save the franchise. I nearly wrote ‘something drastic’ in that last sentence, but actually, that would be inaccurate. Jason Vorhees simply had to return. If Halloween III has taught us anything, it is that a horror movie sequel is nothing without its antagonist…
Jason Lives is all about comebacks. Tommy Jarvis returns yet again (this time played by Thom Matthews, marking the third actor in as many movies to play the iconic character). Jason comes back (obviously). The soundtrack (such as it is) returns. In short, director Tom McLoughlin (directing from his own script) takes the franchise back to basics, and in doing so, produces arguably one of the finest Jason movies in the whole franchise.
The plot really isn’t important. Hockey masks. Teenagers. Camp Crystal Lake (renamed as something else here, but we all know where we are). What we want is Jason running around murdering people and this is what we get. Ad infinitum. As this entire franchise started life as a Halloween rip off, these movies have always struggled with originality, although by this point, six years and six movies removed from the source material, Jason Lives is pretty much ripping off itself. What this film does do however, is serve up plenty of meta, self-referential jokes that would eventually go on to inspire a guy called Kevin Williamson to go off and write a little movie entitled Scream. So, there’s that.
This is not a good movie. It’s not even a good horror sequel. But it is a good Friday the 13th movie, and sometimes, dear reader, that is enough.