A New Beginning definitely was successful monetarily, but it upset a lot of fans. The producers had to move and move quickly which is exactly what they did. Jason would most definitely return in the sixth installment, but he would not be the same. Part VI marks a very interesting turn in the franchise.
As always we begin with the trailer. Actually the teaser this time. The teaser just zooms into the graveyard, goes to Jason's grave, has his tomb come up and open only to find that it's empty. The title isn't even given during the teaser. It's an odd way to advertise the film. Completely mysterious and the general public may have had no idea what was being advertised. The tagline: Kill or be killed, I just find that lame. It's an ok tagline, but it just doesn't fit the actual film.
As far as the film itself, well, it's ok. It's quite glossy and it looks nice, but it's got the weakest main characters to date and a sense of humor that feels incredibly out of place. The humor really doesn't need to be there. I'm just so indifferent about the film.
There's one cool death scene. Cort's girl gets one impressive kill in a motorhome. Also, after the motorhome is flipped over, we get an EPIC shot of Jason standing atop of the motorhome. The unfortunate reality is that by the sixth film, characters names just don't stick with you and you're kind of going through the motions just watching out of obligation as opposed to actual desire.
They made Jason stronger than he ever was before in this entry. Jason is resurrected by lightning. He becomes a member of the undead and seriously messes people up. Almost all of the deaths are impossible for a human to actually do. Zombie Jason, however, doesn't help matters much. I know the only way to make sense of Jason coming back to life was to make him a zombie, but he shouldn't even be alive in the first place according to the first movie. This franchise needs a severe logic check. Jason's no longer just a campfire story, he's practically an unstoppable monster in this film. No one can even harm him. They have to stop him by using occult means. What a weird thing to throw into this series!
Tommy's character I thought was completely ruined in this film. While it's interesting to have Tommy be the one who accidentally brings Jason back to life, after that Tommy becomes a complete bore as a character. There is no mention of his murder attempt against Pam. He's completely sane in the audience's eyes the whole film. It's just such a change from the fifth film. I know the fifth film wasn't received well by fans, but it's disrespectful to the series as a whole to ignore plot set ups in the previous film.
Megan, as a final girl, is the naughtiest girl to date. She's not really nice. She always goes against authority. We like her because she likes Tommy, but in reality there's not much to her. Her father is the sheriff, so that's new, but we've seen that before in Halloween.
The final battle is lame because the characters don't stand a chance against fighting back. Overall, this film just doesn't mesh with the other five. Whereas five had annoying characters, this film just doesn't fit in. It's different, I'll give it that, but when it comes to Friday change is never good and the audience agreed with me.
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI was released on August 1, 1986. This film had the worst profit to that point in time. It opened up at number 2 in the box office, the first film to not open at number 1. On a budget of $3 million, the film made $19,472,057. A hefty profit to be sure, but not performing nearly as well as the previous entries. After the disappointing return of Part VI, the producers thought it was a good idea to take a break on the film series and let it rest for over a year. Where the franchise went next surprised everyone: television. How do you get Friday the 13th into a TV show...well, we'll discuss that next time.
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