When Paramount Pictures made the decision to resurrect Jason Voorhees following the Roy experiment from Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985), they targeted Tom McLoughlin as writer and director of the franchise’s sixth chapter. McLoughlin, however, only agreed to come on-board if he were allowed comedic license to exploit the absurdity of the Crystal Lake universe. The suits gave McLoughlin the nod so long as he didn’t poke fun at Jason himself, and the result, in this writer’s estimation, was the finest Friday film to date.
Before anyone goes off on my use of the word “absurdity,” just know that I’m a Friday freak — part of the Return to Camp Blood podcast, and will defend to the death that Derek Mears is the finest and fiercest Jason to ever appear on screen — I simply refer to the idea that a boy drowned, but didn’t drown, died again, but not, then essentially became a supernatural killing machine, which is absurd. You can love Friday the 13th and still admit that it’s absurd. So points to Mr. McLoughlin for embracing what we already knew.
And make no mistake, McLoughlin’s writing and direction made Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986) the most unique picture in franchise history.
In what would turn out to be the finale of the Tommy Jarvis trilogy, “Don’t leave home without it,” strange ideas of entertainment, and the intricacies of Native American rock formations more than handled the humor, but McLoughlin certainly didn’t ignore our hunger for horror. C.J. Graham may not have tackled the role four times, but his was the original zombie Jason, and with a hat trick, overturned RV, and painful way of pointing out that law enforcement was back-breaking work, Graham certainly cut a terrifying cloth.
That said, it was because McLoughlin walked the fine line between silly and slaughter that made one scene in particular leap off the screen.
Shortly after Sheriff Garris’ (David Kagen) daughter Megan (Jennifer Cooke) un-ironed Tommy (Thom Mathews), only to lead the Forest Green police force on a chase replete with “hairy” turns, our man Jarvis once again found himself staring down the barrel of Garris’ shotgun, headed back to the clink. Back at the station, though, McLoughlin left the tongue-in-cheek approach behind and created a scene that was out of step with the rest of the film, directing a scene that was played straight as an arrow, to great effect.
For the briefest of moments, McLoughlin abandoned the macho, over-the-top, uber-eighties one-liners of Garris and his Ya-bangin’ deputy Rick Cologne (Vinny Guastaferro), and to steal one from Part 2’s Ginny (Amy Steel), put it in real terms.
Garris’ frustration with Jarvis remained unscathed, but to warn his daughter away from the perceived danger of Tommy, the sheriff laid out in plain terms the peril Megan was putting herself in. Garris described a knife through the skull and the remains of her friends that had already been discovered, hoping that fear would dull her sense of excitement and attraction to our doomed hero. Jarvis continued to assert that Jason was the culprit, and wanted to know what time Cort (Tom Fridley) and “some girl” had fallen prey to the Crystal Lake marauder.
Desperate, Garris begged “For God’s sake, Megan. Stay away from him, please.”
Clearly unnerved at her father’s news, Megan trusted Tommy enough to ask him what time the bodies had been discovered. Garris didn’t know what difference that would make, but his daughter’s aggressive demand for the time left him answering “8:30, nine o’clock, why?”
Bringing us to the moment of the film.
Megan stared directly into Garris’ eyes and revealed “Tommy was with me all that time, dad.”
Kagen killed the reaction shot.
Straightening, Garris held his daughter’s gaze a few beats, as realization washed over his face. This was a moment of truth. Megan was no longer just hoping to have some fun with the cute guy her father had locked up, this was a deathly serious exchange that planted the seed in the sheriff’s head that perhaps it hadn’t been Jarvis wreaking havoc throughout the community, but the masked maniac long thought dead.
Garris glanced at Tommy only to be met with the same pained look of anxious intensity that his daughter wore. Of course, Garris instructed his deputy to re-iron Jarvis, because precaution was the right play, not because he didn’t believe his child.
Jason Lives teems with laughs and memorable kills, but for one scene, the absurdity came to a screeching halt. The cops were no longer jokes to be messed with, but rather genuinely concerned and desperate to protect their citizens, and those who had fallen victim weren’t simply a means to a body count end, but real people whose deaths impacted Megan and many more.
For one shining moment, abrupt though it was, the audience was no longer rooting for Jason, but for Garris and Megan and Tommy. That McLoughlin steered clear of heavy-handedness, choosing instead to opt for a subtle curveball, ensured that drama rather than absurdity would become the lasting image of Jason Lives.
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