Film critic Alex Jackson suggests that humor in the Friday the 13th series should not be overt, but that the audience should have to search for it. I couldn't agree with him more. In the earlier installments, there are very funny moments and the great thing about them is you don't quite realize they've occurred until a few minutes later. It's these little throwaway laughs that help make the series so special as a whole and give each chapter, even if they may be lacking in other elements, enough reason to make them worth the experience. I never would have suspected the Friday the 13th movies of having such a strange sense of humor; in a way, it almost makes them science fiction. Most of the humor comes not from the bizarre supporting characters, but from the principal players or Jason himself. I still get a kick out of how awkwardly he moves around in Part 2. It is with this in mind that I approach Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI. The movie has a tough challenge on one hand, since it has to actually find a way to resurrect an unquestionably deceased Jason. Even more so, the picture has to establish what he is going to be like now that he's truly been dead. Writer/director Tom McLoughlin, who is the first to take the sole writing and directing credit, develops an interesting idea for how to handle this new Jason. The problem is what he's done with the humor. Instead of respecting a franchise that has played by a certain set of rules, he throws caution to the wind and has created a movie that thrives on pushing every detail into our faces and ruining the only human character in the series with any real potential to grow. But I'll get to Tommy later.
The opening sequence sets the mood for things to come. The shots of the lake and the forest are familiar; it's ultimately the music that threw me off and let me know I was in for something considerably different. Instead of hearing a hint of impending danger, the score this time is much more playful, preparing the audience for a much lighter tone. And the absurdity doesn't stop there. Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) convinces a friend to go with him to dig up Jason's grave so he can be sure the root of his psychological problems is "really dead." After opening the coffin to reveal the half rotted corpse, Tommy stabs Jason's body with an iron rod, which gets struck by lightening and supplies a monster movie style rebirth. I understand Tommy wanted to see Jason's body. It is in a way impossible for him to live without Jason anymore. It's when you get to the whole re-establishment that he's gone and not coming back that I have issues.
What fascinates about the resurrection is that Jason seemed happy to finally be put out of the misery of having to kill people. Now he's been awakened and is no longer human, so his actions should be a bit more robotic. Sure enough, once out of the grave, he punches Tommy's friend and his fist goes straight through the body. Jason is basically just a simple being with super strength and the same purpose as before: kill. If he did function like a zombie, I could have bought into this new Jason. However, he somehow has adopted a style of rational thinking that would have been fitting when he was still human, but now comes off as a stretch and a poor attempt to build suspense and earn laughs. For instance, he makes it a habit a couple of times of jumping in to startle people before he kills them. He messes with a couple in a car by knocking out the headlights and flattening a tire. How would he have any concept of that? The fact that he toys with his victims, almost as if it's a game, shows just how shallow the movie is (don't get me started on the utility belt he finds to hold all his weapons). I defended Jason's almost playful tendencies in the earlier movies because there, it made sense; he was communicating in the only way he knew how.
If there is something about Jason that stands out, even if it's inconsistent with his new behavior, it's the way he reacts to people as if he's never encountered them before. There are a handful of moments where people say or do things and his head tilts as if he's confused. It's a nice touch, but one that feels wrong when placed with his new found smarts. If McLoughlin does have one appealing idea, it's the way he shows numerous shots of Jason wandering through the forest. I don't recall that happening in the previous chapters, and I must say there's something about it that feels right. It's as if Jason has some memory of this place being his home and he wants everybody else to get out. I wish this had been pushed to its full potential, but once anything in this movie gets close to finding a rhythm, the cheap jokes come back into effect.
Ah, the jokes. Jason Lives makes it a point to be as self referential as possible, so much so that one can almost hear McLoughlin begging you to slap your knee with delight. An opening riff featuring Jason walking across the screen like James Bond and throwing his machete at the camera is supposed to suggest he's become an icon, although it left me with more of a Naked Gun type vibe than a Friday the 13th one. The movie's biggest mistake, though, is the fact that all the characters are in on it, too. If you recall, I've talked a good deal about why the people in this series have to be empty vessels. By making them aware of what's happening, it totally undermines why they exist in the first place and makes it almost insulting that they'd be stupid enough to let Jason kill them. The lamest gag in the movie involves a group of businesspeople playing paintball. Once they've been shot, they are required to wear a bandanna that labels them as "DEAD." Seeing this onscreen was the equivalent to someone tapping you on the shoulder over and over while saying, "Do you get it? Do you get it? Do you get it?"
Jason Lives is crucial to the series only because it's where he finally picked up his trademark machete. Considering most of his murders are "rape by steel" (as named by Alex Jackson), it's appropriate Jason finally decides to make it his signature weapon. The movie blatantly tries to make the connection between Jason and his machete in a POV shot of someone holding the bloody machete as they walk towards a sleeping girl (it turns out to be a little girl! Why she would have picked it up is baffling). Jason's pattern this time out is similar to the ones in the early pictures, meaning that the kills are quick and the target area is the head or neck. This is crucial since Jason is starting over and will have to re-discover his craft (although if he is a zombie, technically there may be no craft).
It's bad enough the movie works overtime to be hip and funny; what's worse is how the movie destroys the buildup of the Tommy Jarvis character. In The Final Chapter, he was a mirror image of Jason and in A New Beginning, he was still traumatized after killing Jason and at the end, it looked as though he was going to become him. What should have happened this time then, was Tommy should have taken over for the deceased Jason or they should have each held half of the same mind. What I'm trying to say is, what one does the other repeats at precisely the same moment. McLoughlin is obviously not that clever, for instead of doing something ambitious with the character, he turns Tommy into a standard movie scapegoat. Once he brings Jason back, the local police blame all the murders on him. Tommy insists that it's Jason, but naturally they think he's crazy and lock him up. It's the reliable old innocent-man-wrongly-accused scenario. The real nail in the coffin is the incorporation of a female love interest/sidekick, who, as Alex Jackson pointed out, undermines Tommy because it makes him identifiable with the other human characters, therefore defeating the purpose of why he was in the series in the first place.
It's unforgivable, really. Even if Jason Lives does provide some simple pleasures, the way it mocks the movies before it is hard look past. I can give the movie a few points for finally bringing back the counselors and for showing campers for the first time, although it seems rather pointless. Not only does it look like a poorly run camp (no one seems to know what they're doing), but, save for one little girl, none of the campers seem to worry that their lives are in danger. In fact, one of the boys even jokes about it ("What did you want to be when you grow up?")! The counselors don't really get the kind of screentime they did in the earlier chapters. There's only one sex scene in the movie, with both parties mostly clothed and the act itself is so over the top you can tell it's meant as another "wink wink" moment.
McLoughlin has sucked all the life out of a Friday the 13th movie. Part of me has to wonder if he even watched any of them before he starting writing this one. If he had, he would have noticed that the others were shot in a very plain style that lends to the simplistic nature of the series. Working with a budget of only about $3 million, McLoughlin has made a very crisp looking movie, complete with some fancy dolly shots and a great deal more camera movement (outside of POVs) than the series is used to. I'm not suggesting I'm opposed to camera movement; I just think that style is not something that belongs in this series. It takes the gritty appeal away.
I know many will disagree with me, as this is a fan favorite. Like Jackson, I am confused by this, for you would think that someone who has followed this series closely would not want to see Jason (and Tommy for that matter) turned into corny gags and self satisfying in jokes. If I had seen Jason Lives and was not familiar with the rest of the movies, I probably would have adored it. As it stands, I find it to be biggest disappointment so far, an entry I would only revisit if I decided to watch the whole series again. All I can hope for is that, even though he did survive, Tommy Jarvis is not brought back again. This movie has made him dead to me.
Thank you for visiting Hell and Beyond!
Copyright, Hell and Beyond, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment