Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) Review – The Best In The Series

Welcome to Knockout Horror. It’s day 8 of our 31 Days of Halloween 2026 feature and today I decided to mix things up with a classic slasher in the form of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986). In my opinion, this is the best entry in the entire Friday series and one of the better 80s slashers, in general. Let’s take a look at why.

Let’s Be Honest For a Second

I feel as though nostalgia has a bit of a tendency to make us act a little kinder to certain things than they perhaps deserve.

“Controversial, I know. But the way people place the Friday the 13th series on a pedestal will always be baffling to me.”

For example, being a 90s kid, I always remember the warmth of a wood fire on a chilly morning. For some reason, I never think of how cripplingly cold every other room in my single glazed house was because that was the only source of heat.

I often look back fondly on playing brilliant games like Super Mario World and A Link to the Past on my SNES without thinking of the countless pieces of crap I borrowed and only played for a few hours. Rose tinted glasses are a very real thing.

That counts for horror, too. I find it quite strange to see people discussing the 80s slasher era with a degree of reverence that seems to completely ignore that the majority of films released during this period were utter dogshit.

Controversial, I know. But the way people place the Friday the 13th series on a pedestal will always be baffling to me. I mean, sure, Jason is an undoubtedly iconic horror villain, but outside of that, the majority of the films are complete garbage.

There’s probably only three titles that are genuinely decent while the rest fall into simply being boring, utterly ridiculous, or so bad that it’s almost good territory.

In my opinion, the entry we are looking at today, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, is by far the best and there’s a simple reason for that.

It leans into everything the series did wrong

The story here sees the previous movie’s protagonist Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) attempting to cremate Jason Vorhees’ corpse to prevent him ever coming back. Instead of burning him, however, he inadvertently reanimates him, sending Jason on another killing spree around Crystal Lake.

The reason this movie works so well is that director Tom McLoughlin was immensely aware of just what people disliked about the series and leaned into it wholeheartedly.

He knew that the previous films were venturing into self-parody territory and that the general consensus was that the formula was worn out and repetitive. Instead of attempting to fix that, he instead turned it into a self-aware, almost meta horror-comedy that doubled down on the silliness.

The characters are far more cartoonish, the script has way more personality, the victims are almost aware of the fact that they are in a horror movie, and the kills are some of the most fun in the series.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives finally admits that the whole thing is just a little bit silly and the entire film enormously benefits from that.

It holds up really well

As far as the series goes, this entry holds up pretty well. For one, the visuals have had a bit of a cleanup for Blu-ray and HD streaming releases and they look pretty great. McLoughlin has crafted one of the better looking pictures from this era of slashers.

“Megan is a sassy, street smart girl who doesn’t have a lick of fear, and she really doesn’t get talked about enough when it comes to bad ass women in horror.”

It’s actually quite stylish in parts. The car chase scene later on is particularly noteworthy in that respect. The finale is a pretty fantastic, fiery spectacle as well. This is a really nice looking film. Let’s not forget that pounding Alice Cooper soundtrack providing the perfect accompaniment to the visuals.

There’s a self-awareness to the characters here that makes the script feel relatively sharp, despite some occasionally lacklustre acting. At least for a Friday the 13th film, anyway.

One character immediately recognises Jason for the stone cold killer he is by declaring that she has watched enough horror movies to know what happens next. It’s almost meta before meta-horror was really a thing.

Tommy is a pretty likable protagonist, too. He knows he is far from perfect and a lot of this bloodshed was his fault, but his past history with Jason makes him rather intriguing and his determination makes him easy to root for.

I’m a big fan of Megan (Jennifer Cooke) in this movie. She’s a sassy, street smart girl who doesn’t have a lick of fear, and she really doesn’t get talked about enough when it comes to bad ass women in horror. Cooke does a fantastic job, as well.

Again, there’s a distinct dark humour to Friday the 13th Part VI that will really appeal to fans of slashers from this era. It knows exactly what it is and it is leaning full tilt into the extravagance of it all. Everything is tongue in cheek and certain characters are there purely to walk into the business end of a machete.

But what about the stuff that actually counts?

Obviously, the above is completely irrelevant if the bloodshed and violence is lacking. Luckily, I think this is one of the areas where this movie really shines.

“Jason is always looking for his next victim so don’t expect him to be smelling the roses. It’s fast paced and a ton of fun.”

There’s something distinctly supernatural about Jason, here, that I think future movies would lean into quite a bit. He’s everywhere and appears next to people seemingly out of the blue. He’s quite intimidating, too.

C.J. Graham knows exactly when to stand there looking imposing and when to quickly move his body in a way that makes the character feel as deadly as his epic kill count would suggest. He’s pretty damn merciless, too. This film has a lot of deaths and Jason dishes them out in incredibly creative ways.

The blood is absolutely coating every surface in certain scenes and there are very few characters with any real plot armour. In fact, this was considered so bloody that the MPAA forced the makers to take a machete of their own to it. They went through nine screenings and pushed for the removal or alteration of 12 pieces of violent material.

This probably would have been one of Jason’s bloodier sprees, all in all, and I would have loved to have seen an official fully uncut version. There is very little in the way of downtime, too. Jason is always looking for his next victim so don’t expect him to be smelling the roses. It’s fast paced and a ton of fun.

Obviously, you need to expect it to be ruthlessly predictable. If you see two teens humping away in an RV, you know they are about to be massacred. Most of the cast are here to be butchered, they are just waiting their turn. Friday the 13th Part VI doesn’t reinvent the wheel so much as just bejazzle it and laugh at how round it is.

This is still an average film by horror standards and it has a lot of issues. If you are looking for a fun 80s slasher, however, you can do a hell of a lot worse than what is, in my opinion, the best movie in the entire series.

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Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.