40 Fun Facts About Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

What revives Jason in Jason Lives after Tommy Jarvis drives a metal fence post into his corpse?

Lightning strikes the post twice and turns Jason into an undead revenant with superhuman strength. Tommy had dug him up only to make sure he could never return.

Which future star of Ghost and Scandal made his film debut as a doomed camp counselor in Jason Lives?

Tony Goldwyn plays Darren, a counselor who meets Jason on the road before he ever reaches camp. He went on to play the treacherous friend in Ghost and the president in Scandal.

Which rock star recorded the theme song for Jason Lives and appears with Jason in its music video?

Alice Cooper recorded He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) for the film. In the video, Jason menaces teenagers at a midnight screening of the movie itself.

The opening credits of Jason Lives have Jason parody the famous intro of which film spy?

James Bond's gun-barrel opening is the target: Jason strides into view, turns to face the camera and slashes at it, and blood runs down the screen.

Which Universal monster movie was the model for raising Jason from the dead in Jason Lives?

Frankenstein, the 1931 film with Boris Karloff as a lumbering monster, was the template. The director steered the whole sequel toward the feel of an old studio horror picture.

Jason Lives is the only Friday the 13th film to contain none of which slasher-movie staple?

Nudity was left out because the director wanted to shake the idea that these films punish premarital sex with death. Even the couple in the one sex scene stay fully clothed.

In Jason Lives, Crystal Lake and its summer camp have both been renamed what?

Forest Green is the name the locals have adopted, and Jason has faded into an urban legend there. Tommy Jarvis heads straight for the old cemetery anyway.

The self-referential humor of Jason Lives has been praised for prefiguring which 1990s slasher film series?

Scream made a hit of slasher characters who know the rules of horror films. Jason Lives had a counselor talk about those rules a decade earlier, and another character speak straight to the camera.

Which game are the executives playing in the woods when Jason ambushes them in Jason Lives?

Paintball scenes were filmed on the first day, with stuntman Dan Bradley as Jason. He was replaced straight afterwards, but his footage stayed in the finished film.

What does Tommy Jarvis chain around Jason's neck to trap him at the bottom of the lake in Jason Lives?

A boulder does the job: Tommy lures Jason out to a boat, gets the chain over his head and sinks him in the lake where he drowned as a boy.

Which weapon does Jason take from the office workers he kills in the woods in Jason Lives?

A machete is his prize after he wipes out all five weekend warriors, one of them by crushing the man's face into a tree.

Which Jason Lives character, the sheriff's daughter, breaks Tommy Jarvis out of jail?

Megan springs Tommy from the sheriff's own cells, then pulls him out of the lake and revives him with CPR.

Jason Lives followed which Friday the 13th film, whose masked killer proved to be a copycat?

A New Beginning ended with a paramedic called Roy Burns behind the hockey mask, which disappointed fans. Its reviews were among the worst the series had received.

What do Tommy Jarvis and his friend plan to do with Jason's body when they dig it up in Jason Lives?

They mean to cremate it and end the nightmares Tommy has had since he killed Jason as a boy. A flashback at the graveside makes him attack the corpse instead.

At the start of Jason Lives, Tommy Jarvis is still haunted by Jason after a stay in what kind of place?

A mental institution is where Tommy has spent his time since facing Jason, and the flashbacks have not stopped. The sheriff uses that history to wave away his warnings.

The writer-director of Jason Lives was given free rein on the story apart from which single condition?

The producers' only demand was to return the real killer, after the fifth film's stand-in had let fans down. Everything else, the humor included, was left to the director.

Jason's weakness in Jason Lives, tied to his home soil, comes from the lore of which monsters?

Vampires and their tie to home soil inspired the rule: the director decided Jason really had drowned as a child, so sinking him in the lake again would leave him helpless.

The director of Jason Lives cited his love of Gothic horror, especially the work of which American author?

Edgar Allan Poe was a touchstone for the director, who opens the film with two men digging up a grave in a thunderstorm.

Tommy Jarvis, the hero of Jason Lives, was first played by Corey Feldman in which earlier film?

The Final Chapter introduced Tommy as a twelve-year-old who makes monster masks and ends up killing Jason. Jason Lives was his last film as the hero, by then played by a third actor.

What is the young camper Nancy doing when Jason spares her life at the camp in Jason Lives?

Praying is how Jason finds Nancy, and he leaves her unharmed. The director drew on his Catholic upbringing, and the film has the only open references to God in the series.

Who played Jason for most of Jason Lives after stuntman Dan Bradley was replaced early in the shoot?

C. J. Graham, a 6 ft 3 former soldier, had never planned to be an actor or a stuntman. He still chose to perform most of his own stunts in the role.

Which actor from The Return of the Living Dead took over as the adult Tommy Jarvis in Jason Lives?

Thom Mathews was chosen for his work in that zombie comedy, though the director only learned of his horror background after shooting began.

Which actress from the science fiction TV series V plays the sheriff's daughter in Jason Lives?

Jennifer Cooke had played the half-alien Star Child on V, and that performance won her the lead. She left the screen for good after this film.

Ron Palillo, who plays Tommy's doomed friend in Jason Lives, was famous as Horshack on which 1970s sitcom?

Welcome Back, Kotter made Palillo a household face as the sweathog Arnold Horshack. In Jason Lives he lasts about five minutes before Jason punches his heart out.

In which US state was Jason Lives filmed, with the town of Covington standing in for Crystal Lake?

Georgia was the location: the town and police station scenes were filmed in Covington, near Atlanta, and the camp scenes at a real camp just outside it.

Which Chicago Tribune critic called Jason Lives the best of the series but still gave it one and a half stars?

Gene Siskel enjoyed the self-referential humor but found the story essentially the same as in the previous five films.

Earlier sequels were cut to avoid an X rating; what did producers ask the director of Jason Lives to add?

More gore was the studio's request, the reverse of the usual fight with the censors. The director's first cut had thirteen deaths as an in-joke, and three more were added.

Which never-seen relative of Jason was scripted to appear at the end of Jason Lives but cut by the studio?

His father, Elias Voorhees, was to turn up at the cemetery, implying he knew Jason had risen. The studio did not want to explain him in the following film, though he does appear in the novelization.

What does the closing shot of Jason Lives show, added so that a sequel was clearly possible?

A twitching eye, in close-up underwater, was filmed because the producers disliked two earlier endings that left the killer's survival in doubt. One showed only his mask floating up.

What does the sheriff's daughter use to force Jason off her when he grabs her leg underwater in Jason Lives?

The outboard motor of the wrecked boat cuts into Jason and sends him to the bottom of the lake. She then swims Tommy to shore.

Which character in Jason Lives breaks the fourth wall by turning to the camera to comment on horror audiences?

The gravedigger, Martin, grumbles about Jason being dug up and then speaks straight to the audience. He became one of three victims added later to satisfy the studio.

In Jason Lives, Cort and his girlfriend Nikki are attacked by Jason inside which vehicle?

An RV is where the pair are caught: Jason kills her in its bathroom, then Cort at the wheel, and the crash flips it over.

Before Part V disappointed fans, the plan for the film that became Jason Lives made Tommy Jarvis what?

The next villain was meant to be Tommy himself, following on from the fifth film's closing scene. Its poor reception pushed the producers to restore Jason instead.

Lizbeth, the first woman Jason kills in Jason Lives, was played by which relative of the director?

His wife, Nancy McLoughlin, took the part of the lost counselor. Several other roles went to actors the director had already worked with.

Some of the lake climax of Jason Lives was actually shot in what, owned by the director's family?

A swimming pool stood in for the lake, and the shoot wrecked it: fake blood churned into the water jammed the filter.

Which composer scored Jason Lives, having written the music for all five earlier Friday the 13th films?

Harry Manfredini was told by the director not to tip off the audience before each shock, and aimed for a subtler, more Gothic sound than before.

Producer Frank Mancuso Jr. set one rule for casting the heroine of Jason Lives: she had to be what?

A blonde was the producer's one caveat; otherwise he deferred to the director, who picked his lead from a TV science fiction series.

Which earlier film by the director of Jason Lives follows teenagers sent into a mausoleum as an initiation?

One Dark Night, a 1982 chiller with Meg Tilly and Adam West, was the hit on the director's record. The producer also liked that he was known for writing comedy scripts.

Tom McLoughlin, the writer-director of Jason Lives, is also a former stage performer of which kind?

A mime as well as a filmmaker, McLoughlin played the robot S.T.A.R. in Disney's The Black Hole. He was also Emmy-nominated for writing on Dick Van Dyke's variety series Van Dyke and Company.

Kerry Noonan, who plays counselor Paula in Jason Lives, left the screen and earned a doctorate in which field?

Folklore and mythology became Noonan's field at UCLA, where her dissertation studied Catholic charismatic women. She later became a professor at Champlain College.