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On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark honors fringe cinema in the streaming age with midnight movies from any moment in film history.
First, the BAIT: a weird genre pick, and why we’re exploring its specific niche right now. Then, the BITE: a spoiler-filled answer to the all-important question, “Is this old cult film actually worth recommending?”
The Bait: Lucky No. 6 (or, Jason Voorhees’ Date with Destiny!)
From “Wuthering Heights” to “Cold Storage,” there’s no shortage of Valentine’s Day viewing options in movie theaters for February 2026. You’ve got just as many choices if you’re staying in and streaming something at home — but it’s not every year that Friday the 13th lands immediately before the most romantic day on the calendar. That coincidence is too perfect to ignore, and celebrating its 40th anniversary, you just won’t find a better top bill than 1986’s “Friday the 13th – Part VI: Jason Lives.”
Directed and written by filmmaker Tom McLoughlin, the all-around best and sweetest sequel in the historic slasher series marked the first time it handed the reins to a single auteur. Technically the final chapter in the Tommy Jarvis trilogy, “Jason Lives” follows a grown-up Tommy (played for the first time by Thom Mathews) after he’s released from a hospital for the criminally insane. Still haunted by the night he killed Jason… the first time, you don’t need to have seen Tommy’s earlier “Friday the 13th” outings to understand why he’s got unfinished business with horror’s favorite heartthrob in a hockey mask.
‘Friday the 13th – Part VI: Jason Lives’ (1986)©Paramount/Courtesy Everett CollectionWhen Tommy returns to Crystal Lake — now optimistically rebranded Camp Forest Green — to dig up Jason’s grave and lay his flashbacks to rest, an unlucky lightning strike resurrects a zombified, immortal Jason (played here by the hulking C. J. Graham). A bigger budget and the brilliant work of production designer Joseph T. Garrity elevates the carnage of the sixth movie, but it’s final girl and love interest Megan Garris (Jennifer Cooke) who will make you fall for its story in the end.
Megan’s immediate belief in Tommy when he says a serial killer is back from the dead played like a miracle even back then, and it’s a rare antidote for the cynicism of modern dating today. The world feels like it’s on fire right now, and human connection is too often treated as transactional. Shockingly sincere and funny, but also a box office flop, “Jason Lives” is a reminder to show up for the one you love — even when you’re both in hell. —AF
‘Friday the 13th – Part VI: Jason Lives’ (1986)©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection“Friday the 13th – Part VI: Jason Lives” is available to rent or buy on demand.
The Bite: Jason Lives (and So Does Love, Kind of?)
Ah, “Friday the 13th – Part VI: Jason Lives,” we love a title that includes both an en dash and a hyphen, but not as much as we love a title that include a subtitle that could reasonably function as the subtitle of literally every other entry in a film franchise? Jason lives?! You don’t say!
As is the case with all our classic slasher baddies — Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Billy Chapman, you know and love them all — the saga of Jason Voorhees is much more complicated than the vast majority of casual film fans even realize. Did you know that Jason doesn’t even appear in the first film? Do you know when his famous hockey mask started offering him a kicky new look? Do you recognize Tommy Jarvis?
If you’re this far into the franchise, we sure hope you can answer all those queries (and more!). (Also, that last one is a trick question, because that man sure loves changing his look cough cough the actor playing him cough with startling regularity.)
In his gobsmacking third appearance in the franchise, Tommy continues to be the victim of, well, not just Jason Voorhees, but somewhat amusing coincidence as well. This time around, Tommy’s perennially good intentions (this is a kid who used to just really like monster masks, look at him now!) have absolutely shocking (sorry) consequences. The film opens with Tommy (played by the third actor to take on the role) attempting to finally kill Jason once and for all — by, uh, digging up his long-dead body and accidentally shocking it back to life in a scene shot on the most obviously indoor “cemeteries” we’ve ever seen in our lives.
There are plenty of tragic figures in this franchise, but there’s something about this opening that just gets me every time. By trying to re-kill a monster he killed years ago, Tommy (and the whims of Mother Nature) only manage to make him more powerful than ever. Jason now has healing properties! That’s bad!
‘Friday the 13th – Part VI: Jason Lives’ (1986)Courtesy Everett CollectionAt least Tommy gets a love interest this time around, thanks to a winsome sheriff’s daughter (daddy issues in a franchise all about mommy issues? finally!) who sees Tommy’s good nature when he’s locked up in her own papa’s tiny local jail. One fun detail: much of Sheriff Garris’ problems with Tommy stem from him quite literally knowing who he is, a tiny touch of reality in a franchise built on the assumption that you can just rename a summer camp and everyone will immediately forget that it’s been home to dozens of brutal murders. Branding matters!
Of course, no good Jason movie is complete with a trip to the actual Camp Crystal Lake, and that makes the full circle conclusion of “Jason Lives” feel so genuinely satisfying: after all, what better way to kill Jason than to kill him again in the very same lake that originally claimed his then-young life? It’s genius, and while it does require fire, water, rocks, chains, and at least one very sharp boat propeller, it works! Love can heal! (Well, for now.) —KE
Read more installments of After Dark, IndieWire’s midnight movie rewatch club:
- Are You Scared of the U.S. Government Turning on Its Citizens? Try 1971’s ‘Punishment Park’
- You Know Video Game Adaptations Are Cooked When ‘Silent Hill’ (2006) Has Aged This Well
- We’re Failing Our Boys… if They Haven’t Seen 1971’s Rat-Obsessed Incel Horror ‘Willard’
- Miss the Golden Age of Weird Netflix? Try ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein’
- Found Footage ‘Savageland’ Should Be Mandatory Viewing for I.C.E. Agents
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