​WHAT IS THE GREATEST HORROR MOVIE EVER AND WHY IS IT FRIDAY 13TH PART 6?

I recently rewatched all the Friday the 13th movies again, including the remake. Lockdown can do strange things to a person.

I think it’s fair to say that the series is, how shall I put this, variable in quality. The first one is a genuine classic. It’s as good and as important to the genre as Halloween, Psycho or Nightmare on Elm Street. 

It would have been easy to give up my rewatch with part 5. It is an unmitigated disaster of a movie from start to finish. Every scene, every line, every acting choice is so bad you start to think that this must be a deliberate choice. Right down to the choice to – and I’m going to spoil the twist here – not even have Jason in the movie. I know, right?

I went into Part 6 with some trepidation. Yes, the storyline is not all that. The usual group of oh so murderable teenagers arrive at Crystal Lake, only to be picked off one by one by moral guardian Jason Voorhees.

So far so the same, right?

But there is something else going on in this movie. This is the first time the series really embraces the absurdity of the scenario. Take the opening scene. Tommy, the surviving character from the previous movie, is obsessed with making sure Jason is really dead. So naturally, he does what any sane (well, he isn’t sane but never mind) person would do. He drives to a cemetery in the middle of the night in a thunderstorm to dig up Jason’s grave. He’s there alright. But to make doubly sure he’s dead, Tommy rams a metal rod through Jason’s chest. Lightning hits the rod and reanimates Jason. If you don’t think this is one of the greatest moments in cinema history, I don’t know what to say to you. I just don’t think we can be friends. 

But most important is something that should really be recognised by horror historians. This movie did Scream 10 years before Scream did it. It’s full of meta jokes referring to what’s happening. Like when Jason steps out in front of a car and the driver goes to get out and his girlfriend warns him, “I’ve seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly.”

And I haven’t even mentioned the hilarious scene when Jason comes across a group of corporate businessmen paintballing in the woods. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that paintball guns are no match for a good machete at your side. 
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Do they maintain this heady standard right to the end of the series? Lord no. There are a couple more highlights. Jason Take Manhattan (more accurately: Jason on a Boat) has a sense of fun, as has Jason X, where a cryogenically frozen Jason is thawed out on a space station. Who thought that was a good idea?
So go watch Part 6. You know I’m right.

By Richmond Clements