Rating: 2.5/5
Hooptober 4.0 | 5/31 | Sequels 5/6
Somehow, Jason returned.
Tommy and Allen race down a foggy road to Jason’s grave. Tommy still has visions of Jason everywhere he looks. He figures if he digs up Jason and cremates him, it will set his mind at ease.
Allen isn’t into any of it as they dig, as Tommy crowbars the coffin open. The body, crawling in worms feeding on its face, lay dormant. Tommy grabs an iron rod from the gate and stabs the corpse repeatedly, leaving it in Jason’s chest. He throws the hockey mask into the body as he fetches the gasoline.
Suddenly, a lightning bolt strikes the rod. A surge of energy flows through the corpse. The eyes open. Tommy grabs the rod and pulls it out of Jason’s chest. Jason lurches at Tommy.
Tommy douses Jason in gas. He lights a match, but the rain puts it out. Allen hits Jason over the head with a shovel. Jason punches a hole in Allen’s stomach. Tommy gets in his car and races away.
Jason dons his hockey mask and looks at the camera. In his pupil, Jason recreates the 007 opening, throwing an axe at the camera.
Gone is the dour levity of A New Beginning, and in comes meta-humor.
The gravedigger who finds Jason’s open grave looks at the camera and says,
Some people have a strange idea of entertainment.
The movie also does away with the events of A New Beginning, so Tommy never becomes a serial killer.
This time, we’re at Camp Forest Green, and the camp has busloads of kids. Tommy must convince the councilors that Jason is back and get their help in stopping him once and for all.
If the humor was consistent, I might have enjoyed this more. But it’s tonally all over the place. Sometimes, it wants to be a Zucker brothers movie — the eight-year-old who falls asleep reading Sartre — and other times, it wants to be a “real” horror movie.
Still, this is an improvement from its predecessor and is consistently entertaining, even if it doesn’t work for me. It might have the most coherent means of stopping Jason that any of the movies have had thus far.
By treating Jason like a superhuman entity, the filmmakers follow in Halloween’s footsteps. As long as they avoid making the movies too lore-heavy, I can get on board.