Friday the 13th Jason Lives is the sixth entry in the Friday the 13th franchise and the last to feature Tommy Jarvis. This is Tommy’s third appearance in the series with a third actor playing the role. While Corey Feldman gave the best performance, Tommy’s portrayal here is leagues better than the previous chapter.

After the franchise’s final chapter and subsequent new beginning, the Friday the 13th series returned to the basics with the sixth entry. Friday the 13th Jason Lives puts Jason back at Camp Crystal Lake terrorizing horny teens and camp counselors. It’s a formula that works for the series and it works in this film.

Bringing Jason Back From the Dead

After A New Beginning’s wild plot, the series wisely chooses to go back to basics. The film begins with Tommy Jarvis accidentally resurrecting Jason from his shallow grave. A theme that would continue in later films. After Jason is brought back and begins his killing spree, Tommy unsuccessfully attempts to warn the camp counselors and local sheriffs. His ramblings and prior experience in a mental institution end up landing him behind bars while Jason continues his massacre.

Tommy is a more realized character here than in the fifth entry. A New Beginning portrays Tommy as essentially a mute with a penchant for violence. The character had no personality and became a hero no one wanted or was rooting for. His portrayal here isn’t anything special. It’s not exactly an Oscar-worthy performance. But compared to the blank stares and random fits of rage we saw in the last movie, anything would be an improvement.

Tommy Jarvis as a Real Character

In Friday the 13th Jason Lives, Tommy is charming and cunning. He’s able to trick police guards, fool Jason, and even get the girl in the end. A far cry from the loner we saw in Part 5. The fifth entry had some big plans for future entries but fortunately, due to the film’s poor reception, those were all abandoned and Jason was brought back.

Part 5 ends with Tommy donning a Jason mask with the implication being that he would be the new series killer. Friday the 13th Jason Lives totally ignores this ending and instead makes Tommy a fleshed-out character and misunderstood hero. Friday the 13th is a series built on common slasher tropes. The heady themes and idealizations brought on in part 5 were a gross contrast to the sex and violence the series is known for. Jason Lives brings the series back to its roots and makes the best film it can in this limiting series.

A Return to Form for Friday the 13th

Jason Lives wisely chooses to bring Jason back to the lake and terrorizing camp counselors. This trope is what began the franchise but had been all but abandoned since the second entry. While the camp has a new name, Camp Forest Green, it’s still home to Jason and a major part of his mythos.

The film also ups the stakes by adding kids into the mix. Friday the 13th Jason Lives isn’t bold enough to actually harm any children, but it does add a layer of tension knowing it’s not just reckless teenagers in Jason’s warpath. There are innocent kids as well.

Jason Lives and a Trilogy Ends

Friday the 13th Jason Lives ends the trilogy of Tommy Jarvis films and that’s for the best. After three films of the same two protagonists fighting each other, it was becoming stale. There wasn’t much new ground to tread. Tommy had already fought Jason as a child, taken up his mask, and now finished the fight. Leaving Jason where he belongs. Back in Camp Crystal Lake.

Jason would inevitably be resurrected and defeated again as the series progressed but there’s a certain finality that exists at the end of this film. Not for Jason, or even for Tommy, but for the grandiose ideas Friday the 13th tried to portray. The next three films in the series are where the franchise truly goes off the rails. Jason ends up fighting a telekinetic, beats up thugs in Manhattan, goes to hell, and then space.

By the time a series reaches its sixth entry, there are only so high the stakes can be raised. Friday the 13th Jason Lives is the last time Jason slaying a bunch of camp counselors can be entertaining. The series had to either reboot, go wild, or die. Over the next thirty years, the franchise would do all three. This sixth entry is a fitting end to both Tommy Jarvis and a semi-grounded slasher series.