30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 3

This was a choice between two iconic characters, Michael and Jason. I grew up watching both and I couldn't decide between the two back then. Fast forward a couple decades... and I still can't convincingly choose. Since there are no repeat movies in the list, this one wins by default.

Your favorite slasher.

Friday The 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (1986)

When it comes to slasher movies, no one quite fits the bill like Jason Voorhees. No other slasher turns killing into a primitive art form.

Part 6 opens with a deceased Jason. Up to this point, the man had been strong, but bound to mortality. In an ode to Frankenstein, the third actor to portray Tommy Jarvis and Arnold Horshack make the mistake of digging up Jason to make sure that he's really dead. Jason doesn't disappoint, but in a fit of pent up rage, Tommy grabs a metal fence post and stabs Voorhees in the chest, just to make sure he's dead. Lightning strikes the metal rod (the previously mentioned nod to Frankenstein) and Jason is reborn.

At this point, Jason becomes the superhuman rotting killing machine that we all associate the character with today. It was still all about protecting his territory, but with amped up undead power. This would be before Jason battled a psychic girl. Before he took a trip to Canada and Times Square to have toxic waste melt away the decayed man outside the little boy. Before turning into a parasitic slug. Before he played the part of Philip J. Fry, developed a stainless steel fetish and traveled to distant planets. Yes. All of those ludicrous things happened after his lightning resurrection and end of movie return to the lake. Did I just spoil the ending for anyone? Didn't think so.

Unbelievably, this is the only Friday the 13th movie not to feature any nudity. It's all about the story, as stretched as it is in some places. This movie is the epitome of the "second half" Paramount movies. There was no place to go but up after the misdirection of the fifth installment with Dudley from Diff'rent Strokes. This entry in the series pushed the storyline back in the right direction and created a mythic horror icon in the process.