WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Tom McLoughlin
MUSIC BY: Henry Manfredini
RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes
DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures
STARRING: Thom Mathews; Jennifer Cooke; David Kagen; Bob Larkin; Tom Fridley; Kerry Noonan; Renee Jones; Vincent Guastaferro; Courtney Vickery; C. J. Graham
After the events from part V Tommy leaves the mental hospital. Plagued by continuous visions of Jason he and a friend go to dig up and burn Jason's body. Tommy impales the body with a mettle pole; lightning promptly strikes the pole, bringing Jason back to life. The Sheriff thinks that Tommy is copying Jason's old MO for killing. Jason rampages his way back to the now in use Camp Crystal Lake. Tommy and Megan, the Sheriff's rambunctious daughter, set out to kill Jason. In the end Tommy chains up and traps Jason at the bottom of the lake.
Seeing that Jason had not yet ceased to be a profitable cash cow Paramount decided to follow up A New Beginning with a new adventure. Because many fans were mad that Jason did not appear in part 5 they decided hat they would have to bring him back for this one. In order to make sure everyone would know Jason was back they named this one Jason Lives.
Frank Mancuso Jr. was busy with other projects and had no time to work on this project in any capacity. British director Tom McLoughlin was hired to write and direct this movie about the resurrection of Jason. McLoughlin had several ideas to make his movie different from the other Friday films. Some of the previous efforts in the series had some unintentional humor; McLoughlin wanted to add some intentional humor to his film. He also wanted to get away from the low budget feel of the earlier ones. The previous ones had relatively cheap lighting. McLoughlin wanted to have more of a stylized look with lots of fog and light & shadow like the Hammer horror films of the 60s.
Newcomers Thom Mathews & Jennifer Cooke were cast as the leads. Future T&A flick actress Darcy DeMoss was cast as well, but even she does not get naked. In addition to Henry Manfredini, who wrote the film's musical score, Alice Cooper provided three songs to the film (Hard Rock Summer, Teenage Frankenstein, & The Man Behind the Mask). The movie was shot in Covington, Georgia. The movie was released to theaters on August 1, 1986. The Jason phenomena was slowing down and it did not make as much money as the previous ones, but still made some solid cash.