Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Tom McLoughlin
Produced by	Don Behrns
Written by	Tom McLoughlin
Starring	Thom Mathews Jennifer Cooke David Kagen Renée Jones Kerry Noonan Darcy DeMoss Tom Fridley
Music by	Harry Manfredini
Cinematography	Jon Kranhouse
Edited by	Bruce Green
Production company	Terror, Inc.
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 1, 1986 (1986-08-01)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3 million
Box office	$17.8–$19.4 million (US)

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (also known on screen as Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI) is a 1986 American slasher film and the sixth installment in the Friday the 13th film series written and directed by Tom McLoughlin. Although the original concept called for Tommy Jarvis, the protagonist of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, to become the new villain, the poor fan reception of A New Beginning prompted the producers to bring back Jason Voorhees as the series' antagonist. In resurrecting Jason, McLoughlin made Jason an explicitly supernatural force for the first time in the series, depicting him as being raised from the dead via electricity; this version of Jason, an undead serial killer and more powerful superhuman, would become the standard depiction for the rest of the franchise, until 2009's remake. The film likewise broke with many other series conventions, introducing metahumor and action film elements including shootouts and car chases.

The film was the first film in the series to receive favorable reviews since the original. In the years since its release, its self-referential humor and numerous instances of breaking the fourth wall have been praised for prefiguring Wes Craven's Scream series and other similar 1990s horror films. As of 2003's Freddy vs. Jason, Jason Lives was a fan favorite of the series, in addition to receiving positive notice from horror film historians. It is followed by Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood.