FILM · 1986 · USA
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI
46 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
46 Interesting Facts About Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI
Interesting Facts (34)
- #001
Director Tom McLoughlin took home several props from the film, including the tombstone that stood outside Jason's house and was designed to look as if Jason were buried in the yard, as well as the coffin kept in his garage. The DVD box set includes a segment in which he displays these props at his home and recounts how a municipal worker refused to enter his yard to read the meter because he believed a body really was buried there.
- #002
Years after the film's premiere, Kevin Williamson told director Tom McLoughlin that it had had a major influence on him growing up and had inspired him to write the meta slasher film Scream (1996).
- #003
John Shepherd, who played Tommy in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), did not want to reprise the role after becoming a born-again Christian, so it went to Thom Mathews instead.
- #004
The little girl who has the recurring nightmares is named Nancy, which many fans interpret as a reference to the protagonist of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) played by Heather Langenkamp. However, director Tom McLoughlin actually named the girl after his wife, Nancy McLoughlin, who plays Lizbeth in the film.
- #005
It is the first and only film in the franchise, including New Line Cinema's three "Jason" films and the 2009 remake, to contain absolutely no nudity despite having a sex scene.
- #006
The producers feared the film would receive a PG-13 rating from the MPAA, so they increased the violence to push it up to an R rating.
- #007
The cheeky James Bond-style opening was meant to set the tone for the film: "It wasn't just going to be another Jason film, it was something that was a kind of homage to other slasher films and also a kind of satire of them."
- #008
Bringing Jason back was a directive sent to Paramount's producers because of the negative feedback over the bait-and-switch ending of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), in which the killer turned out not to be Jason but someone imitating him.
- #009
Additional death scenes were filmed after the movie was shown to test audiences: the death of Martin, who is not killed in Simon Hawke's novelization, and the double impalement of Steven and Annette, which also does not appear in the novelization. In addition, Sissy's death was actually filmed rather than only showing her being pulled out of the window and her head being found later, as in the movie.
- #010
The hands of Tommy opening Jason's coffin actually belong to director Tom McLoughlin.
- #011
The exciting scene in which Megan attacks Jason with an outboard motor was actually shot in three different locations: the underwater shots were filmed in a temperature-controlled tank in Los Angeles, the above-water shots were filmed on a dark Georgia lake, and the shots of the motor cutting Jason's mask/neck were filmed in Tom McLaughlin's father's swimming pool, which was actually damaged in the process when the pool filter broke.
- #012
In this film, the town of Crystal Lake was renamed Forest Green to distance it from Jason's earlier murders. Since the town is called Crystal Lake in both the previous and subsequent installments of the series, this is the only installment in which Forest Green is used.
- #013
Tom McLoughlin was initially hired only to write the film, but producer Don Behrns pushed for him to be allowed to direct as well. Behrns later said that otherwise the studio would probably have rehired Danny Steinmann, director of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), whom it refused to work with again following their previous poor working relationship on The Unseen (1980).
- #014
The opening cemetery scenes were shot as a silent scene.
- #015
Composer Harry Manfredini said in an interview that the music used in the scene where Jason's corpse is dug out of the ground was borrowed from the Latin hymn "Dies Irae." He noted that he had sung it as a child in choir school and wished for an orchestra to perform it for the film. He chose the piece because it suited the film's gothic tone. This piece of music had been used a few years earlier as the main theme of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
- #016
You can hear Jason pressing into Hawes's heart, and McLoughlin says they shot part of that but he is not sure what happened to it.
- #017
The film's print version includes the entirety of the sheriff's grueling death. The ending was also changed somewhat: it excludes the profanities Tommy says to Jason, and the fight between Tommy and Jason that emerges both above and below the surface of the lake is longer. In addition, the shot of blood spilling into the water in the scene where Megan saves Tommy and pushes the boat's propeller into Jason's neck is removed.
- #018
While the counselors are unloading the food, you can hear Alice Cooper's "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" playing on the radio.
- #019
At roughly 15 minutes in: when Lizbeth is killed and her money and credit card fly through the air, the credit card reads "American Excess" and the cardholder's name is listed as "Elizabeth Mott." Mott was the maiden name of Nancy McLoughlin, the actress who played Lizbeth.
- #020
After the triple decapitation there was a shot of the three heads falling to the ground, but McLoughlin cut it himself because he thought it did not look that good.
- #021
Director Tom McLoughlin stated in an interview that this particular Jason had an indestructible, Terminator-like presence. C. J. Graham (Jason) served in the United States Marine Corps from 1974 to 1978, which provided a dominant presence.
- #022
This is the first film in which Jason does not run but walks quickly.
- #023
Allen Hawes (Ron Palillo) takes his name from director Tom McLoughlin's best friend Mike Hawes, while Sheriff Garris (David Kagen) takes his name from McLoughlin's friend, writer/director Mick Garris.
- #024
The film arguably has the highest survival rate in the series; Tommy, Megan and all 16 children make it to the end, whereas usually there is only one "final girl" and sometimes one additional male survivor.
- #025
Although Mancuso retained control over the film's casting, he deferred to McLoughlin's decision. The only caveat was that the final girl had to be a "very attractive blonde."[14] To meet this requirement, McLoughlin cast Jennifer Cooke based on her performance in the series V. The role of Hawes, Tommy's would-be sidekick who dies in the film's first five minutes, went to another television veteran, Ron Palillo, famous for his role as Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter.
- #026
Jason impaling the couple on the scooter with his machete resembles a similar death in Friday the 13. Part 2 (1981), in which Jason spears a couple in bed with a spear. That scene itself resembled a scene in Mario Bava's Italian slasher A Bay of Blood (1971) (1971).
- #027
Jason kills Cort with the black Bowie knife used by Rambo in Rambo: First Blood Part II.
- #028
Lizbeth is played by the director's wife, Nancy McLoughlin. They met at Paramount Studios while she was playing the monster in John Frankenheimer's Prophecy. Here she performs her own stunts and keeps telling anyone who will listen how freezing cold the water is.
- #029
Tommy is seen riding in his truck with the Occultism Handbook, which serves as a guide to help him defeat Jason, along with several books titled The Dead Live and 30 Years Among the Dead.
- #030
Jason's mask sometimes has only one red triangle and sometimes three.
- #031
Referring to his hulking appearance in the paintball scene, Dan Bradley was nicknamed 'Bitch Tits Jason.'.
- #032
At around 45:00, Jason emerges from the woods and is seen looking at Camp Forest Green. He then continues walking toward the camp. As he passes under the sign, you can see him exhale, showing that Jason breathes.
- #033
Tommy's character was initially planned to be the new Jason/killer, but the producers chose to bring Jason back instead; however, if Tommy had never dug up Jason's body, Jason could not have been resurrected and claimed more victims. Though he is not technically the killer, Tommy is partly responsible for their deaths.
- #034
There are as many shots of boom mics popping into frame as there are murders.
Behind the Scenes (4)
- #035
Although he is not credited as a stuntman, C. J. Graham performed all of Jason's stunts in the film, including being pulled on wires during the gunfire scenes and being set on fire in the climactic scene.
- #036
The last scene to be shot was the camper van collision. Director Tom McLoughlin was terrified during filming because there could be only one take and the crash made the scene incredibly dangerous for C. J. Graham, though it remains unclear why Graham would be inside the van when it flips, since his character is not seen until he tumbles out.
- #037
When Jason lunges through the car's windshield at Nancy McLoughlin's Lizbeth with a spear, the stunt performer was supposed to aim at the opposite side, but the impact through the windshield redirected the trajectory of the real, very sharp spear toward McLoughlin, who narrowly escaped being impaled.
- #038
(At around the 32nd minute) During the close-ups of the children sleeping in the cabin, one of them has a copy of French existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre's novel "No Exit." This is most likely intended as a joke. The book's plot concerns three dead souls brought to Hell who lie about the reasons they were sent there. One of the characters, trapped there with no way out, concludes that "Hell is other people."
Characters & Cast (2)
- #039
Crew member Dan Bradley played Jason on the first day of shooting, which is why Jason's build differs in the paintball scenes and why his eye color changes during the film. Paramount saw the chaos of that first day and, deciding Bradley looked too large for the role, asked that Jason be recast, so the part went to Graham.
- #040
Actress Kerry Noonan later auditioned for a film called "Birthday Bash," in which a serial killer named "Ethan" faces a girl with telekinetic powers. At the audition she asked the producers, "Hey, is this Friday the 13.? I was already in one of these!" She was right: "Birthday Bash" was the fake working title of Friday the 13th: The New Blood (1988), and "Ethan" was the alias given to Jason in the scripts to protect the film from leaks during pre-production.
Easter Eggs & References (6)
- #041
The original script contained material referencing Jason's father, and to this day it remains the closest the franchise has come to shedding light on that mysterious character. In the script, Pamela's tombstone stands beside Jason's, a nod to the fact that someone paid to have Jason buried and an explanation, as the mayor says in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), for why he was not cremated. There is also a final scene in which Jason's father visits his son's grave, apparently aware that Jason is not there. These scenes were never filmed but were used in the film's novelization; the 2009 Deluxe Edition DVD uses storyboard art and voiceover work to complete the scene.
- #042
Melanie Kinnaman, who played Pam in the previous film Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), was actually signed to reprise her role in this film, which appears to indicate that the producers did not accept the claim that Tommy killed her in the final scene (after first seeing it in a dream). The producers decided to take the film in a new direction by not making Tommy the new Jason, and Kinnaman's character was not included in those plans. Although Pam's fate was left open, the fact that Tommy is not in prison for killing her (he is still being treated for his mental problems but is not incarcerated) suggests he let her live.
- #043
The film contains numerous references to other horror films and/or people connected to them. Megan mentions Cunningham Road, a reference to Sean S. Cunningham, director of Friday the 13th (1980) and creator of the series, while Tommy mentions a grocery store called Karloff's, a tribute to famous horror actor Boris Karloff, known for playing Frankenstein's monster. In addition, Sheriff Garris mentions a town called Carpenter, a reference to filmmaker John Carpenter, director of Halloween (1978); the name Sissy perhaps refers to Sissy Spacek, who starred in Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976), adapted from a Stephen King novel. Sissy also wears a jacket with "Baker" written on the back, likely a reference to Angela Baker from Sleepaway Camp (1983) and/or special effects master Rick Baker.
- #044
Although the film's central premise is Jason being resurrected from his grave, the series' previous film (Friday the 13.: A New Beginning (1985)) had mentioned that Jason was cremated. This film suggests that this was deliberately false information given to people, since even Sheriff Garris brings it up repeatedly.
- #045
At around 32 minutes, in the scene where the campers are in bed, an issue of Marvel's Power Man and Iron Fist is visible, featuring El Aguila as a guest star.
- #046
For much of the film, the sheriff believes the real killer is Tommy Jarvis rather than Jason. This is probably a nod to the original plan suggested in the previous film (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)) to make Tommy the series' new killer. Because of the negative fan reaction to the ending of Part 5, that plan was scrapped in favor of resurrecting Jason, as seen in this film.
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