JASON LIVES: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI is the film I credit with getting me into the horror genre when I was a youngster, so when Midnight's Edge released a 96 minute audio interview with JASON LIVES writer/director Tom McLoughlin this past weekend, I had to take the time out to listen to the whole thing.
The interview is quite interesting, covering the progress of McLoughlin's entertainment career over the decades, from his time performing as a mime to his current gig as lead vocalist in the rock band The Sloths. During the years in between, he directed multiple TV movies, the passion project DATE WITH AN ANGEL, and the Stephen King adaptation SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK, pursued the chance to direct the EXORCIST prequel (and left the project due to issues with the script Paul Schrader ended up turning into DOMINION: PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST), and of course resurrected iconic slasher Jason Voorhees.
The JASON LIVES segment of the interview was of particular interest to me, especially when it came with the revelation that McLoughlin's initial treatment for the film had Jason setting aside the bladed weapons at one point and picking up an Uzi.
I turned that in (a 15 to 20 page treatment for JASON LIVES), and it's pretty much verbatim exactly what the movie is, in terms of the characters, the scenes. The only thing that is different that I wrote and then realized, 'No, this is not a good idea', was when Jason kills the paintballer that has all the weapons and stuff that he takes, you know with the utility belt and the machete and all that stuff. Originally these were not paintballers, they were hunters out there, and this guy was Mr. Macho with all that stuff and he had an Uzi. So when Jason ripped his arm off and gets the machete, the next time we see him, in front of the motorhome, he's got an Uzi strapped to him. And I thought from a visual standpoint, it's like 'Holy shit, Jason Rambo!' And so when he goes into the motorhome and he bursts out of that bathroom on the girl, he just opens fire and shoots the crap out of her and shoots the crap out Cort behind the wheel and then the motorhome crashes. But I went, 'You know what? Anybody can do that.' … If I'm bringing Jason back from the grave with this superhuman strength, that he can turn a head and rip it off and punch a heart out and decapitate three people with one swoop, this is just not right, and it's also an imitatable act, and I did not want that."
So McLoughlin dropped the Uzi and replaced those shooting deaths with something more appropriate for Jason, resulting in the motorhome sequence being one of my favorite parts of the movie. Jason shoving the girl's head through the bathroom wall and stabbing the driver in the head with a knife works much better than if he had "shot the crap out of them".
McLoughlin also notes that the full treatment is included in Joseph Maddrey's interview book A Strange Idea of Entertainment: Conversations with Tom McLoughlin. If you'd like to pick up a copy of the book, you can do so on Amazon.