YMMV / Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Sure, he was an annoying obstacle in Tommy's way, but Garris certainly did not really deserve to die by getting folded in half, especially in a much more intense and painful extended version of his death scene before getting cut down for the theatrical release.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Was Jason intending to kill Darren and Lizabeth, or was he giving them a chance to leave? Or was he just standing there to scare intruders, before eventually having to kill the two when they didn't heed his silent warning?
  • Did Jason bust into the children's cabin in order to harm them, or was it a ruse to lure out the remaining teens/adults in the area, who wouldn't want him to hurt them?
  • Some have theorized that the reason Jason was particularly brutal to Paula was because she bore a pretty good resemblance towards Alice, the woman who killed his mother.
  • When Megan tells Garris about Tommy being innocent of the murders by giving his alibi about being with her during the time of Cort's and his girlfriend's murders, Garris leaves the station again to check out Camp Forest Green while leaving Tommy incarcerated and Meg under watch of his second-in-command Rick. Was Garris just being a shortsightedly dismissive and disbelieving Rabid Cop, or was he actually confused on how his prime suspect can be at two places at once and he just didn't answer Megan because he didn't want to look like an idiot at his job? Furthermore, did he actually go to Camp Forest Green to clarify what his daughter said was true? Garris spent most of the film suspecting Tommy of being the killer, so he didn't have to leave for Camp Forest Green since Tommy was already in jail and the case, in his mind, would technically be closed.
  • After realizing Tommy was telling the truth about Jason while confronting Jason, would Garris have changed his attitude, lightened up towards Tommy and let his daughter and him be together if he had not been killed?
  • With the way Jason looks at Burt's arm that he just ripped off, is he looking at it because it was holding a machete or was he surprised about his newfound strength after his resurrection? While he could do some pretty impressive feats of strength before, being able to casually rip someone's arm off is probably new to him.
• Base-Breaking Character: Sheriff Garris, either a Ensemble Dark Horse for being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who sacrifices himself to save his daughter or an obnoxious Rabid Cop who deserved to get folded in half by Jason for his abuse of Tommy. There is also a third party who acknowledge his faults but still see that despite all that he has some good qualities that earned him his spot as sheriff.
• Catharsis Factor: For some fans after having threatened to kill Tommy over an insult, arrested him with absolutely no evidence, had a clear bias against the kid and ignored many alternate reasons for why Tommy thought he saw Jason, seeing Sheriff Garris getting folded in half by Jason can be considered strangely satisfying.
• Designated Hero: Sheriff Garris at the climax turns out technically to be this installment's Big Good Tritagonist when he tried to bravely and commendably fight Jason even if it painfully cost him his life, but earlier spent the most of his screen time as a Rabid Cop who gives a hard time for Tommy and even sometimes subverts himself as a Jerkass Has a Point even if his persecution of Tommy had some justifications due to his mental history.
• Designated Villain: Sure, Sheriff Garris had unjust bias and flawed judgment against Tommy and is unprofessional as sheriff, but his reason after hearing about Tommy's mental health record was still justified, especially the idea if his daughter with Tommy who could be dangerous can warrant some like-minded Anger Born of Worry. Likewise his doubt over Jason's return makes sense when you considered he acted like how anyone in real life would if someone told them that a long dead mass murderer was back from the dead and the one behind the all the deaths occurring. Even as doubtful as he was of Tommy's story, he still tried to be patient with him till Tommy started flipping out and then tried to grab a gun.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Sheriff Garris easily qualifies, especially to those who see Tommy as Unintentionally Unsympathetic for unwittingly resurrecting Jason as noted below. Fans of the film tend to remember him for his vicious beatdown on Jason and shown being a Friend to All Children just before that as well as the fact he's a widower who struggles to single parent his disobedient daughter while simultaneously fulfilling his sworn duty as the law in Forest Green, completely ignoring his obsessive persecution of Tommy and how his closed mindedness is what caused the plot to escalate. Though some would Freudian Excuse that aspect due to both his frustration at his struggles of his said multitasking in both single parenting and job committing and given Garris is The Vietnam Vet, it's likely he could be a Shell-Shocked Veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which possibly attest to his aggressive Rabid Cop behavior and the clouding of his judgment in regards to dealing with Tommy, which his reasons can still be considered somewhat valid, just flawed due to his presumed military experience-based PTSD.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite the filmmakers trying to make him a Hate Sink nuisance, due to his somewhat unlikeable attitude towards Tommy, of the film, Sheriff Garris is seen as some as this mainly for showing a surprising amount of depth making him more three-dimensional than your typical Friday the 13th Jerkass or any slasher movie Jerkass, his portrayer David Kagan's (who in real life is a Cool Teacher for an acting class in which the actress who played this film's leading lady role has studied under) Chewing the Scenery with his Large Ham Deadpan Snarker acting in his role as a Rabid Cop that would warrant a Love to Hate from the audience and his Moment of Awesome beatdown on Jason and Heroic Sacrifice at the climax to save his daughter from Jason's wrath.
  • Also Martin for his memorable Breaking the Fourth Wall moment, chiding the audience for being Jason fans, to a point the Alice Cooper music video for the film features this scene at the end.
  • Lizbeth is pretty popular due to her humorous reaction to seeing Jason on the road, setting her apart from the usual Too Dumb to Live victims.
  • Officer Pappas also got some fans too for being the Fair Cop of Garris' police force and a Clueless Deputy who's also a tender Friend to All Children who had shown kindness and TLC to a scared little girl running from Jason and then tried to shoot and kill Jason when he appears to nobly protect the little girl from harm, only to get his head crushed.
  • Paintball players Roy (for being a humorous Butt-Monkey) and Katie (for besting her misogynistic opponents) win over a lot of fans in their one scene.
  • Cort's girlfriend Nikki, for the darkly hilarious ways she tries to get Cort to hold off an orgasm for another ten minutes while acting casual about it and the way Jason rams her face into the wall of an RV hard enough to make an impression on it.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Bitch-Tits Jason is becoming fairly popular in reference to Dan Bradley’s admittedly bulky look during the paintball scene seen here.
  • Or to the portion of the fandom that considers Jason a Big Beautiful Man, "Juicy Voorhees". Yes, really.
• Fanon: Because of the slight changes made to the mask between Part IV and this film (such as a painted on red triangle as opposed to decals and a smaller axe wound and different shape), at least a few fans interprete this mask as one made by Tommy when he was locked away.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Jason, despite his threatening visage, refuses to harm any children from now on. Sure, he was scaring that little girl, but it must have been unintentional on his part. Maybe he was looking into a more innocent time before everything went straight to hell...
  • Just before their deaths and despite bordering on Police Are Useless and Garris' earlier annoyingly mean behavior, both Sheriff Garris and Officer Pappas revealed themselves to be each a Friend to All Children when they bumped into a scared little girl named Nancy running away from Jason and their first acts upon seeing her was to kneel down and comfort her to calm and reassure her safety. When seeing the "scary man" Jason who Nancy told him about, Pappas' first act upon seeing Nancy's intended assailant was to gun him down to protect her before falling victim himself. After consoling her himself following Pappas' death, Garris would later take her and the other girls to the boys' cabin and instruct them to hide underneath their beds for their safety. This also doubles on Fridge Brilliance due to Garris being a father himself hence his experience on handling small children (or specifically his daughter Megan when she was a little girl before growing up and starting to disobey him). Also, despite his strained relationship with his daughter, while he was hiding from Jason after running out of ammo, what prompted Garris to finally come out of hiding and trying to fight Jason with his bare hands until his death was his daughter's cries for help while Jason begins to advance towards her with Garris being powered by love for his daughter to pull a Heroic Sacrifice, definitely make up for him being a Rabid Cop earlier and shows Garris and his daughter Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other despite bickering before.
  Garris: (charging towards Jason going towards Megan before tackling him) NO! NOT HER!!!
  • Just seeing Garris's Pet the Dog moment by being a kind hearted and understanding Friend to All Children is still kind of sweet by itself for someone who had strung the audience along by being a closed-minded and mean-spirited Rabid Cop who persecutes our hero Tommy and ignoring his teenage daughter's attempts to defend Tommy, as in contrast to his aggressive, abrasive, irritable and harsh attitude he's been displaying in most of the film, he is quite gentle, outwardly loving, caring and soft when interacting with children that he has compassion for.
  • A coolly comment by Megan during their argument in the station reveals that Megan's mother had died before the events of the film and Garris is a widower, meaning that having already lost his wife before, he does not want to lose his daughter, even if he has give his own life to protect her.
  • Also, if one think about it, this beatdown combined with both his attitude towards Tommy due to his checkered mental issues-laden past, shows that Garris cares so much about both the wellbeing of Forest Green and his family and would do whatever it takes in his position as the sheriff and a father to protect them.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • There's a little girl called Nancy who claims that she had a nightmare about a monster trying to kill her. The little girl was named after the director Tom McLoughlin's wife, as revealed in the documentary Crystal Lake Memories. He flat out says the rumour about it being a Shout-Out to a future Jason sparring partner was purely coincidental.
  • Tony Goldwyn makes an appearance as part of Jason's body count, then in 2009, on the same year Friday the 13th remake came out, Goldwyn appeared in the remake of The Last House on the Left, which both the original and the remake were produced by Sean S. Cunningham, the director of the original Friday the 13th (1980).
  • The lyric "he's after your soul" in the film's theme song "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" becomes funnier after Jason becomes a personality-overriding body surfer in Jason Goes To Hell.
• Jerkass Woobie: Sheriff Garris can be viewed as such by some, he's indeed a Rabid Cop who can be loathed for his persecution of Tommy, but also it's revealed by his daughter Megan as she pokes as his own expense at the station that Garris is a widower, so sometimes you can understand his temperamental frustration of struggling to single parent his disobedient daughter, while simultaneously fulfilling his sworn duty as sheriff as he tries to put an end to the killings. Also, due to him being The Vietnam Vet, there is the likelihood Garris is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder rooted from his experience in enduring the horrors of war from his service, partly explaining his aggressive personality and paranoia towards Tommy being foremost trouble. For all his faults, Garris not only has a soft spot for children as shown in the climax, but he deeply does love and care for Megan that he gives his life for her when Jason advances towards the direction of her cries for help, being given a very painful death of being folded in half in return for his fatherly instincts.
• Love to Hate: Garris fulfills the franchise's role as the installment's resident Jerkass (though he's the least terrible compared to others in the films), but is also a Deadpan Snarker who can be a tongue-in-cheek Large Ham as a Rabid Cop and a Heroic Wannabe, but is a commendable Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass at the climax when he takes upon himself to give Jason a beating at the cost of his life.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: After spending most of his screen time being a Jerkass Rabid Cop, Garris at the climax blew audiences away and won applause with his beatdown on Jason and Heroic Sacrifice in an attempt to save his daughter and put an end to Jason's killing spree, no matter how futile it must be for him.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Tony Goldwyn as Jason's second kill, Darren.
  • Dan Bradley (Jason’s original actor before being replaced) would later go on to work as a stunt cooperator for big Hollywood movies like Independence Day, Spider-Man 2 and 3, and the film adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard to name a few, as well as direct the Red Dawn remake.
• Signature Scene: Jason's resurrection, Martin's Breaking the Fourth Wall moment, Jason standing on top of the flaming RV, Garris' beatdown and Heroic Sacrifice and Jason staring at the audience whilst underwater.
• Strawman Has a Point: Sure, Garris was acting like a Rabid Cop towards Tommy, but if anyone with history of mental trauma told you they saw a serial killer come back from the dead, they'd be right not to believe them.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Jason's return, Thom Mathews' performance, the self-referential humor and a more coherent plot combined to make this one a major fan favorite, and one of three films (the others being Part II and The Final Chapter) that usually tend to be named as the best in the series. Even professional critics gave it good marks - a rarity for this franchise.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • For his annoying Rabid Cop behavior throughout most of the movie, Garris getting folded in half by Jason can be seen as cathartic for some, especially in a much more intense and painful extended version of his death scene before getting cut down for the theatrical release.
  • For anyone who views Tommy as Unintentionally Unsympathetic for accidentally resurrecting Jason and causing more deaths, Garris butting heads with Tommy for causing trouble in his town and out of suspicion for causing the installment's body count as a Copycat Killer can also be seen as deserved in some way.
• Tear Jerker:
  • For some, Sheriff Garris's death, for all his annoying and grating Rabid Cop attitude problems that clashes with Tommy throughout, you sometimes can't really say that he deserved it, especially with how extremely painful his death appeared to be and how deep down he was also a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who deeply cares for and loves his daughter Megan like how any parent should, was trying his damnedest to uphold his duty as the law enforcement public servant who had a mostly very justified reason behind being a total Jerkass to One in regards to Tommy because of the latter's considerable mental health record which includes a past attempt on a life of an innocent woman (Pam Roberts, the Final Girl from the fifth film) even if his methods and judgments can be seen as wrong and was a kind-hearted and sweet Friend to All Children that contradicts his hard-ass attitude he has shown most of his screen time just before finally facing Jason at the climax. In spite of their bickering over their contrasting judgements over Tommy earlier, the climax shows Megan in a Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moment when she starts to desperately cry for her father for help as she burst into tears that only makes the context behind this aspect of the climax more heartrending, especially how she begs for her father does not really help the matter:
  Megan: Dad! Answer me! Daddy, where are you! Help us!
  *To Tommy as he prepares the trap*
  Megan: You gotta help me look for him...We need him to help us.
  • While he does hear his daughter's cries for him that prompted him come out of hiding and to try to rescue her and inadvertently help buying time for Tommy set a trap, it still leads to his death, while both Megan and Tommy never knew Megan's Rabid Cop father had died trying to save her and help Tommy, with Tommy not caring while be fixated on his construction of the trap, while Megan tries to beg him to help find her dad not helping the matter.
  • Also, there's Officer Pappas' death, as just before facing Jason, he himself in his screen time has so far mostly been, besides being a Clueless Deputy and one of those Police Are Useless characters, a Nice Guy Reasonable Authority Figure unlike his Mean Boss who happened to be doing his job in the line of duty under orders of the sheriff and was also a sweetheart Friend to All Children when one of the camp's children Nancy runs into him scared and he kneels down to gently, softly, tenderly and kind-heartedly comfort and assure her safety as long she is under his protection. When she tells him about a "scary man" at camp, Jason appears as Nancy runs for her life, while Pappas goes straight for the kill rather then first saying Stop, or I Will Shoot! to nobly protect Nancy from the "scary man" only to get his head painfully and grotesquely crushed (especially in the extended version of the death scene) in return for his noble, good deed, so getting horribly killed trying to protect a little girl out of his kindness and TLC towards children is obviously painful as it was terrifying to watch.
    • After running away from Officer Pappas' death and before running into Garris who also is thankfully a Friend to All Children in contrast to his general attitude, Nancy was bursting into Tears of Fear after just having literally lost the one policeman who showed her some kindness and tried to sincerely protect her and would lose another when Garris gets killed too later.
  • Paula's death is heartbreaking too as she's shown to be a genuine sweetheart who comforts Nancy after she sees Jason, and she's killed in an utterly brutal manner, particularly because she begs for her life right before Jason kills her. Talk about Too Good for This Sinful Earth.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Some can feel this way in regards for Sheriff Garris, while it was already planned that he'll be killed off as an Asshole Victim for being a Rabid Cop who butted heads with Tommy from the very beginning by the filmmakers, Garris throughout shown few, but very notable redeeming qualities that shows he is much more then your typical horror film Jerkass Hate Sink like how he does care and love his daughter despite their bickering over Tommy's innocence, him being a widower that probably contextualizes his hot-headedness stemming from the frustration of struggling to single parent, while multitasking to fulfill his duty as Forest Green's public servant, his soft spot for children and making sure they're safe and finally how he's a commendable Badass Normal for not just being a somewhat Crazy-Prepared Cowboy Cop and The Vietnam Vet War Hero who established himself as a Hero of Another Story, but was one of the few to fight Jason with his bare hands and nearly winning. For all his annoying abrasive traits, he was also quite formidable and can be valiant in his duty as a police officer that would have made him a useful ally for Tommy if not for his persecuting which was justified and sometimes made him come across as Unintentionally Sympathetic (see Strawman Has a Point above). Some wished he shouldn't be killed by Jason and if he had survived, he would have undergo some Character Development to Took a Level in Kindness after realizing Tommy was telling the truth all along, while it would have been interesting to see them team-up to fight and stop Jason after putting aside their differences before Garris lets his daughter Megan and Tommy to be together that he originally opposed to when he initially thought Tommy's a threat rather than Jason.
  • Killing off all five of the paintball players in the same short scene is kind of wasteful, and some fans wish a few of them had been kept around to encounter other characters.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Despite being framed as the closest there to that of the sixth film's Hate Sink, Sheriff Garris can come off as this, especially for those who sees Tommy as Unintentionally Unsympathetic as noted below with some thinking Tommy indirectly deserves getting persecuted by Garris and how his persecution itself stemmed mostly from a very justified reason despite some flaws the secondary bullet under Strawman Has a Point and Designated Hero both pointed out. With Tommy's accidental resurrection of Jason, it can make Garris come off as Right for the Wrong Reasons when he clashes with him. The bullets Alas, Poor Scrappy, Designated Villain, Draco in Leather Pants, Jerkass Woobie and Strawman Has a Point (without the sub-bullet that subverts it) along with some notes that revolves around him listed under Heartwarming Moments and Tear Jerker as well as the second bullet of Take That, Scrappy! can also attest to this.
• Win Back the Crowd: Jason was explicitly brought back to make up for the fifth movie, which had received overwhelmingly negative fan reaction.