Horror Watch: Friday the 13th Part VI - Jason Lives (1986)

Watched:  03/13/2026

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Tom McLoughlin

JAL texted me at the end of the work day on Friday and said "You have to watch Friday the 13th Part VI.  It will make you miss Showplace 6".   

I was more likely to go see Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome at Showplace 6 than a horror movie during the window he and I were hitting the family owned theater in North Austin, but I get it.  The place was there for us during a crucial period of movie-going.  It was the kind of theater that welcomed kids, did not ask if we were 17 before letting us into Rated-R movies, and always had Spree as an option for candy.

As stated *last* Friday the 13th when we watched the first Friday the 13th movie, these movies were never part of my canon.  I've not really spent time with them.  But after watching two of them, I *do* have a pitch for a new one, which I'll share at the end.*

I guess in the 4th movie, they killed Jason?  Like, fer reals?  Which - this is where I found out Jason wasn't previously a magical kill zombie?  You learn new things all the time.  It seems the fifth movie was about the Corey Feldman character, now played by someone else, becoming the killer?  And that went over like a lead balloon, so they re-cast the character *again*, ignored his murderous tendencies and made him the focal character for this installment as Jason is reborn from a lightning strike (it makes sense in the moment).  

Anyway - rejuvenated and feeling fancy free, Jason spends the day killing everyone he can find in what feels like a highly populated recreational forest area.  I mean, he is just finding new victims hither and yon.  

There's absolutely nothing *scary* in this movie - it's like watching an NES side-scroller play-through of Jason killing people.  But it does have good set pieces, the best of which is the Winnebago stuff.  

But, man, does it look like everyone making this movie is having fun.  Even the prop department.  There's a "well, we tried" fake head that rolls out of a truck.  And someone was very good at a very particular blood splatter pattern we see performed like five times.  

This is the stuff that drove moral crusaders nuts in the 1980's that teens knew was just a good time, and has subsequently been absorbed into the popular consciousness to such a degree *no one bothers to talk about horror movies as being a problem anymore*.  

Is the movie good?  No.  Is it fun?  Yes.  It has no artistic aspirations, and wants to say nothing other than "this goon in a mask will murder you good", and sometimes that's all you need, I guess.  But we're past trying to scare anyone here, just get hoots and hollers from the audience as an assortment of folks are dispatched in a series of creative ways.

It does make me wonder what Jason does during his downtime.

*I think you could make a good Friday the 13th as a sort of Road Runner or Tom and Jerry cartoon, with Jason trying to get Natasha Lyonne as our Final Girl, and there's lots of 4th wall breaking

G Watch: Mothra Vs. Godzilla (1964)

Watched:  03/12/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Ishiro Honda

Ten years after the original stomping of Tokyo, Toho had produced only two more Godzilla movies, but in 1961 had introduced Mothra and all of the crazy mythology around our big, buggy friend.  

Worth nothing, one of the two sequels to the original Godzilla was King Kong vs. Godzilla and I would guess Toho looked at the big ol' Mothra puppet they still owned, knew that two monsters were better than one, and said "heck - we don't need to license the ape anymore.  We have... a moth!"  

I've seen this one a few times, but felt the need for some old-school Showa-era action, and so put it on once more.  It's got a lot of things I dig.  

• Godzilla
• Mothra
• the Faeries
• Infant Island
• a snappy wardrobe for our female lead
• men with absolutely immaculate hair

It's also very suspicious of both venture capitalists and shady businessmen.  And, conniving public officials with an eye for the camera.  The more things change.

When a giant egg shows up in a local bay, it's sold to an amusement park empresario who wants to make it the centerpiece of his newest park (he seems wholly unconcerned that eggs hatch, even four story eggs).  The Faeries arrive from Infant Island and recruit reporter Ichiro Sakai and his photographer sidekick Junko Nakanishi along with scientist Professor Miura to help them get the egg back from the evil businessmen.

In a scene I think is pretty cool, Godzilla emerges from the sand of a reclaimed beach, and starts his stomping across Tokyo, seemingly looking for the egg.  

Turns out Humanity needs the help of the people of Infant Island to convince Mothra to help out, but the island was just used for nuclear testing.

While, yes, this is a movie that ends with a battle between Godzilla and two giant moth larvae, it still has some interesting themes - from the ripples of destruction sewn by naked greed to man's wastefulness and arrogance.  Mothra, who has seen her island nuked by humans, who then stole her agg/ children - is STILL willing to step in and save humanity while the spirit of reckoning in the form of Godzilla is here to wipe the slate clean.

Also, you get treated to a very, very long version of the Mothra carol.

Western Wise Watch: Two Flags West (1950)

Watched:  03/08/2026

Format:  YouTube link here

Viewing:  First

Director:  Robert Wise

Interesting premise for a film, and, in my opinion - very well executed.  

In 1864, Joseph Cotten is a captured Confederate infantry officer.  Cornel Wilde plays a wounded Union officer who won't be sent back to the front line, but which the Army of the Republic will send to the frontier.  Lincoln is offering Confederate prisoners an opportunity to join the Union Army and go protect the mail routes and interests on the US, freeing up the regular soldiers to fight in the war.  And, so Wilde recruits Cotten and his regiment, which Cotten does so he won't die or disease in a frigid Illinois prison.

Arrived, we find the Fort is headed by a semi-crippled officer, Major Henry Kenniston (Jeff Chandler).  Kenniston's brother was killed during a major battle, widowing Linda Darnell.  Darnell plays a Californian/ former-Mexican (playing Hispanic was something she did in a couple of movies, it seems) and is the object of desire for Wilde, Chandler and maybe a bit for Cotten.  She is, after all, Linda Darnell.  

Chandler's officer has a bit of a Kurtz/ Ahab vibe.  His leg is not what it was, and he has a mad-on for anyone who isn't a union soldier.  Also, he is maybe lightly holding his sister-in-law at the Fort despite her wish to get to California.  The "I hate everyone" bit is a bad fit for the arriving ex-Confederates.  And the Natives outside the Fort, with whom he is developing beef.