Jason Voorhees
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Jason Voorhees (born June 13, 1946) is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. A vicious mass murderer, he has a presence in all the films, even when he is not the killer. With his trademark goalie mask and machete, he is arguably among the most recognizable villains from any slasher film. Throughout the series, Jason has never spoken aside from occasional mumbles and groans, and a few words in the ninth film of the series when he possessed another man's body. Jason is credited as having been created by Victor Miller, the screenwriter of the first Friday the 13th film, in spite of the fact that he barely appeared in that film. For his part, Miller has gone on record as saying he has avoided watching the sequel films and that he has great reservations about how Jason has been handled.
Character history
Childhood years
Jason Voorhees (middle name cited in some sources as being "Elias" after his father) was born on June 13th, 1946 to Pamela and Elias Voorhees. Sometime later, Elias left Pamela to raise Jason on her own.
At birth, Jason was deformed, possibly inflicted with a condition known as hydrocephalus. Originally, Jason was created as a normal child by Victor Miller, but was later made to be deformed as the crew behind the film decided he was not "special" enough. It was eventually decided that Jason be deformed and Tom Savini designed the makeup for Jason's visage. When interviewed, Victor Miller, the writer of the original Friday the 13th, was asked about the new "deformed" Jason and said, "He wasn't a deformed creature from the Black Lagoon, but that's how movies are made. I don't think the ending would have been as good if he were a cute blonde kid who looked like Betsy Palmer at 8 years old, do you?". [1] By this statement, Victor Miller means that although he preferred the "normal" Jason, the jump ending would not have had the same effect if it included a normal looking child. Despite firm evidence in the original Friday the 13th some fans still firmly believe Jason was not deformed at birth, and instead, that his deformity was caused after the time of his supposed drowning (see below). This fan speculation is untrue as Jason's deformed face can clearly be seen in the flashback to his drowning.
Some fans believe that Jason was also born mentally disabled, though in-film details tend to indicate otherwise -- a mentally disabled child would not have been allowed into a summer camp in the 1950s, for example. Interestingly, the novelizations of the films, especially that of Part II, describe the young Jason as quiet and distant but otherwise normal, and make no mention of either deformity or retardation. At other points in the novels through the series, Jason's thought processes, as described from his perspective, seem to be of normal intelligence.
In any case, his mother loved him deeply. In the summer of 1957, Jason attended Camp Crystal Lake, where his mother worked as a chef. Jason, though, was not a very good swimmer. The other children often ridiculed him for his inability to swim, along with his deformity. Flashbacks from Freddy vs. Jason show that Jason's death at Crystal Lake was an accident that resulted from the other children chasing him across the docks and into the water. Jason cried for help, but the counselors didn't hear his gurgled screams, and Jason presumably died by drowning.
Pamela Voorhees' revenge
Mrs. Voorhees went insane with grief after her son's disappearance. She swore revenge on the people responsible for her son's death. She waited one year to act out her vengeance. On June 13th, 1958 she murdered the two teenagers she believed to have been responsible for Jason's drowning. After the incident, the camp was closed. A few years later, Mrs. Voorhees sabotaged an attempt to reopen the camp by setting fire to it. Later still, Mrs. Voorhees poisoned the camp's water to prevent the camp from reopening. Because of these incidents, the locals around Crystal Lake began to believe that the camp was cursed and dubbed it "Camp Blood".
The camp was deserted for years, until in 1980 a man named Steve Christy, whose parents originally owned the camp, spent $25,000 to try to reopen it. Mrs. Voorhees snuck into the camp and murdered Christy and the six teenage counselors he had hired. The only remaining person, Alice, decapitated Mrs. Voorhees with a machete during a struggle before going out into the lake on a canoe and passing out. The morning after the beheading, the police arrive and call out to her in the middle of the lake. When she wakes up, the hideous corpse of young Jason pulls her into the lake. Since after this scene, we see Alice in the hospital and the police officers tell her they did not see Jason, this was apparently a dream.
Jason resurfaces
If he was living as a hermit in the camp's forest, Jason was probably drawn to the bank of Crystal Lake by the cries of two women fighting. He arrived just in time to witness his long-lost mother's bloody demise and was horribly devastated. Alice, his mother's killer (in self defense), was trying to get over the massacre when Jason attacked her in her home, stabbing her in the head with an ice pick. Jason then returned to the forest. Five years later, a man named Paul Holt opened up a camp counselor training ground near the Camp Crystal Lake site. Jason, wearing a pillow case on his head to hide his disfigured face, went into the area to drive them out of his home. After dispatching six counselors, he struggled with a girl named Ginny, who drove a machete into Jason's shoulder. Ginny returned to the training ground with Holt and they locked themselves in one of the cabins. A few minutes later, Jason appeared to burst through the window and attacked the two remaining counselors. However, it is disputed whether this was only a hallucination by Ginny, who awoke to find herself being loaded into an ambulance and Holt nowhere to be seen (Making Friday The 13th: The Legend Of Camp Blood by David Grove, states that Holt was killed off camera), or that it really happened.
The next day Jason killed a couple living in a home near Crystal Lake and got new clothes. Then he made his way to a vacationing spot called Higgins Haven and killed 10 vacationing teenagers there. It was there where he replaced the pillow case with the trademark hockey mask that he took from one of his victims. The one person who survived Jason's rampage, a girl named Chris Higgins, whose parents owned "Higgins Haven" and was attacked several years before by Jason, took an axe and gashed it into the left side of his head (creating a gash in his mask), knocking him out.
Believing Jason to be dead, the paramedics took his body to the Wessex County Morgue, where he soon afterward regained consciousness and promptly killed the coroner, and escaped. When he returned to the camp, he killed the teenagers resting there. As he was about to kill a girl named Trisha Jarvis, her brother, Tommy, distracted the mute murderer by shaving his head and dressing as Jason when he was a boy. Tommy then hacked Jason in the left side of his face until Jason fell onto the machete and split his head open, instantly killing him, but a speck of life still in Jason caused him to twitch, and Tommy brutally began hacking Jason with the machete. Tommy would spend the next four years in a mental institution from the trauma of what he had done. Finally dead, Jason was buried at Eternal Peace Cemetery near his mother.
Jason returns from the grave
Years later, Tommy Jarvis, now in his early 20s, was plagued by nightmares about Jason and a man named Roy Burns. Burns, who a year earlier had been a Jason copycat killer, was subdued by Tommy Jarvis after Burns had murdered the patients and staff at an institution community. Sneaking out of the institution where he resided, Tommy and a friend went to Eternal Peace Cemetery to dig up Jason's grave and cremate him. After they dug him up, Tommy, in a fit of rage at what Jason had done to him stabbed a metal rod from a cemetery fence into Jason's rotting corpse and threw his hockey mask into the grave. As they were about to cremate him, however, a lightning bolt struck the rod in Jason's chest, reanimating him.
The reanimated Jason killed Tommy's friend, punching right through the friend's chest and ripping his heart out, as Tommy escaped. Jason was now considerably stronger and even more resilient than ever before, capable of surviving even gunshots at point-blank range; even shotguns only put him down for a few moments. With a bloodlust in his eye, Jason put on the hockey mask that Tommy threw into the grave before proceeding to Camp Crystal Lake, which was now called Camp Forest Green. When Tommy told the sheriff his ordeal, the sheriff just thought he was crazy and put him in a jail cell for the night. After escaping from the jail cell Tommy made his way to Camp Forest Green, where Jason had already killed several counselors. Aided by Megan, the sheriff's daughter and the last surviving counselor, Tommy wrapped a metal chain with a rock attached to it around Jason's neck. Then he pushed Jason into the lake, where he (seemingly) drowned, saving the children at the camp from his bloodlust. Jason's body lay at the bottom of the lake and decomposed for some time.
Five years later, a girl at Camp Forest Green named Tina Shepard, a telekinetic seeking help after she accidentally killed her father with her emerging powers in her youth, accidentally released Jason from his underwater tomb. Jason then proceeded to do what he did best: slaughter the people at the camp site. Tina then confronted Jason, using her telekinetic abilities to knock Jason's mask off, to see that Jason's face was now even more deformed from decomposing underwater for several years. Tina then forced Jason back into the lake with her powers.
Then after that, Jason was resurrected by an electrical cable and climbed aboard a cruise ship full of teenagers bound for New York. He was close to being unleashed in all of Manhattan, but he was (seemingly) killed again by toxic waste in the sewage system, where his body washed up back in Camp Crystal Lake.
A few years later, he came back yet again, only to be supposedly blown to bits by an FBI SWAT team. Unfortunately, his demonic heart, still beating, remained intact and thus his evil soul was "reincarnating" in several bodies, but these were dying rapidly, so he needed to restore his own body as soon as possible. It's learnt that only somebody who also belongs to his bloodline could resurrect or destroy Jason definitively. And so, his only surviving family member - his 22-year-old niece Jessica Kimble - stabbed Jason's heart with a magic dagger - the dagger was not really magic, but it received the "power" of her bloodline so it could count as "magically empowered" - sending him to Hell. Afterward, Jason's hockey mask is seen being brought down into the ground by Freddy Krueger's gloved hand, while Freddy is heard laughing.
Freddy versus Jason
Years later, Jason would be resurrected once again. This time, by Freddy Krueger, a serial killer with supernatural powers. Disguising himself as Mrs. Voorhees, Krueger manipulated Jason into murdering a number of children in the Elm Street neighborhood in the hopes that the residents would attribute the deaths to Krueger himself and fear him once again. With this fear, Krueger's powers would be regenerated and he could resume his role as a killer through dreams. However, Jason then went on several public killing sprees leaving behind dozens of witnesses who testified that the killer was not Krueger, but a seven-foot tall maniac wearing a hockey mask and wielding a machete. Krueger, furious at having had his newly regained power quickly dissolve, challenged Jason. Because much of Krueger's powers exist in dreams, he manipulates a boy to tranquilize Jason. While asleep, Krueger challenges Jason and discovers Jason's fear of water. Krueger again challenges Jason in the real world. During the struggle, Jason ripped off Krueger's right arm and impaled him through the chest with his own glove of "four-fingered knives," striking the decisive blow. Stunned and dying, Krueger fell to his knees and was then decapitated by Lori Campbell with Jason's machete, while Jason sunk to the bottom of the lake. Then the setting changes to "dream like" with fog and we then see Jason come up from the lake the next morning, carrying the decapitated head of Freddy Krueger which winked at the camera, indicating that the battle was yet to be decided.
What the future may hold
While much of the details leading up to his capture are unknown, in the year 2008 Jason is held in the Crystal Lake Research Facility (built on the site of what was once Camp Crystal Lake). Being unable to have Jason executed due to his regenerative ability, the researchers decree that Jason be held in cryogenic suspension.
Unfortunately, when a scientist decides to have Jason taken somewhere else to study his unique regenerative abilities, Jason manages to escape and murders several guards, before being lured by the project manager Rowan into a freezing chamber. As he is being frozen, Jason stabs a hole through the door, both mortally wounding Rowan as well as letting the coolant escape, freezing her with him as the room locks down to save the facility. This is Jason's last known activity as the facility is left undisturbed. Eventually Earth itself becomes an uninhabitable planet, with humanity relocating to a new star system, living on a world called "Earth Two".
In the year 2455, a ship full of students find Rowan and Jason's still-frozen bodies and take them back to their ship. The crew thaws the two bodies, reviving Rowan while Jason remains unconscious, leading the others to believe him dead. When Jason later wakes up, he goes on a killing spree until an android belonging to one of the crew members upgrades itself and blows off Jason's left arm, right leg, and head, as well as a large portion of his upper torso.
Jason's remains are left on a bed used to help regenerate tissue, and the nanotechnology repairs Jason's injuries (including the hockey mask). The medical equipment discerns that there wasn't enough tissue left to reanimate Jason, but through a glitch, over-rode the abort procedure. The nano-bots searched for a synthetic replacement for Jason's tissue, and used the metal around them as a substitute, giving Jason his armored appearance seen above. When the process completed itself Jason's build was larger than before, his strength is enhanced enough to rip through titanium, and his body is virtually indestructible; being able to withstand gunfire and the center of an explosion with no visible damage.
Ultimately, one of the few remaining crew members of the dying ship Grendel sacrifices himself by tackling Jason into the atmosphere of the nearby Earth Two.
The fate of Jason after coming into the planet's atmosphere has so far only been addressed in comics and novels.
Other Appearances / Emulation
The character of Jason has appeared in many other media forms other than just the movies. He has appeared in comics books: Satan's Six, Jason Vs. Leatherface, and most recently a series of specials from Avatar Comics.
In the anime, Pani Poni Dash!, Akane Serizawa can be frequently seen in a hockey mask, trying to impersonate Jason. Also her hand puppet resembles a smaller version of Jason, with Jason's blade and hockey mask as well as his blood-stained shirt.
In the anime, Irresponsible Captain Tylor one of Tylor's crewmembers is a man named Jason who is always wearing a hockey mask and never speaks. Although, this Jason seems to be different, having blond hair and an affinity for chainsaws, something Leatherface is famous for.
In the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Moonrunner, there is a recurring character named Conrad Zaar. Upon defeating him, his body is struck by lightning and is resurrected as Conrad, The Maniac Guard. He appears dressed in an all-over guards uniform with armoured face mask and armed with a machete, the illustration of which is a straight homage to Voorhees. During the storyline Conrad appears at various times, seemingly unkillable, until his body is weighted down and chained before being thrown into a lake.
Dr. Salvador from Resident Evil 4 wears a sack over his head just like Jason in Friday the 13th Part 2. Although he uses a chainsaw, the trademark of Leatherface.
It isn't beyond speculation that the WWE superstar Kane was partially inspired by the gruesome tale of Jason Voorhees
Castlevania 64 features a chainsaw-wielding, imposing Frankenstein Monster. The Monster is impossible to kill due to rapid regeneration: it can only be stunned.
The men behind the masks
Much like his masked counterpart Michael Myers, the part of Jason Voorhees has been played by various actors; some uncredited, others taking great pride in their parts. Due to the physical demands the character requires and the lack of emotional depth depicted, it comes as no surprise that almost all of the actors are stuntmen with no pre-existing history solely in acting. The best known among them is Kane Hodder who has become a favorite among fans and is often cited as the best to take up the role; there are others, however, that argue against these claims, pointing to another one of the actors as a better or "best Jason." Although, it is worth noting that there are those who do not see any distinction between the portrayals and do not find it worth arguing over.
In the original Friday the 13th Ari Lehman portrayed a young Jason, seen only in a brief flashback and the surprise ending. Although he is not the only actor to portray a young Jason (a role that went to Timothy Burr Mirkovich in Jason Takes Manhattan and Spencer Stump in Freddy vs. Jason) he stands as the first actor to ever play Jason Voorhees.
For the role of the first adult Jason, some controversy arose over the role in Part 2. While Warrington Gillette is credited as Jason, the majority of the role was actually played by Steve Daskewisz, who was simply credited as the stunt double. Gillette only played the role in the unmasked scene, with Daskewisz playing the role in almost all of the character's other scenes. Although this credit was corrected of sorts in Part 3 (in which Daskewisz is credited as Jason for the reused footage from the climax of the film), this confusion existed for years.
Daskewisz was asked to reprise his role in the third film, but turned it down simply because of the money he would have had to put out during filming and refrained (though he later says he regrets this). Instead, the role went to Richard Brooker, a trapeze artist, cast simply because of his big frame. He took the role believing that dialogue was not a necessity to acting.
More controversy stirred for the part in The Final Chapter when the role was handed over to professional stuntman Ted White. He refused credit for the role, feeling bad about the treatment of the actors who would play the victims. He claims that he took the role solely for the money, not wanting his name on what he called a "piece of shit." Although, he has been cited as later saying that the film came out better than he had expected and is credited in reused footage for later films.
Much like with Part 2, there has been confusion over the role in A New Beginning, partly due to the crediting of the killer and not Jason himself. While Dick Wieand is credited as Roy Burns, the film's actual murderer, it was stuntman Tom Morga who performed in the few flashes of Jason, as well as portraying Roy in all but the unmasked scenes. Wieand, while not ashamed, has been outspoken about his lack of enthusiasm over his role in the film.
C.J. Graham auditioned for the role in the sixth film. He initially lost the role, but was called back five days later for the role when the hired stuntman, Dan Bradley, failed to give the desired performance (Bradley can still be seen in the paintball sequence in the film). A nightclub owner with a military history, Graham performed almost all of his own stunts in the role. Although he was passed over for reprising the role, he has often been cited as speaking highly of his time in the part.
The part was then taken up by Kane Hodder in The New Blood where he carried the role consecutively into Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes To Hell, and Jason X. He remains the only actor to reprise the role, and is often cited as perfecting the role. His strong following caused obvious upset among fans when he was turned down for Freddy vs. Jason.
For Freddy vs. Jason, the role went instead to Ken Kirzinger, a Canadian stuntman who worked on Jason Takes Manhattan. There has been conflicting reports over the reason behind the casting of Kirzinger, although many believe that it may have simply been due to his residence in Canada, where the film was shot, and thus done to save money. Additionally, according to director Ronny Yu, Kirzinger was hired because he was taller than Freddy actor Robert Englund. Ken stands 6' 6" compared to the 6' 3" of Kane Hodder and Ronny Yu wanted a much larger actor to tower over Englund, who stands 5' 10". Yu also wanted someone with more "sympathetic eyes."
Trivia
- Jason's weapon of choice is the machete, but he has used many other weapons, including axes, knives, and even corkscrews. Primarily, his choices fall under the lines of knives and stabbing weapons. However, despite being portrayed in popular media emulations as using a chainsaw (such as in the videogame Splatterhouse 2 or Eminem's wielding of a chainsaw whilst wearing a hockey mask during a live performance), Jason has never been shown to use such a weapon. In fact, a chainsaw only ever appears in Part 2 and "A New Beginning," wielded against him by other characters. The closest Jason ever came to using a chainsaw-like killing tool was in Part 7, when he employed a tree-limb trimmersaw against the character of Dr. Crews.
- Multiple times, Jason is revived by electricity, such as in Jason Lives and Jason Takes Manhattan, although the electricity in both cases was different; one was lightning and the other an electric cable. Despite this, electricity appears to be ineffective at stopping Jason for more than a few seconds at a time.
- According to Kane Hodder, Jason would never hurt innocent children or harmless animals, such as a dog. Jason was supposed to kick the main character's dog near the climax of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan but Kane refused, saying Jason may kill people but he's not bad enough to kick a dog.[2] This is contradicted, however, in early films before Hodder began to play the part -- in Part IV, for example, he both attacked young Tommy Jarvis and threw a dog out a window.
- The teenagers Jason attacks are typically those who are involving themselves in premarital sex, drinking, or drugs. This seems to be explained in Freddy versus Jason, as, when Jason was drowning, he could have been saved, if not for the camp councillors at Crystal Lake being too involved in the aforementioned activities to notice his predicament.
See also
- Freddy vs. Jason
- Michael Myers
- Pinhead
- Leatherface
- Chucky
- Candyman
- Freddy Krueger
- Wishmaster
- Leprechaun
- Maniac Cop
- Tall Man
External links
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