Jason has been one of my favorite movie monsters since I was a kid watching horror movies with my brother over pizza on Friday night. He’s no talk, all kill, but a mama’s boy at heart. His victims virtually come to him to be butchered, and he does so with a sense of creativity which is nothing short of artistic.
I’m sure most of you know the story of our artiste de carnage, but for those of you who are just coming into horror, allow me to provide a short biography. Jason Voorhees was born with a cranial malformation which hindered his intellectual growth and made him blind in one eye. When he was a child attending a summer program at Camp Crystal Lake, he was left unattended by the camp counselors and swam out into Crystal Lake and disappeared. Reports of the time claimed Jason had drowned and died, but this later proved to be untrue.
On Friday the 13th weekend, Jason’s mother went on a killing spree, targeting Camp Crystal Lake counselors who, to her, represented those who caused her child’s “death,” (it is never truly known whether Jason’s mother knew he was alive.) Her rampage was ended when an employee of the camp decapitated Mrs. Voorhees in self defense.
It was later discovered that Jason had witnessed his mother’s death, and in his anger, began his own rampage. Jason was not classifiable as a “serial killer” due to the fact that his victims varied in age, race, gender, and social status. To put it simply, anyone who entered the Crystal Lake area was in danger of being slaughtered.
Jason’s initial murder spree was brought to an end when he was killed by 12 year old Tommy Jarvis, again in self defense. After the incident, Tommy spent time in various institutions for emotional recovery. While in a half-way house for emotionally disturbed teenagers in the area of Crystal Lake, a spree of copycat killings occurred, prompting many to believe that Tommy Jarvis had assumed the guise of Jason Voorhees to murder those around him. This proved to be untrue, and the copycat killer turned out to be a paramedic who’s son was murdered at the facility.
Official records end at this point, but local legends surrounding the Crystal Lake area state that Jason Voorhees was resurrected by an electric shock directly to his heart, which essentially made him a zombie. Around this time, another series of brutal murders occurred in the Crystal Lake area, but none of them were officially attributed to Jason Voorhees, as he is still listed as deceased.
To this date, the whereabouts of Tommy Jarvis are still unknown, and he is wanted for questioning in regards to the series of aforementioned murders.
For the most part, all the 13th movies follow the same pattern. Teenagers go to Crystal Lake to party and have sex and get killed one by one by Jason until the sole survivor finally puts him down. The fun of these movies comes from the various and creative ways Jason finds to kill people from simply hacking them with a machete, jamming a broken liquor bottle in their throat, impaling them with a pitchfork, crushing their head in his bare hands, bashing them against a tree to break their spine, or other such imaginative methods. There are no debates of psychology or social or moral commentaries to be found in these films. They are pure entertainment meant to stimulate our bloodlust.
In my opinion, the best entries in the series are the original (obviously,) #3, #4, #6, #7, Freddy Vs. Jason, and the remake made a few years ago.
Like I said, April will bring us another Friday the 13th, so it would be a great time to introduce Mr. Voorhees to your friends and family.
Fun Facts: The title “Friday the 13th” was conceived and pitched before a script was even written.
Jason’s iconic hockey mask does not appear until #3 in the series. He originally wore a potato sack with a slit cut out over his good eye, which was kept in place by pressing it to the actor’s face with two sided tape, which would cause burns around his left eye when removing it every night. The hockey mask was brought in as a way to hide Jason’s face without requiring the actor to repeat this discomfort.
According to composer Harry Manfredini, and contrary to popular belief, the iconic “chi chi chi, ah ah ah,” in the film’s score is actually spoken as “ki ki ki, ma ma ma.” This was based on Betsy Palmer’s performance as Mrs. Voorhees, particularly in the scenes where she seems to be speaking in Jason’s voice “Kill her, Mommy.” Manfredinin recorded himself saying ki and ma into a microphone and added an echo effect to created the sound effect.
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