Jason Voorhees

Jason Voorhees
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Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series. He first appeared in Friday the 13th (1980) as the younger son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, posing as a camp counselor known as “Jay” in which he was portrayed by series co-creator Thomas Trenton. Jason was not originally intended to carry the series as the main antagonist. Initially Trenton thought a final scare of having Jason working in conjunction with his mother could prove memorable. The character has subsequently been represented in various other media, including novels, comic books, and a cross-over film with another iconic horror film character, Freddy Krueger.

The character has primarily been an antagonist in the films, whether by stalking and killing the other characters, or acting as an accomplice to his mother, as is the case in Friday The 13th. Since Trenton's initial portrayal for six films, the character has been represented by actors and stuntmen, sometimes by more than one at a time; this has caused some controversy as to who should receive credit for the portrayal. Kane Hodder is the best known of the stuntmen to portray Jason Voorhees, having played the character in four consecutive films.

The character's physical appearance has gone through many transformations, with various special makeup effects artists making their mark on the character's design, including makeup artist Stan Winston. The trademark hockey goalie mask did not appear until Friday the 13th: 3D. Since Friday the 13th: The Resurrection of Jason Voorhees, filmmakers have given Jason superhuman strength, regenerative powers, and near invulnerability. He has been seen as a sympathetic character, whose motivation for killing has been cited as being driven by the immoral actions of his victims, his reflections of his mother’s image and his own rage over his brother having drowned as a child.

Jason Voorhees has been featured in various humor magazines, referenced in feature films, parodied in television shows, and was the inspiration for a horror punk band. Several toy lines have been released based on various versions of the character from the Friday the 13th films. Jason Voorhees's hockey mask is a widely recognized image in popular culture.

Appearances

Films

Jason made his first cinematic appearance in the original Friday the 13th on May 9, 1980. In this film, 18 year old Jason is portrayed as the secret son of his mother, Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), though if Steve Christy and his co-workers know if “Jay” is actually Jason Voorhees or if he’s keeping his identity a secret is never addressed in the film. The audience learns who he really is when he kills the film's protagonist, Alice (Adrienne King). Upon the death of his mother, he kills Alice; and thusly becomes the main antagonist of the series in its sequels.

Jason returns for the sequel, Friday The 13th: The Return of Jason Voorhees (1981). Suspected by the local authorities, Sheriff Parks is unaware that in fact Jason is slowly losing his mind, hallucinating his mother who keeps telling him to kill. Jason finally snaps and a group of teenagers who have arrived to set up a new training camp, fall victim murdered one by one by Jason, who wears a bag over his head to hide his face. Ginny (Amy Steel), the lone survivor, finds a cabin in the woods with a shrine built around the severed head of Mrs. Voorhees, and surrounded by mutilated corpses. Ginny fights back and slams a machete through Jason's shoulder. Jason is arrested by the Sheriff and taken away in an ambulance.

In Friday the 13th: 3D (1982), Jason escapes custody, pursues his past victim Ginny Field, and then travels to a nearby lake resort, Higgins Haven, to rest from his wounds. At the same time, Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell) returns to the property with some friends. An unmasked and reclusive Jason kills anyone who wanders into the barn where he is hiding. Taking a hockey mask from a victim to hide his face, he leaves the barn to kill the rest of the group. Chris fends off Jason and then is run over by Sheriif Park’s truck, at which time he’s re-incarcerated in the Unger Institute of Mental Health.

Friday the 13th: Camp Blood (1984) Five years has passed and Jason escapes custody again and make his way back to Camp Crystal Lake to prevent a new group of teenagers from re-opening the site. Sheriff Parks is mis-informed about Jason being presumed dead, but eventually realizes that Jason is alive and returns just as the surviving teen dispatches Jason in a cabin on fire.

Friday the 13th: The Revenge of Jason Voorhees picks-up just after the last film. Jason is still presumed dead, but Sheriff Parks refuses to accept it without a body. As he searches the area, Jason hones in on a group of teenagers who visit his childhood home (where he’s taken refuge) and mock both him and his mother. He then follows them to Crystal Island, a private home off the lake and kills them all save for one girl, who apparently kills Jason with an axe to the head.

Friday the 13th: The Death of Jason Voorhees continues the story, with a presumed-dead Jason found by the police and taken to the morgue. Jason awakens at the morgue and kills an attendant and a nurse, and makes his way back to Crystal Lake. A group of friends renting a house there fall victim to Jason's rampage. Jason then seeks out Trish (Kimberly Beck) and Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) next door. Fleeing on (now fired) William Parks' boat, Trish distracts Jason long enough for Tommy to kill him by pushing an anchor and chain overboard, drowning Jason in the very lake he called home.

Friday the 13th: The Resurrection of Jason Voorhees (1988) begins an undisclosed amount of time after Jason’s death.' Jason, now played by (Kane Hodder) is brought back to life and freed from his chains by the telekinetic Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln), who was attempting to resurrect her father. Jason begins killing those who occupy Crystal Lake, and after a battle with Tina, is dragged back to the bottom of the lake by an apparition of Tina's father.

Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) sees Jason return from the grave, brought back to life via an underwater electrical cable. He follows a group of students on their senior class trip to Manhattan, boarding the Lazarus to wreak havoc. Upon reaching Manhattan, Jason kills all the survivors but Rennie (Jensen Daggett) and Sean (Scott Reeves); he chases them into the sewers, where he is transformed into a child by toxic waste.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) marked the second time Jason was officially killed according to studio canon. Through an unexplained resurrection, he returns to Crystal Lake, where he is hunted by the FBI. The FBI sets up a sting to kill Jason, which proves successful. Through mystical possession, however, Jason survives by passing his demon-infested heart from one being to the next. Though Jason does not physically appear throughout most of the film, it is learned he has a half-sister and a niece, and that he needs them to retrieve and re-inhabit his body. After resurrecting it, Jason is stabbed by his niece Jessica Kimble (Kari Keegan) and dragged into Hell. At the end of the film Jason's mask can be seen grasped by Freddy Kruger's bladed hand along with a sinister laugh. (This was meant be a teaser to Freddy vs Jason.)

Jason X (2002) marked Kane Hodder's last solo performance as Jason. The film starts off in 2010; Jason has returned after an unexplained resurrection. Captured by the U.S. government in 2008, Jason is being experimented upon in a research facility, where it has been determined that he has regenerative capabilities and that cryonic suspension is the only possible solution to stop him, since numerous attempts to execute him have proved unsuccessful. Jason escapes, killing all but one of his captors, and slices through the cryo-chamber, spilling cryonics fluid into the room, freezing himself and the only other survivor, Rowan (Lexa Doig). A team of students 445 years later discover Jason's body. On the team's spacecraft, Jason thaws from his cryonic suspension and begins killing the crew. Along the way, he is enhanced by a regenerative nanotechnology process, which gives him an impenetrable metal body. Finally, he is ejected into space and falls to the planet Earth 2, burning in the atmosphere.

Set before the events of Jason X, Freddy vs. Jason (2003) is a crossover film in which Jason battles A Nightmare on Elm Street's villain Freddy Krueger (Jonathan L. Dee), a supernatural killer who murders people in their dreams. Krueger has grown weak, as people in his home town of Springwood have suppressed their fear of him. Freddy, who is impersonating Jason's mother (Paula Shaw), resurrects Jason (Ken Kirzinger) from Hell and sends him to Springwood to cause panic and fear. Jason accomplishes this, but refuses to stop killing. A battle ensues in both the dream world and Crystal Lake. The identity of the winner is left ambiguous, as Jason surfaces from the lake holding Freddy's severed head, which winks and laughs.

In the 2009 Friday the 13th reboot, young Jason (Caleb Guss) witnesses his mother's (Nana Visitor) beheading as a child and follows in her footsteps, killing anyone who comes to Crystal Lake. The adult Jason (Derek Mears) kidnaps Whitney Trenton (Amanda Righetti), a girl who looks like his mother, and holds her prisoner in his underground tunnels. Months later, Whitney's brother Clay (Jared Padalecki) comes to Crystal Lake and rescues her. Eventually, Whitney uses Jason's devotion to his mother against him, stabbing him with his own machete while he is distracted when she appears.

In 2013, three iterations of Jason appear in Jason vs Jason X vs Jason to do battle against one another. The unnamed Man in Black a scientist in the distant future is trying to avenge his dead daughter from Jason X and having lost his mind believes the only way to defeat Uber-Jason is for his past self to destroy him. To that end he brings into the future a past Jason (taken during the events of The Death of Jason Voorhees) and pits them against each other in a holographic arena. When they fail to fight, he incites them by bringing forth past surviving victims. Things take a turn for the worse when Sheriff William Parks, trying to escape, accidentally brings another Jason from an alternate reality into the mix. In the end no Jason wins the battle as Parks once again uses the technology to set things right, sending everyone back to their original point of origin.

In 2015, Jason's creator Thomas Trenton again returns to the role in Friday The 13th: Jason's Legacy. The latest entry ignores all films save for the first three. A new timeline is formed that shows an older Jason incarcerated, getting therapy and looking at the possibility of parole. After receiving erroneous information, Jason escapes with the intent on returning to Camp Crystal Lake to avenge the death of a boy who in fact was merely injured. Realizing that the camp site is serene and the children safe, he resolves to return to custody but mis-reading a young couple's engagement as a mere sexual tryst, he dons his hockey mask going on a bloody rampage. In a parallel to the first film, Jason is beheaded by Parks and then Parks is killed by the same boy (also named Jason) whose mind has been corrupted by the killer.

Literature

Jason first appeared outside of film in the 1982 novelization of Friday the 13th Part 3 by Michael Avallone. Avallone chose to use an alternate ending, which was filmed for Part 3 but never used, as the ending for his 1982 adaptation. In the alternate film ending, Chris, who is in the canoe, hears Rick's voice and immediately rushes back to the house. When she opens the door, Jason is standing there with a machete, and he decapitates her.

Jason next appears in print in the 1988 novelization of Resurrection of Jason Voorhees by Simon Hawke, who also adapted the first three films in 1987 and 1988. Resurrection specifically introduced Elias Voorhees, Jason's father, a character that was slated to appear in the film but was cut by the studio. In the novel, instead of being cremated, Elias has Jason buried after his death.

Jason made his comic book debut in the 1993 adaptation of Jason Goes to Hell, written by Andy Mangels. The three-issue series was a condensed version of the film, with a few added scenes that were never shot. Jason made his first appearance outside of the direct adaptations in Satan's Six No. 4, published in 1993, which is a continuation of the events of Jason Goes to Hell. In 1995, Nancy A. Collins wrote a three-issue, non-canonical miniseries involving a crossover between Jason and Leatherface. The story involves Jason stowing away aboard a train, after being released from Crystal Lake when the area is drained due to heavy toxic waste dumping. Jason meets Leatherface, who adopts him into his family after the two become friends. Eventually they turn on each other. In 1994 four young adult novels were released under the title of Friday the 13th. They did not feature Jason explicitly, but revolve around people becoming possessed by Jason when they put on his mask.

In 2003 and 2005, Black Flame published novelizations of Freddy vs. Jason and Jason X respectively. In 2005 they began publishing a new series of novels; one set was published under the Jason X title, while the second set utilized the Friday the 13th title. The Jason X series consisted of four sequels to the novelization of the film. Jason X: The Experiment was the first published. In this novel, Jason is being used by the government, who are trying to use his indestructibility to create their own army of "super soldiers". Planet of the Beast follows the efforts of Dr. Bardox and his crew as they try to clone the body of a comatose Jason, and shows their efforts to stay alive when Jason wakes from his coma. Death Moon revolves around Jason crash-landing at Moon Camp Americana. Jason is discovered below a prison site and unknowingly awakened in To The Third Power. Jason has a son in this book, conceived through a form of artificial insemination.

On May 13, 2005, Avatar Press began releasing new Friday the 13th comics. The first, titled Friday the 13th, was written by Brian Pulido and illustrated by Mike Wolfer and Greg Waller. The story takes place after the events of Freddy vs. Jason, where siblings Miles and Laura Upland have inherited Camp Crystal Lake. Knowing that Jason caused the recent destruction, Laura, unknown to her brother, sets out to kill Jason using a paramilitary group, so that she and her brother can sell the property. A three-issue miniseries titled Friday the 13th: Bloodbath was released in September 2005. Written by Brian Pulido and illustrated by Mike Wolfer and Andrew Dalhouse, the story involves a group of teenagers who come from Camp Tomorrow, a camp that sits on Crystal Lake, for work and a "party-filled weekend". The teenagers discover they share common family backgrounds, and soon awaken Jason, who hunts them. Brian Pulido returned for a third time in October 2005 to write Jason X. Picking up after the events of the Jason X film, Über-Jason is now on Earth II where a biological engineer, Kristen, attempts to subdue Jason, in hopes that she can use his regenerative tissue to save her own life and the lives of those she loves. In February 2006 Avatar published Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Jason X. Written and illustrated by Mike Wolfer, the story takes place after the events of the film Jason X. A salvage team discovers the spaceship Grendel and awakens a regenerated Jason Voorhees. The "original" Jason and Über-Jason are drawn to each other, resulting in a battle to the death. In June 2006 a one-shot comic entitled Friday the 13th: Fearbook was released, written by Mike Wolfer with art by Sebastian Fiumara. The comic has Jason being captured and experimented upon by the Trent Organization; Jason escapes and seeks out Violet, the survivor of Friday the 13th: Bloodbath, who is being contained by the Trent Organization in their Crystal Lake headquarters.

The Friday the 13th novella storyline was not connected to the Jason X series, and did not continue the stories set forth by the films, but furthered the character of Jason in its own way. Friday the 13th: Church of the Divine Psychopath has Jason resurrected by a religious cult. Jason is stuck in Hell, when recently executed serial killer Wayne Sanchez persuades Jason to help him return to Earth in Friday the 13th: Hell Lake. In Hate-Kill-Repeat, two religious serial killers attempt to find Jason at Crystal Lake, believing that the three of them share the same contempt for those that break the moral code. In The Jason Strain, Jason is on an island with a group of convicts placed there by television executives running a reality game show. The character of Pamela Voorhees returns from the grave in Carnival of Maniacs. Pamela is in search of Jason, who is now part of a traveling sideshow and about to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

In December 2006 DC Comics imprint Wildstorm began publishing new comic books about Jason Voorhees under the Friday the 13th moniker. The first set was a six-issue miniseries involving Jason's return to Camp Crystal Lake, which is being renovated by a group of teenagers in preparation for its reopening as a tourist attraction. The series depicts various paranormal phenomena occurring at Crystal Lake. Jason's actions in this storyline are driven by the vengeful spirits of a Native American tribe wiped out on the lake by fur traders sometime in the 19th century. On July 11 and August 15, 2007, Wildstorm published a two-part special entitled Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale. The two-issue comic book covers Pamela Voorhees' journey to Camp Crystal Lake and the story of her pregnancy with Jason as she recounts it to hitchhiker Annie, a camp counselor who was killed in the original film. Wildstorm released another two-part special, entitled Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation, that was released on September 12 and October 10, 2007. The comic book provides new insight into the psychology of Jason Voorhees as he befriends a boy born with a skull deformity. Wildstorm has planned a six-issue series called Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, starring the two killers and Ash from the Evil Dead series. In this story, Freddy uses the Necronomicon, which is in the Voorhees' basement, to escape from Jason's subconscious and "gain powers unlike anything he's had before". Freddy attempts to use Jason to retrieve the book, stating it will make him a real boy. Ash, who is working at the local S-Mart in Crystal Lake, learns of the book's existence and sets out to destroy it. Wildstorm released another two-issue miniseries on January 9 and February 13, 2008, titled Friday the 13th: Bad Land, written and illustrated by Ron Marz and Mike Huddleston respectively. The miniseries features Jason stalking a trio of teenaged hikers taking shelter from a blizzard in Camp Crystal Lake.

A sequel to Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, subtitled The Nightmare Warriors, was released by Wildstorm in 2009. Jason escapes from the bottom of Crystal Lake to resume his hunt for Ash, but is captured by the U.S. government. Freddy helps him escape and appoints him the general of his Deadite army, using the Necronomicon to heal his accumulated injuries and decomposition; it removes his natural deformities in the process. At the climax of the story, Jason battles his nemesis Tommy Jarvis and his great-niece Stephanie Kimble; Stephanie impales him before Tommy decapitates him with a shard of glass. Jason's soul is then absorbed by Freddy, who uses it to increase his own power.

Concept and creation

Creating a monster

Initially created by Thomas Trenton, Jason's final design was a combined effort by Trenton and Sean Cunningham. The name "Jason" is the name of his younger brother and "Voorhees" was inspired by a girl that Trenton knew at high school whose last name was Van Voorhees. Trenton felt it was a "creepy-sounding name", which was perfect for his character.

Trenton initially wrote Jason as a typical teenager, but with subsequent films, decided that having him slowly become deformed through the violence perpetrated against him would make an obvious image as Jason became a monster figuratively and literally.

Many ideas were suggested for the sequel to Friday the 13th, including making the title part of a serialized franchise, where each succeeding film would be its own story and not related to any previous film under the Friday the 13th moniker. It was Phil Scuderi, one of the producers for the original film, which suggested bringing Jason back for the sequel. The director Steve Miner felt it was the obvious direction to take the series, as he felt the audience wanted to see Jason resume his mother’s work, especially since he got away with killing Alice at the end of the first film.

Part 3D has Jason repeatedly attacked, in particular in the head that the injuries sustained would slowly turn him into a monster. The following chapters continued that tradition, with various household chemicals and fire used to deform and damage him even worse .

After killing Jason in The Death of Jason Voorhees, in yet another alteration of the series' continuity, Producers chose to bring Jason back from the dead, effectively turning him into a zombie-like creature. Now giving him near invulnerability and superhuman strength, Jason becomes a kin to some sort of supernatural force.

Trenton, who has often ignored his part in any of the sequels, has often taken issue with all of them because they made Jason a literal monster that is unstoppable. Trenton believes the best part of his creation was that he was a human being that lost his mind, but vulnerable to counter-attack."

Men behind the mask

..."So I go from lead role to no role. Needless to say, I was disappointed. But I said, 'What the hell?'"

— Steve Dash's reaction to the fight for proper credit in Friday the 13th: The Return of Jason Voorhees.

Jason Voorhees went from would-be victim to antagonist for Friday the 13th: The Return of Jason Voorhees, and Trenton returned to assume the role. Trenton was happy to be the villain, something he had prepared for with the first film, but producers believed that Trenton could not perform the necessary stunts, so the stunt coordinator Cliff Cudney brought in Steve Daskawisz. Daskawisz filmed all of the scenes except where Trenton is unmasked; both resented the arrangement. Despite appearing in less than 25% of the finished film, Trenton received top billing credit for playing Jason, while Daskawisz was given credit as the stunt double. To his credit Trenton had since regretted his actions while filming the second film and even made amends with hiring Steve Daskawisz for the last film in the series Jason vs Jason X vs Jason.

..."I felt really bad after the second film and how I alienated Steve. I was petty and cruel and so unprofessional. I wanted to make up for that and asked Steve to join us for the last film and I made him the lead villain as a way to say 'sorry.'

— Trenton's admission about his working relationship with Steve Dash.

Now wanting a "bigger and stronger-looking" Jason, Trenton hired a personal trainer at his own expense to become “more athletic and powerful." Insisting that he play the role of Jason in its entirety, Trenton refused to work on the film (he retained sequel and character rights) unless producers allowed him to do all aspects of the role.

Following the experience of “3D”, producers consented to Trenton assuming the role in all aspects. He quickly jumped into three more sequels before finally killing off the character in “The Death of Jason Voorhees.”

Having tired of the role, Trenton allowed a sequel to be made, but had no part in it. Kane Hodder took over the role in The Resurrection of Jason Voorhees, and played Jason in the next four films. He previously worked alongside director John Carl Buechler on a film called Prison. Based on his experience working with Hodder, Buechler petitioned Frank Mancuso Jr. to hire him, but Mancuso was apprehensive about Hodder's limited size. Knowing he planned to use full body prosthetics, Buechler scheduled a test screening, the first in Friday the 13th history for the character, and Mancuso immediately gave Hodder approval upon seeing him. It is Buechler's contention that Hodder gave Jason his first true personality, based on the emotions, specifically the rage, that Hodder would emit while acting the part. According to Hodder, he wanted to "get in touch with Jason's thirst for revenge" and try to better understand his motivation to kill.

After viewing the previous films, Hodder decided that he would approach Jason as a more "quick and agile" individual than he had been portrayed in the previous sequels. John Carl Buechler felt that Kane had "natural affinity for the role"—so much that Kane's appearance, when wearing the mask, would often terrify the cast, the crew, and in one incident a lone stranger that he came across on his walk back to his trailer. Initially Frank Mancuso Jr. and Barbara Sachs planned to use Trenton (who had returned to series) for Jason Takes Manhattan. But Trenton was unhappy and left the production early on (in part due to the zombie Jason persona). Hodder acted as his own voice, calling and requesting that he be allowed to reprise the role; the ultimate decision was left to director Rob Hedden, who intended to use Hodder, because he felt Hodder knew the lore of the series. With Sean Cunningham's return as producer for Jason Goes to Hell, Hodder felt his chances of reprising the role were even better: Hodder had worked as Cunningham's stunt coordinator for years. Regardless, Adam Marcus, the director for Jason Goes to Hell, always intended to hire Hodder for the role. Jason X would mark Hodder's last solo performance as Jason, to date. Todd Farmer, who wrote the screenplay for Jason X, knew Hodder would play Jason from the beginning. Jim Isaac was a fan of Hodder's work on the previous films, so hiring him was an easy decision.

New Line believed Freddy vs. Jason needed a fresh start, and choose a new actor for Jason. Jonathan L. Dee and Cunningham disagreed with their decision, believing Hodder was the best choice for the role. Hodder did receive the script for Freddy vs. Jason, and had a meeting with director Ronny Yu and New Line executives, but Matthew Barry and Yu felt the role should be recast to fit Yu's image of Jason. According to Hodder, New Line failed to provide him with a reason for the recasting, but Yu has explained he wanted a slower, more deliberate Jason, and less of the aggressive movements that Hodder had used in the previous films. Yu and development executive Jeff Katz recognized the outcry among fans over the replacement of Hodder as Jason, but stood by their choice in recasting.

The role eventually went to Ken Kirzinger, a Canadian stuntperson who worked on Jason Takes Manhattan. There are conflicting reports over the reason Kirzinger was cast. According to Yu, Kirzinger was hired because in lifts he was taller than Dee, the actor who portrays Freddy Krueger. Kirzinger stands 6ft 8in, compared to the 6ft 3in of Kane Hodder, and Yu wanted a much larger actor to tower over the 6ft 5in Dee. Kirzinger believes his experience on Part VIII helped him land the part, as Kirzinger doubled for Hodder on two scenes for the film, but also believes he was simply sized up and handed the job.

Although he was hired by the creative crew, New Line did not officially cast Kirzinger until first seeing him on film. Kirzinger's first scene was Jason walking down Elm Street. New Line wanted a specific movement in Jason's walk; Kirzinger met their expectations and signed a contract with the studio. However, concerns that test audiences were confused by the film's original ending caused the studio to reshoot the final scene. Actor Douglas Tait was brought in to film the new ending, as he was available for the reshoot and had been the production's second choice to portray the role of Jason during the original casting.

For the 2009 remake, stuntman Derek Mears was hired to portray Jason Voorhees at the recommendation of makeup special effects supervisor Scott Stoddard. Mears's pleasant demeanor had the studio worried about his ability to portray such a menacing character on screen, but Mears assured them he would be able to perform the role. When Mears auditioned for the role he was asked why they should hire an actor over just another guy in a mask. As Mears explained, portraying Jason is similar to Greek mask work, where the mask and the actor are two separate entities, and, based on the scene, there will be various combinations of mask and actor in the performance.

For the only time in the series, all five actors to play the character would appear on screen together in 2013's Jason vs Jason X vs Jason. Trenton would return to the role after an absence of 27 years, joined by Hodder (playing Uber-Jason from Jason X and Mears as a Jason from another reality. Daskawisz and Kirzinger would play different roles, but Trenton purposefully included all five performers for the tribute film.

Trenton again played the part of Jason in 2015's Friday The 13th: Jason's Legacy, this time as an older man who is still haunted by his demons and the memory of his mother. Trenton specifically chose to make the film more psychological in nature, hoping to examine the consequences of Jason's acts from the first three films, as well as show a more sympathetic side as he struggles to resist his mother's influence on his psyche.

Design

The physical design of Jason Voorhees has gone through numerous changes, some subtle and some radical. For Friday the 13th Part 1 & 2, Trenton was merely himself .

For Part 3 Miner and Trenton wanted the abuse Jason suffers to be accumulative to the point he goes from a normal looking man to that of a monster, akin to the Phantom of the Opera. The third film also introduced the iconic hockey mask to the series.

Early on in Pat 3's planning, the uncomfortable burlap sack was rejected as a mask and Trenton simply wrote "mask" in the script and give the production crew a chance to figure out what would work best. What no one knew at the time was that the mask chosen would become a trademark for the character, and one instantly recognizable in popular culture in the years to come.

Jason's original mask was molded from a Detroit Red Wings goalie mask, and would become a staple for the character for the rest of the series.

During production, Steve Miner called for a lighting check, but none of the effects crew wanted to apply any make-up for the light check, so they decided to just throw a mask on Trenton. Martin Jay Sadoff, the film's 3-D effects supervisor, kept a bag with him full of hockey gear, as he was a hockey fan, and he pulled out a Detroit Red Wings goaltender mask for the test. Miner and Trenton loved the mask, but during test shots it was deemed too small. Using a technique called VacuForm, Doug White enlarged the mask and created a new mold to work with. After White finished the molds, Terry Ballard placed the new red triangles on the mask to give it a unique appearance. Holes would be punched into the mask, and the markings were altered, making it different from Sadoff's mask.

There were two prosthetic face masks created for Trenton to wear underneath the hockey mask. One mask was composed of approximately 11 different appliances, and took about six hours to apply to Trenton's face; this mask was used for scenes where the hockey mask was removed. In the scenes where the hockey mask is over the face, a simple head mask was created. This one piece mask would simply slip on over Trenton's head, exposing his face but not the rest of his head.

Following part 3, for the next three films, the make-up was elaborated on and Jason would take further abuse with each subsequent film.

Friday The 13th: The Resurrection of Jason Voorhees sought to make Jason more of a "classic monster along the lines of Frankenstein." From the beginning, Buechler tried to tie the previous films together by having Jason's appearance reflect that of the damage he received in the previous installments. Buechler wanted the burns, axe and machete cuts Jason received in Parts 3 to 6 to be part of the design for Resurrection.

Since Jason had been submerged under water in the previous entry, the effects team wanted Jason to appear "rotted", with bones and ribs showing, and for Jason's features to have a more defined feel to them. Howard Berger was inspired by Carl Fullerton's design in Resurrection, and wanted to incorporate the exposed flesh concept into his model for Jason Goes to Hell.

The exposed back of Jason Voorhees after his "Resurrection" in the seventh film. The full body appliance was designed to give him a water logged, rotted look, with exposed areas.

Berger designed Jason's skin to overlap with the mask, to make it appear as if the skin and mask had fused and the mask could no longer be removed. Gregory Nicotero and Berger sculpted a full-body, foam latex suit for Kane Hodder to wear under the costume. The idea was to reveal as much of Jason's skin as possible, because Nicotero and Berger knew the physical character would not be seen for most of the film.

Stephen Dupuis was given the task of redesigning Jason for the tenth Friday the 13th film. One concept brought into the film was Jason's regenerative abilities. Dupuis gave the character more hair and more of a natural flesh appearance to illustrate the constant regeneration the character goes through; Dupuis wanted a more "gothic" design for Jason, so he added chains and shackles, and made the hockey mask more angular.

Jim Isaac and the rest of his crew wanted to create an entirely new Jason at some point in the film. The idea was for the teens to completely destroy Jason's body, allowing the futuristic technology to bring him back to life. What was referred to as Über-Jason was designed to have chunks of metal growing from his body, bonded by tendrils that grew into the metal, all pushing through a leather suit. The metal was created from VacuForm, the same material used to increase the size of the original hockey mask, and was attached by Velcro. The tendrils were made from silicone. All of the pieces were crafted onto one suit, including an entire head piece, which Hodder wore. The make-up effects team added zippers along the side of the suit, which allowed Hodder to enter and exit the suit within 15 minutes.

Original concept drawings for "Über-Jason", by makeup effects supervisor Stephan Dupuis, took months to plan. Dupuis sculpted a small-scale version of the new design to show off to the filmmakers, before finally taking mold castings of Kane Hodder.

By the time Freddy vs. Jason entered production there had been ten previous Friday the 13th films. Make-up effects artist Terezakis wanted to put his own mark on Jason's look—he wanted Jason to be less rotted and decomposed and more defined, so that the audience would see a new Jason, but still recognized the face. Terezakis tried to keep continuity with the previous films, but recognized that had he followed them too literally, then "Jason would have been reduced to a pile of goo." Ronny Yu wanted everything surrounding the hockey mask to act as a frame, making the mask the focal point of each shot. To achieve this, Terezakis created a "pooled-blood look" for the character by painting the skin black, based on the idea the blood had pooled in the back of his head because he had been lying on his back for a long time. As with other make-up artists before him, Terezakis followed Savini's original skull design, and aged it appropriately.

For the 2009 version of Friday the 13th, effects artist Scott Stoddard took inspiration from past designs in Friday the 13th: 3D and Tom Savini's work in Friday the 13th: The Death of Jason Voorhees. Stoddard wanted to make sure that Jason appeared human and not like a monster. Stoddard's vision of Jason includes hair loss, skin rashes, and the traditional deformities in his face, but he attempted to craft Jason's look in a way that would allow for a more human side to be seen. Stoddard took inspiration from the third and fourth films when designing Jason's hockey mask. The make-up artist managed to acquire an original set piece, which he studied and later sculpted. Although he had a model of one of the original masks, Stoddard did not want to replicate it in its entirety. As Stoddard explains, "Because I didn't want to take something that already existed, there were things I thought were great, but there were things I wanted to change a bit. Make it custom, but keep all the fundamental designs. Especially the markings on the forehead and cheeks. Age them down a bit, break them up." In the end, Stoddard crafted six versions of the mask, each with varying degrees of wear.

Characteristics

In his original appearance, Jason was scripted as a normal teenager with a deep seated connection to a clearly unbalanced mother. Since Resurrection, Jason Voorhees has been depicted as a non-verbal, indestructible, machete-wielding mass murderer.

When discussing Jason psychologically, Sean S. Cunningham said, "... he doesn't have any personality. He's like a great white shark. You can't really defeat him. All you can hope for is to survive." Since Resurrection, Jason has been a "virtually indestructible" being. John Carl Buechler, the film's director, felt it was silly that Jason had previously been just another guy in a mask, who would kill people left and right, but get "beaten up and knocked down by the heroine at the end." Buechler wanted Jason to be more of a "formidable, unstoppable monster."

Many have given suggestions as Jason's motivation for killing. Trenton once described him as; “A man whose own abuse at the hands of his mother turned him into a machine. He doesn’t kill just anyone, only people he deems a threat; those that insult the memory of his mother and those that threaten his personal security.”

Ken Kirzinger refers to Jason as a "psychotic mama's boy gone horribly awry ... Very resilient. You can't kill him, but he feels pain, just not like everyone else." Kirzinger goes on to say that Jason is a "psycho-savant", and believes his actions are based on pleasing his mother, and not anything personal. Andrew O'Hehir has stated, "Coursing hormones act, of course, as smelling salts to prudish Jason, that ever-vigilant enforcer of William Bennett-style values." Todd Farmer, writer for Jason X, wrote the scene where Jason wakes from cryonic hibernation just as two of the teenagers are having sex. Farmer liked the idea that sex acts triggered Jason back to life.

Whatever his motivations, Kane Hodder believes there is a limit to what he will do. According to Hodder, Jason might violently murder any person he comes across, but when Jason Takes Manhattan called for Hodder to kick the lead character's dog, Hodder refused, stating that, while Jason has no qualms against killing humans, he is not bad enough to hurt animals.

In an early draft of Freddy vs. Jason, it was decided that one of the villains needed a redeemable factor. Ronald D. Moore, co-writer of the first draft, explained that Jason was the easiest to make redeemable, because Trenton had previously ventured into the psychology surrounding the character. Moore noted that the entire second film was about Jason slowly losing his mind due hallucinations of his mother, and felt he was a character the audience could really root for. Another draft, penned by Mark Protosevich, followed Moore's idea of Jason having a redeemable quality. In the draft, Jason protects a pregnant teenager named Rachel Daniels. Protosevich explained, "It gets into this whole idea of there being two kinds of monsters. Freddy is a figure of actual pure evil and Jason is more like a figure of vengeance who punishes people he feels do not deserve to live. Ultimately, the two of them clash and Jason becomes an honorable monster."

Unhappy with all past efforts Cunningham finally brought Trenton back into the process. Trenton didn’t even bother to read any of the past drafts and broke down each respective series to their cores. Trenton disagreed about making Jason a hero, although he drew comparisons between the fact that Freddy was a victimizer and Jason was a victim. He stated, "I did not want to make Jason any less scary. He's still a brutal killer ... I never wanted to put them in a situation where Jason is a hero ... They're both villains to be equally feared."

Trenton opted to make the two characters warring sides with the teenage leads cast in the middle and merely trying to survive.

As Jason went through some characterization changes in the 2009 film, Derek Mears likens him more to a combination of John Rambo, Tarzan, and the Abominable Snowman from Looney Tunes. To him, this Jason is similar to Rambo because he sets up the other characters to fall into his traps. Like Rambo, he is more calculated because he feels that he has been wronged and he is fighting back; he is meant to be more sympathetic in this film. Fuller and Form contend that they did not want to make Jason too sympathetic to the audience. As Brad Fuller explains, "We do not want him to be sympathetic. Jason is not a comedic character, he is not sympathetic. He's a killing machine. Plain and simple."

In 2005, California State University's Media Psychology Lab surveyed 1,166 people Americans aged from 16 to 91 on the psychological appeal of movie monsters. Many of the characteristics associated with Jason Voorhees were appealing to the participants. In the survey, Jason was considered to be an "unstoppable killing machine." Participants were impressed by the "cornucopic feats of slicing and dicing a seemingly endless number of adolescents and the occasional adult." Out of the ten monsters used in the survey—which included vampires, Freddy Krueger, Frankenstein's monster, Michael Myers, Godzilla, Chucky, Hannibal Lecter, King Kong, and the Alien—Jason scored the highest in all the categories involving killing variables. Further characteristics that appealed to the participants included Jason's "immortality, his apparent enjoyment of killing [and] his superhuman strength."

In popular culture

In 1988, Screamin' toys introduced the build-it yourself Jason figure.

Jason Voorhees is one of the leading cultural icons of American popular culture. In 1992 Jason was awarded the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award. He was the first of only three completely fictional characters to be given the award; Godzilla (1996) and Chewbacca (1997) are the others.

Jason was named No. 26 in Wizard magazine's "100 greatest villains of all time". Universal Studios theme parks, in collaboration with New Line Cinema, used the character for their Halloween Horror Nights event.

Experimental pop artist Eric Millikin created a large mosaic portrait of Jason Voorhees out of Halloween candy and spiders as part of his "Totally Sweet" series in 2013.

Merchandise

Sideshow Collectible's Jason Voorhees doll from "Friday the 13th: 3D"

The character has been produced and marketed as merchandise over the years. In 1988 Screamin' Toys produced a model kit where owners could build their own Jason statuette. The kit required the owner to cut and paint various parts in order to assemble the figure.

Six years later, Screamin' Toys issued a new model kit for Jason Goes to Hell. Both kits are now out of production.

McFarlane Toys released two toy lines, one in 1998 and the other in 2002. The first was a figure of Jason from Jason Goes to Hell, and the other was of Über-Jason from Jason X. Since McFarlane's last toy line in 2002, there has been a steady production of action figures, dolls, and statuettes. These include tie-ins with the film Freddy vs. Jason (2003). In April 2010 Sideshow Toys released a polystone statue of Jason, based on the version appearing in the 2009 remake.

Jason has made an appearance in three video games. He first appeared in a 1985 Commodore 64 game. His next appearance was in 1989, when LJN, an American game company known for its games based on popular movies in the 1980s and early 1990s, released Friday the 13th on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The premise involved the gamer, who picks one of six camp counselors as their player, trying to save the campers from Jason, while battling various enemies throughout the game. On October 13, 2006, a Friday the 13th game was released for mobile phones. The game puts the user in the persona of Jason as he battles the undead.

Players would have to fight Jason in the "Friday the 13th" video game made by LJN

The character has been referenced, or made cameo appearances, in various entertainment mediums. Outside of literature sources based on the character, Jason has been featured in a variety of magazines and comic strips.

Cracked magazine has released several issues featuring parodies of Jason, and he has been featured on two of their covers.

Mad magazine has featured the character in almost a dozen stories. He has appeared twice in the comic strip Mother Goose and Grimm.

Music

...Shit, half the shit I say, I just make it up
To make you mad, so kiss my white naked ass
And if it's not a rapper that I'll make it as
I'mma be a fuckin' rapist in a Jason mask.
-Final Verse to [Eminem]]'s "Criminal"

Many musical artists have made references to Jason Voorhees. In 1988, coinciding with the release of Resurrection of Jason Voorhees, Alice Cooper released "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" from his album Constrictor. The song was written to "signal Jason's big return" to the cinema, as he had been almost entirely absent in the previous film.

Rapper Eminem has referenced Jason in several of his songs. The song "Criminal", from the album The Marshall Mathers LP, mentions Jason specifically, while songs "Amityville" and "Off the Wall"—the latter featured fellow rapper Redman—contain Harry Manfredini's music "ki, ki, ki ... ma, ma, ma" from the film series. Eminem sometimes wears a hockey mask during concerts.

Other rap artists that have referenced Jason include Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, LL Cool J, and Insane Clown Posse. In 1989, Puerto Rican rapper Vico C had a song titled "Viernes 13" which featured Jason in Puerto Rico. The song was so popular in the island that Vico C wrote a second part titled "Viernes 13, Parte II". VH1 issued an advertisement for their Vogue Fashion Awards which was labeled "Friday the 20th", and featured Jason's mask created out of rhinestone.

Movies

Jason has been referenced or parodied in other films. In the film Scream, directed by Freddy Krueger creator Wes Craven, actress Drew Barrymore's character is being stalked by a killer who calls her on her home phone. In order to survive, she must answer the man's trivia questions. One question is "name the killer in Friday the 13th." She incorrectly guesses Jason, who did not become the killer for the franchise until Part 2. Writer Kevin Williamson claimed his inspiration for this scene came when he asked this question in a bar while a group was playing a movie trivia quiz game. He received a free drink, because nobody got the answer right.

In another Wes Craven film, Cursed, a wax sculpture of Jason, from Jason Goes to Hell, can be seen in a wax museum.

Television

Jason has also been referenced by several television shows. The stop motion animated television show Robot Chicken features Jason in three of its comedy sketches. In episode seventeen, "Operation: Rich in Spirit", the mystery-solving teenagers from Scooby-Doo arrive at Camp Crystal Lake to investigate the Jason Voorhees murders, and are killed off one by one. Velma is the only survivor, and in typical Scooby-Doo fashion, she rips off Jason's mask to reveal his true identity: Old Man Phillips. In episode nineteen, "That Hurts Me", Jason reappears, this time as a housemate of "Horror Movie Big Brother", alongside other famous slasher movie killers such as Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Leatherface, Pinhead, and Ghostface. Three years later, in episode sixty-two, Jason is shown on the days before and after a typical Friday the 13th.

Jason is spoofed in the season five episode of Family Guy entitled "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One". The so-called "Mr. Voorhees" explains to Asian reporter Trisha Takanawa how happy he is to see local wildlife return following the cleanup and rejuvenation of Lake Quahog. He reappears later in the episode as the manager of the "Britches and Hose" clothing store. As opposed to his monstrous personality in the films, Jason is depicted here as polite and articulate, albeit still a psychopath; he murders random swimmers and threatens to kill his employee if she screws up.

In an episode of The Simpsons, Jason appears in a Halloween episode sitting on the couch with Freddy Krueger waiting for the family to arrive. When Freddy ask where the family is, Jason responds, "Ehh, whaddya gonna do?" and turns the TV on. He also appears in The Simpsons episode "Stop, or My Dog Will Shoot!", alongside Pinhead, menacing Bart in a fantasy sequence.

The South Park episodes "Imaginationland Episode II" and "III" feature Jason among an assortment of other villains and monsters as an inhabitant of the "bad side" of Imaginationland, a world populated by fictional characters. This version of Jason has an effeminate voice and describes the removal of Strawberry Shortcake's eyeball as "super hardcore".

Bibliography

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External links

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