Origin of a Horror Icon – Part 1: Jason Voorhees *Contains Spoilers*

If Hollywood has taught us anything, is that it likes
sequels/reboots/remakes/reimaginings; basically anything that doesn’t involve an original idea. For every Inception we’re blessed with, we’re subjected to a weekly Saw or Paranomal Activity. Not that all of the above are necessarily bad things. The Dark Knight was a sequel spawned off the back of a reboot, though this should not give Michael Bay any more “great” ideas.

Basically Hollywood doesn’t know when to say stop when the cash is flowing, and in doing so has managed to ruin many a great character by their constant toying with them. None more so than the movie maniac!

What makes these villains so great is they have unexplained supernatural power. This is a film after all, plausibility can sit nicely away from me if the genre fits. Unfortunately most franchises get to the point where the writer feels it’s time to explain what it is that makes these monsters in the first place.

Jason Voorhees – Friday the 13th

The premise of the original Friday the 13th was simple. Neglected child Jason Voorhees drowns while councilors opt have sex and do drugs. Said child’s mother exacts revenge only to have her head cut off for her troubles. Child turns out not to be dead but was in fact living in the woods (probably) the whole time and avenges his mother by killing everyone brain damaged enough to go near the lake. Able to take a shit load of punishment, Jason proves difficult to kill enabling many sequels to then follow.

Jason died at the end of Part 4: The Final Chapter, killed by Corey Feldman who would later continue the bloodbath by killing his own career. “Doesn’t he die at the end of all the films only to come back” you ask? Fair question, but at the end of 4 he was dead, as in really dead, the film series intended to be have reached its conclusion. But the tune of 32 million at the box office scuppered that idea and Part 5: A New Beginning was born. Ill advised, those in charge decided not to bring back Jason as such, instead introducing a copycat. Because there’s never been as big a money spinner as removing the most popular character from a multi million dollar franchise. Realising their mistake, due to a poor box office, Part 6 – Jason Lives has our killer resurrected by a bolt of lightning and now ten times more stronger than before. This however is fine because if films have taught us anything it’s that lightning is the bringer of life.

And the machine rebellion was born

In the 9^th film Jason Goes to Hell: the Final Friday (part deux) they attempt to explain in more detail why Jason is so powerful. It’s because Jason isn’t really what we think he is. He’s not a person, technically he’s a demon but more literally he’s a parasite that can latch himself onto any living person once his own body is destroyed and possess them. This ingenious plot point enables the filmmakers to have a Jason film that Jason, as we know and love barely, appears. Now you could argue that after having 5 films of a hockey mask wearing psychopath (although this was the 9^th film the hockey mask wasn’t introduced until Part 3) the audience could be getting a bit bored. No? doesn’t really hold up does it? The only appeal to the films by this point is Jason and that includes his fucking hockey mask! It could be argued that the filmmakers were trying to destroy the franchise to make way for the inevitable Freddy VS Jason, as teased at the end of the film. Instead all they did was painfully remind us why Jason works as a killer in the first place. He is mindless, ruthless and indiscriminate. Not as 9 would suggest, sensitive, driven by motives and a demon able to posses people. Seeing as how the plot point is never brought back up in any of the sequels, and seeing as how is isn’t included in the box set, it’s easy to stay clear off this piece of shit. It’s only saving grace, is that it makes Jason X more credible.