What Exactly is Jason Voorhees

By RodneyHatfieldJr for Movies

Between being stuck at home now for 8 weeks(with 1 trip a week to the grocer) now and being swamped by a ton of different articles needed written; I needed to have a fun write. A fun write is a term I use for writing something I find enjoyable. It is my stress reliever.  I usually write a hard-edged movie review for a movie where I release all my built-up venom.  I rarely post those, because they are extremely harsh and my inner a*hole shines through. But this time I decided to post a theory I have had for a long time. Since the 40th anniversary of Friday the 13th is this weekend, I wanted to share it with everyone. Call it an editorial, or the coping mechanism of a person on the brink of cabin fever. Either way, lets look at what exactly is Jason.


It is a question people have been asking since the series was new. The hulking unstoppable killing machine has a huge body count to become one of the most iconic monsters of horror history. So we not only need but deserve an explanation of what exactly this killing force is. Most people have decided that he is a zombie or some kind of demon. Well, I have a different theory on this. Jason is a Frankenstein(monster for you purest). I will explain how Jason can withstand massive amounts of damage and still come back from it. So in essence, he is a Flesh Golem like the Frankenstein Monster. Therefore, we are going to go over most the whole series. So spoiler alert, if you have never seen them(stop living in a cave and go watch them).


Let's start with the Friday the 13th(1980) This is the origin story. But as we find out, the killer is not Jason, but his mother Pamela. Matter of fact, Jason is not even in the movie at all. The cameo of him coming out of the water to grab Alice is a hallucination or dream. She wakes up in the hospital after decapitating Pamela. So we can skip this one in the mythos of Jason.


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Friday the 13 Pt.2(1981) is when we finally see Jason for the first time. He did not drown in the lake as a child, but had been living a hermit life in a shack alone in the woods surrounding the lake. No body was ever found, and Pamela left the lake after killing Barry and Claudette who were responsible for Jason’s drowning. No reason is mentioned as to why Jason hid, maybe because he was afraid of being punished. Anyway, Jason lived in a shack hiding from everyone, living off the land. When his mother is slain, Jason seeks revenge. So he finds where Alice lives and kills her. He then goes back to the lake. 5 years later the camp is still closed, and a new camp is opened on the other side of the lake. Apparently Jason doesn’t respect trespassers. Donning a burlap sack as a mask, Jason goes about killing the counselors. Ginny however, chops him in the shoulder with a machete. She assumes the blow kills him, then Paul and her run back to the house where Jason grabs Ginny after busting through a window. Then Ginny wakes up being loaded into an ambulance. The fate of Paul or Jason is left as a mystery. We can assume Paul is dead, and Jason is not, since the machete blow was not as bad as it seemed. So for now, Jason is still alive, however with a shoulder injury.


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We knew Friday the 13th Pt.3(1982) was coming. The previous part produced too many unanswered questions. Right out of the gate we see an injured Jason going to a store close to the lake where he kills the owners and gets a new set of clothes(and medical supplies we can assume). He then heads back to the lake but stops in a barn of a rather nice summer home to rest. He goes about killing everyone around and gets his world famous hockey mask. However in the end he receives an ax to the head and left for dead, then Chris gets into a canoe until the police comes. We are assuming Jason is finally dead. But we find out in the next movie otherwise.


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Friday the 13th The Final Chapter(1984) takes place only hours after the ending in Pt.3. We find Jason in the morgue at the hospital. He awakes in a freezer, and escapes(after killing a coroner and nurse) back to Crystal Lake. Lucky for Jason, the mask helped stop the ax blow. Since this is a slasher film, we get a new group of teens to watch being killed. The plot is pretty much the same as the rest; Jason goes around killing til only two people are left, Trish and her 12 year old brother Tommy. Trish fights Jason, while Tommy comes up from behind and chops Jason in the side of the head with a machete. When he notices one of his fingers twitch, little Tommy acts like a Japanese chief and dices up Jason with the before mentioned machete. Now finally, after 3(well kinda 4) movies, Jason has finally been slain. These first 4 movies are not about a supernatural killer, but a insane mentally challenged killer and his insane killer mother. See this is why the movie is called “The Final Chapter” Jason is finally dead.


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You know when a franchise is liked as much as Ft13th, it will either get a continued story, spinoff, or remake. You do not stop a money making juggernaut. Especially with VHS players in almost every home, Friday the 13th was begging for new installments. So they made a Friday the 13th A New Beginning(1985). Well of course it is a new beginning, Jason died in the last film. So now he is a undead monster? Nope. Tommy from the last film undergoes therapy and lives at a halfway house. One of the people living there kills another tenet, and the body is found by the his father who snaps and starts killing people dressed as Jason. When the reviews from fans came in, they were so negative, the studio did a 180 on the idea of Jason is gone. Horror fans can and are very finicky, and just like in Halloween 3, fans demanded the real Jason back.


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As the old saying goes, “Hit while the iron is hot.” Well, the studio did. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives(1986) came out at the end of summer. We now see an older Tommy going back to Crystal Lake to cremate the remains of Jason who he is still having hallucinating about. Him and a buddy dig up Jason’s grave, but when seeing the body he experiences a flashback and stabs the body with a metal fence post. While he gets control of himself, luck would have it, that the metal pole is struck by two lighting bolts. Just like Frankenstein’s Monster, Jason is revived with lighting. Now he is an reanimated corpse. Jason grabs the mask Tommy brought with him(Why bring a mask?) and kills his friend. Tommy goes to the police, but they don't believe him. Jason then goes around killing everyone around the lake. In the end, Tommy ties a chain around Jason and throws the rock anchor into the lake. But of course, he doesn’t need to breath, so Jason sits patiently at the bottom of the lake. This is also where we see some of the Frankenstein traits. He tears the arm off a paint ball player, just like the monster did in the classic film. Not needing oxygen while chained to the bottom of the lake like the Monster doesn't need air while submerged in the sulfur pits. If you need more reason to equate the two monsters are kin, remember in Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. He was sitting at the bottom of the lake again and is shocked back to life by the electric cables. Just like Frankenstein Monster, electricity brings him out from hibernation. In Part VIII we also see that Jason is not killed by the large jolt of electricity in the subway.


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That is as far as I am going in the franchise since the rest are of a reanimated Jason. In a nutshell, he kills, then is injured, he rests, then repeats. I just wanted to show how Jason became the way he was. For 4 movies, Jason was human, dead for 1 movie and was reanimated for 6(pt. 9 we try to forget). Just like the Frankenstein Monster, Jason exhibits superstrength, stamina, endurance, and immune to injury. When he takes damage, he lies dormant for awhile til his strength returns, and he again goes on a killing spree. He is smarter than a zombie, but dumber than a demon. He is a modern day Frankenstein.


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