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You know Jason's not human... right?
Transcript
00:00 So, Jason Voorhees is one of the most iconic characters in all of horror. He has haunted
00:05 drive-in cinemas for generations, looming about the shores of Crystal Lake in the hopes of
00:10 snatching up unsuspecting camp counsellors. Therefore, with as much time as we've spent with
00:15 him, you think you probably know everything, right? Well, apparently, wrong, because there
00:19 are so many air quotes, facts, that people just assume are true, that really aren't.
00:23 So let's take a look at them as arm jewels, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Things
00:27 Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Jason Voorhees.
00:30 10. He's the Killer from the First Movie
00:33 Friday the 13th, the classic 1980s slasher flick about a group of teenagers who stay at Camp
00:40 Crystal Lake during the summer, only to be systematically picked off by the masked maniac
00:44 Jason Voorhees. That's the plot, isn't it? Well, no. Like the fatal mistake that Drew Barrymore
00:50 made in the opening of Scream, the killer in the very first movie is not Jason, but his mother,
00:55 Pamela Voorhees, played by the late Betsy Palmer. Jason does appear in a minor way,
01:00 seen drowning as a young boy during flashbacks and for the brief jump scare at the end,
01:04 but it's a far cry from how he's presented in later movies.
01:07 Jason's minimal screen time here may be surprising for first-time viewers. I mean,
01:12 he's the star of the franchise that everyone recognizes, but he doesn't get a major role
01:15 until the second film. For the first two acts, the movie keeps its killer silent and unseen,
01:21 filming much of the action from her point of view. Mrs. Voorhees isn't introduced until the third
01:26 act, so it fails as a whodunit, but Palmer definitely makes up for it with her memorable
01:30 performance. What speaks to Jason's strength as a character is that he emerged as one of the most
01:35 famous movie monsters of all time, despite having such a small role during the first installment.
01:40 9. He's Had the Mask from the Beginning
01:44 While the goalie mask is certainly his definitive look, we've already established that Jason's
01:49 appearance in the original Friday was as a young boy in the lake, with his face out in the open.
01:54 So, what's just as surprising is that in the second film, with Jason elevated to the role
01:58 of the slasher villain, he still doesn't have his mask. Instead, he wears a sack over his head,
02:03 earning this iteration the creative nickname of "Baghead Jason". It wasn't until the third film
02:09 that Jason finally got hold of the mask that would then come to define him. He took it from
02:13 the character Shelly, a lonely guy who plays pranks on the rest of the group to try and make
02:17 them notice him. After Shelly terrifies his crush by leaping out of the lake wearing the mask,
02:22 Jason dispatches him and takes it for himself, finally appearing on screen the way we all expect
02:27 him to. During the climax, final girl Chris lands an axe to Jason's head, cracking the mask,
02:32 a detail which remains throughout the rest of the series. While he's had this look for most of the
02:36 franchise, it took all of the original trilogy to form Jason into the character we all know now.
02:42 8. He's a Michael Myers Ripoff
02:46 Another cinematic giant when it comes to silent, unstoppable slasher villains is
02:50 Halloween's Michael Myers. The 1978 John Carpenter classic redefined horror,
02:55 introducing many of the slasher film conventions that we now take for granted. It has stood the
03:00 test of time, and is often heralded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made.
03:04 The comparisons between Michael and Jason are understandable. They both cover their faces,
03:08 never speak, and refuse to let serious injury or even death stop them in their bloody quests.
03:14 However, underneath the masks, the two are very different beasts. Jason invites sympathy from the
03:19 viewer, a child bullied for being different, who met a rather watery fate in Crystal Lake due to
03:24 the camp counselor's negligence. Having somehow survived this traumatic incident, he then witnessed
03:28 his own mother decapitated by another counselor. His distaste for those who organize scout camps
03:33 and school trips kind of makes sense, even if it does take things way too far. Michael,
03:37 on the other hand, decided to murder his own sister when he was six years old for no apparent reason.
03:42 He was institutionalized, then escaped years later to return to his hometown and hunt down
03:46 innocent babysitters. He also eats a dog at one point. While Friday the 13th is blatantly,
03:51 and admittedly, inspired by Halloween, Michael and Jason go in very different
03:55 directions as characters. The similarities are literally just skin deep.
03:59 7. He Carries a Chainsaw
04:02 We all know that moment in The Simpsons where Bart is anxiously laying awake in bed,
04:07 anticipating sideshow Bob to strike when Homer just ignorantly bursts in yelling,
04:11 "Bart, do you want to see my new chainsaw and hockey mask?" This is a combination commonly
04:15 associated with Jason, appearing in loads of pop culture references, even in a Diary of the Wimpy
04:20 Kid, of all things. Yet, throughout his 12 movies and licensed books, comics, and video games,
04:25 the character has never once wielded a chainsaw. Growing up in the woods, far from civilization,
04:30 he wouldn't exactly be the most mechanically minded guy. He's far more comfortable with
04:34 machetes, axes, and occasional brute force. He's a simple man, if not a peaceful one.
04:39 The only time that he uses a motorized tool is in the notoriously censored Part 7,
04:44 "The New Blood", where he accosts a psychiatrist with a weed killer. He tried it once and
04:48 discovered it wasn't his thing, returning to his usual methods soon after. We can only speculate
04:53 where this image of Jason as a psychotic lumberjack came from, and perhaps it's the Mandala Effect,
04:58 or people just confusing him with Leatherface. Whatever the case,
05:01 this perception doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.
05:05 6. His Motif Is "Ch-Ch-Ch-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha". Sounds so weird when you do it out loud.
05:12 Harry Manfredini's score created the perfect creepy atmosphere for the first movie,
05:17 and was so successful that he returned to score the majority of the sequels. The music is part
05:22 of the franchise's iconography as much as Jason's hockey mask and the shimmering surface of Crystal
05:27 Lake. The hook of the piece is the whispery vocals, chanting something like "Ch-Ch-Ch-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha".
05:32 It might sound like abstract noises to unease the viewer, but this motif has a specific meaning.
05:37 During the climax of the first film, as a maniac Pamela Voorhees chases after final girl Alice,
05:42 she talks to herself with the persona of her lost son. Putting on an eerie infantile voice,
05:47 she urges "Kill her, mummy, kill her!" to motivate herself into a vengeful fury. The score's vocals
05:53 are the voice of Manfredini chanting in a low, breathy tone "Kill, kill, kill, mum, mum, mum",
05:58 echoing Mrs. Voorhees' unsettling self-talk. As Pamela is killed and her son takes over for the
06:04 sequels, the motif remains, arguably becoming more associated with Jason than it ever was with his
06:09 mother. In this way, its meaning has become slightly muddled, but it's now impossible to
06:13 separate Jason from this legendary horror score. 5. He's Always Been an Immortal Zombie
06:20 One of the biggest mysteries in 'Friday the 13th' is just what Jason Voorhees is, exactly.
06:26 The first movie is pretty grounded, with no supernatural elements. Until after Mrs. Voorhees
06:30 has been vanquished and all seems peaceful, the rotted corpse of the young Jason leaps out of the
06:35 lake, pulling Alice out of her canoe and into the depths below. It's a brilliant cliffhanger that
06:40 should have been built upon in the next film, but the sequel instead opts to introduce an
06:44 eyebrow-raising retcon, in that he didn't drown, he made it to shore, and lived alone in the woods,
06:48 before being then brought out of hiding to avenge his mother's beheading, which he supposedly
06:53 witnessed. Not only does this make minimal sense, it also blunts the impact of that final jump scare,
06:58 and it makes Mrs. Voorhees' motivation kind of moot. It's a tough pill to swallow,
07:02 but one you've got to accept for the sake of adult Jason taking center stage. For the next
07:06 three movies, he was less of an undead monster that couldn't be killed, and more of an unstoppable
07:10 brute that was just really, really hard to kill. His death in the final chapter was supposed to be
07:15 definitive, but in the sixth film, he is accidentally reanimated with a bolt of lightning,
07:20 Frankenstein-style. From that point on, he was officially an immortal zombie.
07:24 4. His Powers Have Never Really Been Explained
07:28 Jason's timeline is kind of messy. He drowned as a child, except he didn't,
07:33 lived in the woods for years before seeing his mom's head being locked off, somehow developed
07:36 superhuman strength, stature, and durability, which he used to continue her string of violent
07:41 anti-counselor fervor. Then he was killed, and accidentally reanimated years later,
07:45 by the very man who killed him. Needless to say, there are some gaps in logic here,
07:49 which director Adam Marcus attempted to bridge in 1993 with Jason Goes to Hell, The Final Friday.
07:55 This movie begins with Jason being blown to pieces by a small army during a sting operation,
08:00 but as ever, this doesn't keep him down for very long. His physical form completely destroyed,
08:04 he appears in his spirit form, a parasitic, demonic worm that hops between bodies,
08:08 turning each host into an embodiment of Jason. The Final Friday presents this body-hopping
08:13 creature as Jason's true essence, what's kept him alive and strong all of these years,
08:17 no matter how much damage he takes. The film gets little love from the fanbase,
08:21 with many feeling the explanation of Jason's powers was unnecessary and misguided.
08:25 Fans were also disappointed by the very little screen time that classic Jason got.
08:30 Perhaps gaps in the canon are preferable to bizarre retcons and explanations.
08:34 3. He's Afraid of Water
08:37 He wasn't a very good swimmer. Miss Voorhees tells her terror-stricken Alice,
08:41 as she explains the tragedy that caused her to begin her vendetta. Since Jason's drowning,
08:46 but not drowning, his mastery over the waves seems to have improved greatly. He can be seen
08:51 in part 4 attacking from underneath a dinghy, so it's safe to say that he's willing to submerge
08:55 himself in Crystal Lake, despite his near-death experience, and move about underwater with ease.
08:59 In Friday the 13th The Game, players can take Jason into the waters, where he can dart around
09:04 at rapid speeds and catch swimmers like the shark from Jaws. He's practically an aquatic mammal.
09:09 A major change was made in Freddy vs. Jason, which Freddy Krueger torments Jason with… water? At the
09:14 sight of water, Jason will now crumble into a mess, reduced to that bullied boy desperately
09:18 slashing about in Crystal Lake, trying to stay afloat. This could have made sense that Jason
09:23 had developed a fear of water due to his childhood trauma, had it been established in previous films.
09:28 The problem is that it hadn't. It seems to have been introduced by the screenwriters Damian
09:32 Shannon and Mark Swift as a way for the Springwood slasher to have an edge on his opponent. As if
09:36 they weren't evenly matched already. 2. He Kills Indiscriminately
09:42 How could an undead serial killer with a triple-figure body count possibly have anything
09:46 close to a moral code? Well, it's not that exactly, but Jason is pickier than you might expect
09:52 when it comes to slicing and dicing. Camp counsellors were the reason for his drowning and
09:56 the death of his mother, so he has a rather vilified view of them. Despite his best efforts,
10:00 people keep applying for that same bloody position at Camp Crystal Lake. Perhaps the biggest mystery
10:05 in the franchise is why people keep showing up there. There have been occasions that Jason has
10:08 killed people regardless of their relation to the camp management, but that usually comes down to
10:12 his territorial animal instincts. The film that best showcased Jason's boundaries is Part 8,
10:18 "Jason Takes Manhattan," in which he chooses to scare off a group of kids by showing them his
10:22 gruesome face rather than killing them. In another scene, he inadvertently saves the main character,
10:27 Rennie, by killing two criminals that are assaulting her. There was also a scene in the
10:31 script that would have had Jason kick a dog, but the actor Kane Hodder refused to shoot it because
10:35 he felt that it wasn't in character. Jason is definitely a monster, but he doesn't torment
10:40 innocents with the same wicked glee as somebody like Freddy Krueger does.
10:43 1. He Has No Personality
10:46 Just because he hides his face and never talks, it doesn't mean that Jason Voorhees is a
10:51 one-dimensional character. Audiences can feel for him as a tormented soul who lost his innocence
10:56 after years of bullying and trauma, while also fearing his unstoppable brutality. The boundaries
11:02 of those he chooses to kill and those he spares raises questions about his humanity, and his
11:06 Oedipus Complex makes him ripe for psychological analysis. His hidden face means that he can be
11:11 played by different actors between films, and Jason has been played by a total of eight actors,
11:15 all of whom have a slightly different take on him. From the scruffy, stumbling baghead Jason,
11:19 to Kane Hodder's heaving, towering menace, the character provides a valuable opportunity for
11:24 actors to express their range, by exploring how they feel a character like this might think and
11:29 act. It takes genuine talent to craft an expressive performance while wearing that mask.
11:33 If Jason Voorhees was a boring character with no personality, then he wouldn't have become the icon
11:38 of horror that he is today. His fanbase is huge, and he resonates throughout pop culture. At every
11:43 comic con, you'll see at least one Jason cosplay, and his mask has been printed onto t-shirts
11:47 around the world. He may not be quotable like Freddy, but he is just as compelling.
11:52 And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 Things Everybody Always Gets Wrong
11:56 About Jason Voorhees. I hope you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it
11:59 down in the comments section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on
12:03 Twitter @RetroJWithA0, or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming
12:08 outside of work, and it'd be great to see you over there. But before I go, I just want to say one
12:12 thing. Hope you're treating yourself well with love and respect, my friend, because you deserve
12:15 all of the best things in life, alright? I am like a serial killer of positivity, I am coming into
12:20 your lives, and I'm making you realise that you are a massive ledge, and do not let anything or
12:24 anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? Now go out there and absolutely smash your life goals
12:29 today. I believe in you. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome. Never forget that,
12:34 and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.

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