You know Jason's not human... right?
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00:00So, Jason Voorhees is one of the most iconic characters in all of horror. He has haunted
00:05drive-in cinemas for generations, looming about the shores of Crystal Lake in the hopes
00:10of snatching up unsuspecting camp counsellors. Therefore, with as much time as we've spent
00:15with him, you think you probably know everything, right? Well, apparently, wrong, because there
00:20are so many air quotes, facts, that people just assume are true, that really aren't.
00:24So let's take a look at them, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10
00:27Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Jason Voorhees.
00:3110. He's the killer from the first movie
00:34Friday the 13th, a classic 1980s slasher flick about a group of teenagers who stay at Camp
00:40Crystal Lake during the summer, only to be systematically picked off by the masked maniac
00:44Jason Voorhees. That's the plot, isn't it? Well, no. Like the fatal mistake that
00:49Drew Barrymore made in the opening of Scream, the killer in the very first movie is not
00:53Jason, but his mother, Pamela Voorhees, played by the late Betsy Palmer. Jason does appear
00:59in a minor way, seen drowning as a young boy during flashbacks and for the brief jump scare
01:04at the end, but it's a far cry from how he's presented in later movies.
01:08Jason's minimal screen time here may be surprising for first-time viewers. I mean,
01:12he's the star of the franchise that everyone recognises, but he doesn't get a major role
01:16until the second film. For the first two acts, the movie keeps its killer silent and unseen,
01:21overwhelming much of the action from her point of view. Mrs. Voorhees isn't introduced
01:25until the third act, so it fails as a whodunit, but Palmer definitely makes up for it with
01:30her memorable performance. What speaks to Jason's strength as a character is that
01:34he emerged as one of the most famous movie monsters of all time, despite having such
01:38a small role during the first instalment.
01:419. He's Had the Mask from the Beginning
01:45While the goalie mask is certainly his definitive look, we've already established that Jason's
01:49appearance in the original Friday was as a young boy in the lake, with his face out
01:53in the open. So, what's just as surprising is that in the second film, with Jason elevated
01:58to the role of the slasher villain, he still doesn't have his mask. Instead, he wears
02:02a sack over his head, earning this iteration the creative nickname of Baghead Jason.
02:08It wasn't until the third film that Jason finally got hold of the mask that would then
02:11come to define him. He took it from the character Shelly, a lonely guy who plays pranks on the
02:16rest of the group to try and make them notice him. After Shelly terrifies his crush by leaping
02:20out of the lake wearing the mask, Jason dispatches him and takes it for himself, finally appearing
02:25on screen the way that we all expect him to.
02:28During the climax, final girl Chris lands an axe to Jason's head, cracking the mask,
02:33a detail which remains throughout the rest of the series. While he's had this look
02:36for most of the franchise, it took all of the original trilogy to form Jason into the
02:40character we all know now.
02:438. He's a Michael Myers rip-off
02:46Another cinematic giant when it comes to silent, unstoppable slasher villains is Halloween's
02:51Michael Myers. The 1978 John Carpenter classic redefined horror, introducing many of the
02:56slasher film conventions that we now take for granted. It has stood the test of time,
03:01and is often heralded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made.
03:04The comparisons between Michael and Jason are understandable. They both cover their
03:08faces, never speak, and refuse to let serious injury or even death stop them in their bloody
03:13quests. However, underneath the masks, the two are very different beasts. Jason invites
03:18sympathy from the viewer, a child bullied for being different, who met a rather watery
03:23fate in Crystal Lake due to the camp counselor's negligence. Having somehow survived this traumatic
03:27incident, he then witnessed his own mother decapitated by another counselor. His distaste
03:32for those who organize scout camps and school trips kind of makes sense, even if it does
03:36take things way too far. Michael, on the other hand, decided to murder his own sister when
03:40he was six years old for no apparent reason. He was institutionalized, then escaped years
03:45later to return to his hometown and hunt down innocent babysitters. He also eats a dog at
03:49one point. While Friday the 13th is blatantly and admittedly inspired by Halloween, Michael
03:54and Jason go in very different directions as characters. The similarities are literally
03:58just skin deep.
04:007. He Carries a Chainsaw
04:03We all know that moment in The Simpsons where Bart is anxiously laying awake in bed, anticipating
04:08sideshow Bob to strike when Homer just ignorantly bursts in yelling,
04:11Bart, do you want to see my new chainsaw and hockey mask?
04:13This is a combination commonly associated with Jason, appearing in loads of pop culture
04:18references, even in A Diary of a Wimpy Kid, of all things. Yet, throughout his 12 movies
04:23and licensed books, comics, and video games, the character has never once wielded a chainsaw.
04:29Growing up in the woods, far from civilization, he wouldn't exactly be the most mechanically
04:32minded guy. He's far more comfortable with machetes, axes, and occasional brute force.
04:37He's a simple man, if not a peaceful one.
04:40The only time that he uses a motorized tool is in the notoriously censored Part 7, The
04:44New Blood, where he accosts a psychiatrist with a weed killer. He tried it once and discovered
04:49it wasn't his thing, returning to his usual methods soon after.
04:53We can only speculate where this image of Jason as a psychotic lumberjack came from,
04:56and perhaps it's the mandala effect, or people just confusing him with Leatherface.
05:01Whatever the case, this perception doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.
05:056. His Motif is Cha-cha-cha…
05:11Sounds so weird when you do it out loud!
05:13Harry Manfredini's score created the perfect creepy atmosphere for the first movie, and
05:18was so successful that he returned to score the majority of the sequels. The music is
05:22part of the franchise's iconography, as much as Jason's hockey mask and the shimmering
05:26surface of Crystal Lake.
05:27The hook of the piece is the whispery vocals, chanting something like, ch-ch-ch, ha-ha-ha.
05:32It might sound like abstract noises to unease the viewer, but this motif has a specific
05:37meaning.
05:38During the climax of the first film, as a maniac Pamela Voorhees chases after final
05:41girl Alice, she talks to herself with the persona of her lost son.
05:46Putting on an eerie, infantile voice, she urges, kill her, mummy, kill her, to motivate
05:50herself into a vengeful fury.
05:53The score's vocals are the voice of Manfrandini, chanting in a low, breathy tone, kill, kill,
05:57kill, mum, mum, mum, echoing Mrs. Voorhees' unsettling self-talk.
06:02As Pamela is killed and her son takes over for the sequels, the motif remains, arguably
06:06becoming more associated with Jason than it ever was with his mother.
06:10In this way, its meaning has become slightly muddled, but it's now impossible to separate
06:14Jason from this legendary horror score.
06:175.
06:18He's Always Been an Immortal Zombie
06:21One of the biggest mysteries in Friday the 13th is just what Jason Voorhees is, exactly.
06:26The first movie is pretty grounded, with no supernatural elements.
06:30Until after Mrs. Voorhees has been vanquished and all seems peaceful, the rotted corpse
06:34of the young Jason leaps out of the lake, pulling Alice out of her canoe and into the
06:37depths below.
06:38It's a brilliant cliffhanger that should have been built upon in the next film, but
06:42the sequel instead opts to introduce an eyebrow-raising retcon, in that he didn't drown, he made
06:47it to shore, and lived alone in the woods, before being then brought out of hiding to
06:50avenge his mother's beheading, which he supposedly witnessed.
06:54Not only does this make minimal sense, it also blunts the impact of that final jump
06:58scare, and it makes Mrs. Voorhees' motivation kind of moot.
07:01It's a tough pill to swallow, but one you've got to accept for the sake of adult Jason
07:05taking center stage.
07:06For the next three movies, he was less of an undead monster that couldn't be killed,
07:09and more of an unstoppable brute that was just really, really hard to kill.
07:13His death in the final chapter was supposed to be definitive, but in the sixth film, he
07:18is accidentally reanimated with a bolt of lightning, Frankenstein-style.
07:21From that point on, he was officially an immortal zombie.
07:254.
07:26His Powers Have Never Really Been Explained
07:28Jason's timeline is kind of messy.
07:31He drowned as a child, except he didn't, lived in the woods for years before seeing
07:34his mum's head being lopped off, somehow developed superhuman strength, stature, and
07:38durability, which he used to continue her string of violent anti-counselor fervor, then
07:43he was killed and accidentally reanimated years later by the very man who killed him.
07:47Needless to say, there are some gaps in logic here, which director Adam Marcus attempted
07:51to bridge in 1993 with Jason Goes to Hell, The Final Friday.
07:55This movie begins with Jason being blown to pieces by a small army during a sting operation,
08:00but as ever, this doesn't keep him down for very long.
08:03His physical form completely destroyed, he appears in his spirit form, a parasitic, demonic
08:07worm that hops between bodies, turning each host into an embodiment of Jason.
08:12The Final Friday presents this body-hopping creature as Jason's true essence, what's
08:16kept him alive and strong all of these years, no matter how much damage he takes.
08:20The film gets little love from the fanbase, with many feeling the explanation of Jason's
08:24powers was unnecessary and misguided.
08:26Fans were also disappointed by the very little screen time that classic Jason got.
08:30Perhaps gaps in the canon are preferable to bizarre retcons and explanations.
08:343.
08:35He's Afraid of Water
08:38He wasn't a very good swimmer, Miss Voorhees tells her terror-stricken Alice, as she explains
08:42the tragedy that caused her to begin her vendetta.
08:45Since Jason's drowning, but not drowning, his mastery over the waves seems to have improved
08:50greatly.
08:51He can be seen in Part 4 attacking from underneath a dinghy, so it's safe to say he's willing
08:55to submerge himself in Crystal Lake, despite his near-death experience, and move about
08:59underwater with ease.
09:00In Friday the 13th, The Game, players can take Jason into the waters, where he can dart
09:04around at rapid speeds and catch swimmers like the shark from Jaws.
09:07He's practically an aquatic mammal.
09:09A major change was made in Freddy vs. Jason, in which Freddy Krueger torments Jason with…
09:14water?
09:15At the sight of water, Jason will now crumble into a mess, reduced to that bullied boy desperately
09:19slashing about in Crystal Lake, trying to stay afloat.
09:22This could have made sense that Jason had developed a fear of water due to his childhood
09:25trauma, had it been established in previous films.
09:28The problem is, is that it hadn't.
09:30It seems to have been introduced by the screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift as a way for
09:34the Springwood Slasher to have an edge on his opponent, as if they weren't evenly
09:37matched already.
09:392.
09:40He Kills Indiscriminately
09:42How could an undead serial killer with a triple-figure body count possibly have anything close to
09:47a moral code?
09:48Well, it's not that exactly, but Jason is pickier than you might expect when it comes
09:52to slicing and dicing.
09:54Camp counselors were the reason for his drowning and the death of his mother, so he has a rather
09:58vilified view of them.
09:59Despite his best efforts, people keep applying for that same bloody position at Camp Crystal
10:03Lake.
10:04Perhaps the biggest mystery in the franchise is why people keep showing up there.
10:07There have been occasions that Jason has killed people regardless of their relation to the
10:11camp management, but that usually comes down to his territorial animal instincts.
10:15The film that best showcased Jason's boundaries is Part VIII, Jason Takes Manhattan, in which
10:20he chooses to scare off a group of kids by showing them his gruesome face, rather than
10:24killing them.
10:25In another scene, he inadvertently saves the main character, Rennie, by killing two criminals
10:29that are assaulting her.
10:30There was also a scene in the script that would have had Jason kick a dog, but the actor
10:33Kane Hodder refused to shoot it because he felt that it wasn't in character.
10:38Jason is definitely a monster, but he doesn't torment innocents with the same wicked glee
10:42as somebody like Freddy Krueger does.
10:441. He Has No Personality
10:48Just because he hides his face and never talks, it doesn't mean that Jason Voorhees is a
10:52one-dimensional character.
10:54Audiences can feel for him as a tormented soul who lost his innocence after years of
10:57bullying and trauma, while also fearing his unstoppable brutality.
11:01The boundaries of those he chooses to kill and those he spares raises questions about
11:05his humanity, and his Oedipus Complex makes him ripe for psychological analysis.
11:10His hidden face means that he can be played by different actors between films, and Jason
11:13has been played by a total of eight actors, all of whom have a slightly different take
11:17on him.
11:18From the scruffy, stumbling baghead Jason to Kane Hodder's heaving, towering menace,
11:22the character provides a valuable opportunity for actors to express their range, by exploring
11:26how they feel a character like this might think and act.
11:30It takes genuine talent to craft an expressive performance while wearing that mask.
11:34If Jason Voorhees was a boring character with no personality, then he wouldn't have become
11:37the icon of horror that he is today.
11:39His fanbase is huge, and he resonates throughout pop culture.
11:43At every comic con, you'll see at least one Jason cosplay, and his mask has been printed
11:47onto t-shirts around the world.
11:49He may not be quotable like Freddy, but he is just as compelling.
11:53And there we go, my friends, those were 10 things that everybody always gets wrong about
11:57Jason Voorhees.
11:58I hope you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the
12:00comments section below.
12:01As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJWithA0, or you
12:05can swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming outside of work, and
12:09it'd be great to see you over there.
12:10But before I go, I just want to say one thing.
12:12Hope you're treating yourself well with love and respect, my friend, because you deserve
12:16all of the best things in life, alright?
12:17I am like a serial killer of positivity, I am coming into your lives, and I am making
12:21you realise that you are a massive ledge, and do not let anything or anyone else tell
12:25you otherwise, alright?
12:26Now, go out there and absolutely smash your life goals today, I believe in you.
12:31As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak
12:34to you soon.
12:35Bye.