Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is the main character of the Friday the 13th film series. He is a psychopathic serial killer who kills people for the fun of it. As of the third movie he wears a hockey goalie mask to hide his face and has a machete as his main weapon to commit his crimes. He first appeared in Friday the 13th (1980) as the young son of a country cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Pamela Voorhees, in which he was played by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions from Ron Kurz, Sean S. Cunningham, and Tom Savini, he was not originally intended to be the main antagonist. The character has subsequently been depicted in various other media, including novels, video games, comic books, and a crossover film with another iconic horror movie character, Freddy Krueger.
The character has been primarily an antagonist in the movies, either harassing and killing the other characters, or acting as a psychological threat to the protagonist, as is the case in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. Since Lehman's portrayal, the character has been portrayed by numerous 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, having portrayed the character four times.
The character's physical appearance has undergone many transformations, with various special makeup effects artists leaving their mark on the character's design, including makeup artist Stan Winston. Tom Savini's initial design has been the basis for many of the subsequent incarnations. The hockey goalie mask didn't appear until Friday the 13th Part III. Since Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, the filmmakers have given Jason superhuman strength, regenerative powers, and near-invulnerability. He has been seen as a character whose motivation to kill has been his own rage and revenge for being bullied and drowning as a child. Jason Voorhees has been featured in various comedy magazines, referenced in feature films, parodied on television series, and was the inspiration for a horror punk band. Several lines of toys have been released based on various versions of the character from the Friday the 13th movies. Jason Voorhees' hockey mask is a widely recognized image in popular culture.
History
Jason is the son of Elias and Pamela Voorhees. At the age of eleven, he went to the Crystal Lake camp supposedly located in the state of New Jersey, USA (given the references in movies such as: "Friday the 13th Part Eight: Jason Takes Manhattan"), in the one where his mother worked as a cook.
He was a bullied child who was constantly abused by other children, made fun of for his mental disabilities due to his hydrocephalus, and physically and mentally hurt (as seen in Freddy vs. Jason). The abuse in the camp was such that Jason's companions chased him to the lake, where he fell and since he did not know how to swim, he drowned.
The caretaker couple at Camp Crystal Lake were inattentive as they were having sex (which is why, years later, Jason would more often than not kill those in that situation, he loved to kill sexual partners in full coitus). Pamela Voorhees, his mother, took revenge, thus beginning the Crystal Lake massacre, later known as "the bloody camp." In the first film Jason does not appear but his mother, she is the protagonist turned serial killer in revenge for the death of her son. At the end of this first film, her mother is murdered by the sole survivor of a machete blow that cuts off her head. Jason returns from the depths of the forest to continue his revenge, as it turns out that he did not die as a child but was able to get out of the water and fled into the forest to never get out (as mentioned in Friday the 13th part 2), and also, he was witness the death of his most loved one, his mother. He never knew his father (Elías Voorhees), who was shot three times by Pamela Voorhees [when? ] .
Movies
Friday the 13th
Several attempts were made to reopen Camp Crystal Lake, starting with the violent and cruel murder of two camp counselors of which the culprit was never found (since Pamela Voorhees knew how to act without leaving a trace). Meanwhile, strange things happened that indicated a curse for the inhabitants of Crystal Lake, the water was poisoned and the field burned. It all turned out to be the work of Pamela Voorhes. Despite everything, in 1979 Steve Christy decided once and for all to reopen the camp.
A massacre inside the camp was unleashed. Each of the youngsters was cruelly murdered at the hands of Pamela Voorhees, until the last survivor, a girl named Alice (Adrienne King), finds Pamela, who tells her the whole story behind her personal vendetta, then becomes enraged and tries to kill her. to kill her Finally, Alice emerges free and victorious from the confrontation by cutting off Pamela's head with a machete in her own defense, a fact that marks the birth of Jason Voorhees's psychosis. Later, when she escapes from Crystal Lake in a boat, Jason climbs out of the lake to kill her, but it turns out to be a dream and she wakes up in the hospital with the Sheriff next to her who says she was found in a boat. in the middle of the lake asleep.
Friday the 13th Part II
Five years later (1985), Crystal Lake citizen Paul Holt (John Furey) decides not to listen to warnings, and opens a new boot camp for young men looking for summer jobs as counselors. At this point the rumor is already big that Jason has been seen alive in the surroundings and that he has attacked people to survive. Again, a strange attacker covering his face with a pillowcase enters the camp and kills the students one by one, without mercy or consideration, until he comes face to face with another survivor, Ginny (Amy Steel). She, fleeing from Jason (Warrington Gillette), manages to reach the cabin where he lives, and deceives the attacker by posing as her mother by putting on her clothes. The murderer is now identified as the supposedly drowned Jason Voorhees, whom Ginny attacks with a machete to the shoulder, after killing Jason, she returns to the camp where inside a cabin she prepares to get out of there, but is attacked by Jason, who enters by breaking the window and now without a mask, thus revealing himself to have an eye deformity, wears long hair and a beard. Something particular about the movie is that for most of it, Jason carries a "T" with which one would expect him to kill his victims, however despite this, he always uses another weapon to do so (except with the sheriff who enters his cabin). Another peculiarity is the introduction of the film with Alice, (the survivor of the previous installment) who is having a nightmare remembering scenes of her when she was in front of Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer). Later, while she was suspicious of someone's presence, she is startled by a cat that jumps into the kitchen from the window. Calming down a bit, she opens the fridge and finds a head of her, shortly after she appears Jason behind her to kill her.
Friday the 13th Part III
Jason Voorhees continues his revenge for the death of his mother Pamela Voorhees. An idyllic summer is going to turn into the worst nightmare for another group of carefree young people. Ignoring the blood legacy of Camp Crystal Lake, Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell) and a group of friends decide to go to a nearby ranch in the outskirts of the place, with the aim of spending a weekend. By then, the Police continue to search for Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) and, according to the only surviving victim of his latest massacre, it is believed that the killer still haunts the woods of the town. Teenagers and a motorcycle gang are falling victim to the maniacal Jason, who stalks them at all times. But, there is finally news about his whereabouts when his body is found after confronting Chris. By then, the killer is wearing a hockey goalie mask, which he got to cover his hideous face by removing it from prankster Shelly (Larry Zerner), another victim of his. In the end Chris, in what seems to be a hallucination, sees Jason again, but this time without a mask, at the end of that hallucination, apparently the corpse of Pamela Voorhees comes out of the lake and sinks her to the bottom of the lake, to end up being this a dream because at the end of the film it is seen that she is taken by some nurses surrounded by police, patrol cars and ambulances, apparently to a psychiatric hospital.
Friday the 13th Part IV: The Last Chapter
After the end of the third film, Jason Voorhees is taken to the morgue along with all the victims he killed in the third film to a nearby hospital to be identified and buried. However, he frees himself and after killing the morgue attendants he goes to the forest in Crystal Lake, to continue taking revenge for the death of his mother. There, after murdering young vacationers in the most cruel way possible, Jason attacks Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) and his sister (Kimberly Beck) where he is finally killed and torn to pieces by Tommy.
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Disturbed and institutionalized Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) confronts Roy Burns, who, using the legend of Jason, disguises himself as the killer to exact revenge on a patient at the same boarding school who murdered his son. In the end, Tommy kills Pam (Melanie Kinnaman), another survivor of the massacre caused by Roy and is sent to an asylum, although it is debated if this really happened or was a hallucination.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Seven years later (1992) Tommy (Thom Mathews) is released from the asylum, and decides once and for all to end those memories of Jason, trying to cremate his body in the grave. An unfortunate case, because by burying a metal rod in Jason's body, he is struck by lightning that brings the multi-homicidal psychopath back to life. Jason again returns to Crystal Lake (renamed Forest Green), and begins to murder all the inhabitants of the new camp established there. With the help of a young woman named Megan (Jennifer Cooke), Tommy Jarvis manages to defeat Jason by attaching a stone to his neck with a chain and plunging him into the lake. Then he disappears.
However, Jason survives despite having his face torn apart by a motorboat, suggesting that Jason had finally been defeated. As a curious detail we can mention the intro of the tape, very much based on the "gunbarrel" of all the James Bond movies (sequence where Bond appears walking and suddenly shoots, filling the screen with blood). In this case Jason appears launching a cut with his machete.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Tina Shepard (Lar Park-Lincoln) is a girl who has carried a special gift all her life: she is able to kill and revive things with her mind. This strange telekinetic power has plunged her into a deep depression, due to her guilt over the accidental death of her father, which occurred years ago in Crystal Lake. Alan Crews (Terry Kiser), her psychologist, and Amanda Shepard (Susan Blu), her mother, decide to return with her to the scene of the accident to face her old fears. There, Tina mistakenly frees the zombified Jason Voorhees, who was attached to a stone around his neck with a chain at the bottom of the lake, and with his powers brings him back to life. Once again, Crystal Lake will be threatened by the masked assassin who, without any remorse, will return again and again to dispatch the unsuspecting campers of the place, until Tina later confronts Jason, reviving her father as a last resort, after which he uses a chain to plunge Jason Voorhees back into Crystal Lake.
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Led by strict professor Charles McCulloch (Peter Richman), a group of high school seniors travel aboard the luxury cruise ship SS Lazarus headed for New York. Young Rennie Wickham (Jensen Daggett), McCulloch's niece and one of her students, experiences several visions in which she is attacked by a disfigured young boy. Soon, the visions become reality: homicidal maniac Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) has been mistakenly revived from his watery grave with electricity, managing to embark along with the hapless students. This is how he will leave a trail of victims on the ship until he reaches his destination, where he will chase the boys through the streets and nooks and crannies of Manhattan. Rennie and her boyfriend Sean Robertson (Scott Reeves), along with some of the survivors of the cruise, will flee from the murderer Jason until they reach the sewers of Manhattan. When they reach the sewers and try to escape, Jason is swept away by all the water that was released at midnight (contaminated with toxic waste) ending Jason, at least for a while. Interestingly, when Jason is hit by the water, his skin peels off like a snake's; however, after this, Jason's skin is as good as new.
Friday the 13th Part IX: Jason Goes to Hell
The FBI find Jason after setting him up and shoot him to death. Craighton Duke (Steven Williams), a bounty hunter, claims that Jason is still alive, and that he can only be killed by other Voorhees. Jason then passes from one body to another and continues the endless slaughter of him. He is finally bested by his niece (Kari Keegan) and apparently Jason's series of murders ends once and for all, adding that at the end there is a scene where the hand of Freddy Krueger himself sticks out.
Jason X
After the US Army finally captures Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) in 2010 and doesn't know what to do with him, it's decided to put him on ice. But Jason manages to free himself and after being trapped with Dr. Rowan (Lexa Doig) in the cold room, the two are frozen.
Four centuries later, both bodies are found on what used to be Earth, by a group of students traveling in their spaceship, which comes from Earth II. Both are unfrozen and Rowan warns them of the danger (he's an unstoppable killing machine!) , but is not listened to. Until he is confronted by an android (Lisa Ryder), Jason being presumably defeated.
But nothing could be further from the truth, a failure in the ship's system causes Jason to be regenerated, turning him into Uber Jason, and he is ready to do his own thing again. In the end, Uber Jason falls to the planet of the protagonists, more exactly in a lake.
In this part, Jason's original idea is completely changed, because by taking the form of an android, the film tends to be an adventure instead of a horror film like the previous ones (it is more reminiscent of the Alien saga than a conventional slasher). He changes the usual machete for some kind of futuristic machete and his body turns metallic.
Freddy vs. Jason
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It is believed that during the time Jason (Ken Kirzinger) was on the loose after the events of 'Jason Goes to Hell', he was revived and used as an item by another legendary assassin: Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), who uses it to revive his name in Springwood, and feeds on the fear that Jason causes in the inhabitants to return to his own. When Jason gets out of control, Freddy understands that Jason is taking credit for him and confronts him. Freddy is brought back to reality and after a long battle, Jason emerges from the lake along with Freddy's head in his right hand. An instant later, Freddy winks at the onlookers with a smile, perhaps saying that he hasn't finished their fight.
Friday the 13th
The plot begins when the only surviving girl from the massacre of Mrs. Voorhees manages to decapitate her and little Jason is seen listening to the voice of his mother who tells him kill, punish them for what what they did to us. Nearly 30 years later a group of young campers (looking to be shot through the head) are seen being lifted up and showing their breasts except for one girl (Amanda Righetti) who looks similar to Jason's mother (Derek Mears). Confused, the he locks himself in the basement of his cabin thinking that he is the personification of his mother.
Clay (Jared Padalecki), the brother of this missing girl, decides to go to the forest of the legendary Crystal Lake to look for her. What he doesn't know is that in the shadows is the visceral and bloodthirsty killer Jason Voorhees. Jason (at first covered in a pillowcase, but later replaced by a hockey mask stolen from one of his victims he kills) won't let his "mother" go. Just like that. A bloody slaughter will begin in which all the friends of the girl who helps Clay will fall, except him and his sister, who manage to hang Jason from a chain, and Clay's sister Whitney, using her resemblance to Jason's mother, plunges his machete close to the heart. When they throw the corpse into the lake and already hug each other, Jason comes out of the water and attacks them, thus ending the film.
Jason in the comics
Jason has starred in several comics (made by Topps Comics), some of them Crossovers like Jason vs Freddy, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash or Jason vs. Leatherface.
Jason in video games
In 1989, the company LJN Toys launched the Friday the 13th video game for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) console.
On March 10, 2015, Jason was revealed as a character in the video game Mortal Kombat X.
In the last game released the beta in 2016 and in 2017 the final Friday the 13th: The Game, Jason is the protagonist of the game based on the series of movies, where it will be about escaping from Jason or being the same and killing everyone.