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| Author: |  Chris Gaskey |
| Feature Title: | The Goalie Gone Wrong: Jason Voorhees |
| Date: |
Saturday May 01 2004 |
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 | Jason Voorhees was prematurely born to Pamela and Elias Voorhees on Friday, June 13th, 1946. From birth, Jason filled all who encountered him with a certain unease that caused them to never want to be around him - everyone except for his mother. Elias was not happy with the prospect of raising a retarded child, so he left Pamela and had another child, Diana Kimble, by a different woman. Pamela always protected Jason from his inevitable unacceptance by society. Pamela thought it would be good for Jason to get out into the open and experience nature, so during the summer of 1957 she volunteered as a cook for Camp Crystal Lake. But it wouldn't be a happy ending for Pamela |
because Jason "drowned" in the lake under no supervision from any of the camp counselors. Even though it was reported that Jason had indeed drowned, his body was never recovered from the lake. In 1958, two counselors were found murdered in a nearby barn, and from 1959-1962 attempts to reopen the Camp were met with such obstacles as arson and poisoned water. It wasn't until 1979 that these events were solved, but more on that in a bit.
Unbeknownst to Pamela, Jason had made it out of the lake after some time under the water, which caused him to become even more deformed than he already was (due to decomposition and waterlogging). Jason was afraid to go search for his mother, so he bided his time in the woods living off of small woodland creatures, awaiting his mother's return. Thus begins the original Friday the 13th, which took place on Friday, June 13th, 1979. Pamela systematically murdered her way through every counselor of the newly reopened Camp before being beheaded by one of the counselors (Alice). Jason watched all of this, and missing his chance to get to Alice he carried his mother's head back to his shack in the woods, creating a shrine to the only person that ever showed him compassion. Lucky for Jason, Alice returned to Crystal Lake two months later. Unlucky for Alice, Jason followed her home one night and shoved an ice pick through her temple, gaining revenge for the decapitation of his mother.
Jason was sated. That is, until "they" decided to come back to the Camp. The same people who hurt him and his mother. The rage built, and he had to let it out. So starts Friday the 13th Part 2. Although this group of counselor trainees are settled in a different camp on Crystal Lake, "water's water" so to speak. Jason, armed with a knapsack on his head and whatever weapon is conveniently within his reach, makes his way through many of the members of the group - but in a weird twist for a slasher movie, a lot of the counselors escape doom by staying in town partying all night. Anyway, the obligatory female survivor enters into a "final" showdown with Mrs. Voorhees' baby boy in his wooded shack, apparently taking him out with his own weapon of choice (the machete).
All of this takes us right into Part 3 (originally billed as Friday the 13th Part 3D - guess why): Jason shambles away from his shack searching for more fodder. He finds it down the road at a secluded cabin, where a partying group of friends (are there any other kind?) converge to help the traumatized Chris cope with being back in the big bad woods. Why is Chris traumatized, you ask? Because she survived an attack from our wonderful Mr. Voorhees! Now, of course, Jason couldn't have that could he? He systematically takes out the bad seeds, along the way picking up his trademark hockey mask. Of course, only Chris is left to take him on, and despite the odds she makes it virginal teen 2, psycho slasher killer zilch! Proof positive that even Rocky Balboa is allowed lose every once in a while.
And as is usually the case with Balboa, Voorhees makes a comeback with what was supposed to be the concluding entry in the Friday series: The Final Chapter. Once again taking place where the previous left off, Jason is carried off by the coroner to undergo autopsy. Naturally, the tables are soon literally turned and Jason journeys back to the lake. We're then introduced to the requisite group of teen fodder (one of whom is played by cult favorite Crispin Glover in an early performance), as well as the only recurring character in the series not related to the Voorhees': Tommy Jarvis. And he's recurring because, guess why: he defeats Jason once-and-for all! And yet, this is The Final Chapter, right? How could Tommy be a persistent character if this is his first appearance? Well because, silly, it wasn't the final chapter after all!
The title of A New Beginning, as with the previous Friday film, misleads the viewer: it's not a "new beginning" for Voorhees at all, as the killer isn't even he. Consequently, Part 5 is the black sheep of the series a la Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and deserves no more discussion here. Well, to save you the heartache of letting your curiosity get the best of you, the killer is Roy the ambulance driver. Meh.
But what better way for the Friday series to bounce back than with the next, glorious installment, Jason Lives! Not only does it mark the third appearance of Tommy Jarvis (this time played by one of my minor cult horror heroes Thom Mathews) and has shock-rock God Alice Cooper on the soundtrack, but it also serves as the beginning of the "zombified" Jason - finally dead after Part 4, Jason is resurrected via lightning strike after Tommy goes apeshit on his corpse with a metal fence spike. Jason quickly gets back down to business and heads to the renamed Camp Forest Green while Tommy is locked up in the county jail for causing a disturbance while trying to report Jason's rising. In the end, Tommy forces J-bird into a final showdown at the Lake, resulting in Jason being hung around the neck by a chain attached to a rock resting on the bottom.
The New Blood, sporting quite a redundant and obvious title, tells the story of Ms. Tina Shepard and her struggle with her telekinetic powers. It also just so happens that she becomes only the fifth person in the series not named Voorhees to earn themselves a kill when she wastes her father with said powers (the others being the original's Alice, part 4's Tommy, and part 5's Vic and Roy). Years later, she returns to the camp with her mother and "psychiatrist" Dr. Crews to work on getting over the trauma of killing her father, of course meeting the locals who summarily shun her. In a fit of rage, guess whom she uses her powers to resurrect? Anyway, Jason goes about his merry trade while Tina begins to discover that Crews is out to exploit her powers and not help her. Again she takes off angry, which leads to yet another "final" showdown with Jay-Jay, and which leads to him being put back into the bottom of the lake, which is where we all know he'll stay until the next sequel...
And here's the next sequel! As if it wasn't bad enough that dumbass kids won't stay away from Crystal Lake, along come two more that wake Jason right back up (this time with an underwater power cable). After giving them their just desserts, Jason books passage on the Lazarus, which is carrying (you guessed it) a bunch of teenagers on a graduation cruise to New York City - "ducks on the pond", so to speak. As if this wasn't over-the-top enough, one of the passengers is having constant "visions" of Jason drowning as a kid - what a co-winky-dink... Anyway, after a particularly entertaining death involving an electrical switchboard, the boat catches fire and sinks; this ends up killing most of the people Jason hadn't ran through yet, though a few make it out alive. Diving into the clich?, once the survivors make it ashore they are accosted by two thugs. In this case, turnabout is fair play as Jason dispatches them to the netherworld rather soon afterward. I've already wasted enough time on this one, aside from A New Beginning the most throwaway of the Friday movies. Let's just say that the female (and this time the male) makes it out alive, and Jason is vanquished once and for all yet again...
I had you going there for a minute, didn't I? As you would expect by now, Jason Takes Manhattan was not the end of the series. Jason Goes to Hell was supposed to be, even donning the subtitle of "The Final Friday". But we all know how that goes...
After a short holiday in the Big Apple, Jason makes his way back to home-sweet-Crystal Lake. But this time, and may I just iterate FINALLY, the FBI has set up a sting operation which leads to the complete annihilation of Mr. Voorhees (in other words, they blow him into dog food). Instead of further eradicating the remains of Jason, the dumbasses take his collective carcass to Youngstown, Ohio for an autopsy. In the tradition of absurdity borne from the previous two sequels, the coroner devours Jason's heart, becomes possessed, and begins to make his way home. We're then introduced to Jason's half-sister Diana and the bounty hunter who claims that Jason is still alive. Bounty Hunter Duke tries to enlist Diana's help, claiming that she knows who she "really is". We're then fed the bologna that Jason can only be reborn through a blood relative's body, and that Diana, her daughter Jessica, and Jessica's daughter Stephanie are the only ones left. To get to the point, Jessica's former lover and Stephanie's father Steven shows up, Diana's killed, Steven's blamed, Jason possesses everyone trying to make his way to Jessica or Stephanie, Duke lures everyone to the Voorhees' house, Jason possesses the conveniently at hand corpse of Diana and gets back down to business, and Jessica finally takes out Jason, Jason being dragged down to Hell by a bunch of damned souls. After all of the previously asinine plot, we're treated to perhaps the best denouement in the series: the unmistakable right-claw of one Mr. Fred Charles Krueger emerges from the bowels of Hell to retrieve Jason's left-behind face protection.
This led everyone to believe that Jason and Freddy would soon be engaging in the showdown that had been rumored to take place since New Line Cinema picked up the rights to the series from Paramount Pictures. Eight years later it seemed that the fans would finally get their wish, "seemed" being the key word. Instead, fans got another solo Jason romp. Since I've already spent so much time discussing the previous eight sequels, I'll just direct you to my review of the ninth: Jason X (Friday the 13th Part 10 for the Romance Language disinclined).
This whole piece has covered the entire history of Jason Voorhees. Born: 1946, Died: 1957 - 1984 - 1988 - 1993 - 1994 - 2455. For those new to the Movie Compound scene, this piece is almost nine months late, as it was set to coincide with the theatrical release of Freddy vs. Jason (which has long since been released on DVD and video). To get at least part of the effect that I was originally aiming for, read my Freddy Krueger article, read this one again, then go out and pick up the super slasher showdown. I can't do EVERYTHING for you... |
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