I’ll start this off by saying that I enjoy the "Friday the 13th" movie series and would consider it one of the most consistent in cinematic history (not that the standard is exactly as high as Coppola had when following "The Godfather" up or anything). They’re fun movies that pass by quickly and are underrated for their diversity (a movie where Jason fights a psychic girl, a Horror Comedy in the vein of "An American Werewolf in London," a movie where Jason body-hops from character to character that’s pretty awful). I’m not taking up any issues with the franchise itself, but the character of Jason Voorhees. I understand why the setting of Camp Crystal Lake, the classic score and the blood and boobies connect with audiences. What confounds me is the avid fanbase surrounding the character of Jason himself. Jason and I are alright. I like watching him kill camp counselors well enough, but over the years, I've never found him to be worthy of the genre's A-List. He was always a cool guy in a crowd of super cool guys, the kinda dude I'd friendzone and bang all his friends.
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Let’s be real, Jason is little more than a clone of Michael Meyers. If you ask me, and I know this is subjective, but Meyers is much creepier. The idea of a child growing up pure evil and the psychology behind the character makes a more compelling villain (to me) than a boy who was drowned in a lake living out his revenge once every (few) year(s). He’s a silent stalker that takes kids out efficiently, and not much more. He doesn’t have personality like Freddy Krueger or Angela Baker. I do think that he develops more of a character behind the mask as the films go on, particularly when Kane Hodder was the one wearing it. What he lacks in the brain, he makes up for in brawn. He’s a hulking beast, practically an animal (and later on, a zombie). Although it’s established in "Freddy Vs. Jason" that he is afraid of the water, he had no problem with it in the past. (I actually think this element is clever). Another major element to Jason is that he has some pretty serious mommy issues. In the first film, as everyone now knows, it was Pamela Voorhees, and not her son offing Kevin Bacon & Friends. It was a subversion of the twist in "Psycho," and (once again, in my opinion) one of the most clever endings in the slasher genre. Hearing her talk in her son’s voice (again, with the "Psycho" parallels) is effective, and even though it might sound goofy to imagine a woman like (__________) sneaking around a camp, killing kids in the physical prime, she sells the danger of it. When you get rid of her and make Jason the antagonist, it might be a logical evolution, but it transitions from a slant on "Psycho" to just being kind of the love child of Norman Bates and Michael Meyers.
What’s more is that there are much more original villains in the Horror genre. Let’s look at The Tall Man, from the "Phantasm"series (which recently released its final installment). The character, played by the late Angus Scrimm, is an interdimensional alien that robs graves to transform into dwarfish slaves. Farfetched, (it does work much better in the film itself than any synopsis can allow) but I’d give it points for originality. The Cenobites from "Hellraiser" are S&M demons who confuse pleasure with pain. Wishmaster is an ancient djinn captured in an ancient amulet...or something. Anyways, he grants people's wishes and like "The Monkey's Paw," there's some gory irony that he kills people with. (So, basically, he kills people using puns.) They are summoned by solving a puzzle box and shoot hooks out of literally nowhere to pull people apart (kind of making puzzle pieces out of the human body, in an odd parallel I’ve never thought of before...but it’s a stretch). Jason’s nemesis, Freddy Krueger’s, backstory is actually not that far off from his, although there’s one big twist that separates him. He was a child murderer who was lynched by parents and seeks out revenge on the teenage kids of those who put an end to him. The twist is that Freddy infiltrates their dreams in order to do so.
I’m not saying that these characters don’t have fanbases, especially Freddy’s, which is arguably as large as Jason’s, but they don’t seem to be as common or as avid as those who love him. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the hockey mask he wears from Part 3 on, or a combination of the character and the elements he’s put in discussed at the opening of this article. Maybe it’s because most viewers are casual Horror fans and he’s just the most casual of them all, representing (and maybe eclipsing) a collage of those who came before him. Whatever it is, I don’t think I’ll ever get it.
