When it comes to horror icons, it is safe to say that Jason Voorhees is one of the most famous of all time. This hockey mask-wielding killer has been scaring audiences for four decades. He has been the star of 12 horror movies and has become a pop culture icon. From his iconic hockey mask and machete to his tower frame, Jason Voorhees is a character audiences can't quite get enough of.
Update October 13, 2023: It's Friday the 13th in October, so what better time to look back at 13 facts you didn't know about Jason Voorhees.
While it is now common knowledge that Jason Voorhees isn't the killer in the original Friday the 13th, at least, and he didn't get his iconic hockey mask until Part III. A ton of actors have played the machete-wielding killing machine, but Kane Hodder has done it most, donning the mask in four different movies and Friday the 13th: The Game. Now, let's take a deeper dive toward the bottom of Crystal Lake with this iconic killer, shall we? Here are 13 things you probably never knew about Jason Voorhees.
13 Jason Was Almost Named Josh.
In the pantheon of movie killers, he's achieved a status like Bono, Madonna, Sting, or Tupac. Like his onscreen nemesis Freddy, the killer of the Friday the 13th franchise has a first name that is so identifiable with the character that it often isn't even necessary to use his last name in conversation. Think about it: Freddy! Jason! Now, imagine if Jason Voorhees had been named... Josh. Josh Voorhees. Screenwriter Victor Miller recognized this initial name for the bad idea that it was and chose to name Mr. Voorhees after a kid who'd bullied him at school.
12 The Original Title was A Long Night at Camp Blood.
The version of the script with the name "Josh" had yet to be titled Friday the 13th. Victor Miller's script was called A Long Night at Camp Blood. But director Sean S. Cunningham floated the title Friday the 13th. Worried that someone else might own the copyright on Friday the 13th, hr rushed out an advertisement in Variety with a logo to see if anyone would sue for copyright infringement. Nobody did, and the film was retitled Friday the 13th. They, at that point, had to commit to it, as not only did it have a logo but a slogan: "the most terrifying film ever made!"
11 Friday the 13th Losses Some Of Its Meaning In Later Films
It's evident just a few minutes into movies like Jason Lives and Jason X that Mr. Voorhees is the star of the show. Horror audiences aren't so much rooting for the generally unlikable victims to survive as they are looking for increasingly thrilling and inventive kills. It's a very specific type of cinematic escapism, to be sure. But originally, Friday the 13th was intended to be an anthology series. Each movie would have taken place, presumably, on Friday the 13th.
Not only did Jason become the series star after his terrifying reemergence at the end of the first film, but the date in the title became something of a moot point. The first two movies take place on Friday the 13th, but Part III takes place the following day, Saturday the 14th (not to be confused with the 1981 horror comedy.) Part IV takes place on Sunday and Monday. After that, it seems like the series' producers mostly abandoned the device. We did ultimately get a Friday the 13th anthology series on television. Unlike the anthology series Freddy's Nightmares, which featured Freddy as host and occasional star, 1987's Friday the 13th: The Series was Jason-free.
10 Jason Speaks.
Wait, Jason speaks? OK, he actually did talk. Once. In Jason Goes to Hell, the otherwise silent killer did speak. As much as we wish he'd said something cool like "Puny Human," his line was just, "Freeze! Get the hell away from her, Ed!" In Jason Goes to Hell, a mortician eats Jason's heart, which allows Jason to possess his body. After that, Jason jumps from host to host, taking the form of a slug and crawling into people's mouths.
Toward the end of the movie, the girl with the magic dagger that can kill Jason once and for all is trying to figure out which of these two cops is possessed by Jason. And Jason fools her. By speaking. In the DVD commentary, the film's writer and director both admit they knew they were breaking a pretty serious Jason rule.
9 What Happened to the First Jason?
Before he was a slug, before he went to hell, and before he went to Manhattan, Jason was a tragic little kid, thought to be dead until he came splashing up for the first movie's final kill. Horror convention fans have had plenty of chances to meet Kane Hodder, but super fans know there's always a chance to meet Ari Lehman, the child actor who played Jason in the 1980 original. Apparently, the most important question at the audition was: "Can you swim?" Anyway, the first Jason is actually the frontman for a horror-themed punk/metal band, and that band is called... First Jason.
8 They Tried To Tie Freddy Into Jason's Backstory
Freddy vs Jason was in development for over a decade, and there were many attempts to get the film off the ground. Numerous writers and directors were attached to the project. During the development process, many tried to tie the two characters together in some way. Some possibilities that were considered to make Freddy Krueger the father of Jason Voorhees, as he would have either sexually assaulted or had consensual sex with Pamela Voorhees.
Another idea that was floated was that Freddy was a counselor at Camp Crystal Lake and that he either was part of his drowning as a child murderer or sexually assaulted, as the original idea for Freddy Krueger in 1984 was a child predator. The filmmakers wisely scrapped both these ideas as they were seen as far too dark for what they wanted to be a fun team-up movie, and also would have complicated both character's backstories.
Audiences came close to meeting Jason's father, Elias Voorhees in the series' sixth installment. This scene would have fixed a continuity error created by A New Beginning, where it was said that Jason was cremated. In this proposed retcon, audiences would learn that Jason's body was secretly buried under the direction of his father, Elias Voorhees, who would have been seen in the cemetery standing over Jason and Pamela's graves.
7 Jason's Mom Was Almost in Jaxon X.
Speaking of Pamela, she nearly returned in Jason X. In perhaps the movie's best scene, the futuristic astronauts who are terrorized by Jason in what's essentially "Jason Goes to Space" are given a brief reprieve when a holographic simulation distracts Jason. In the finished film, there are just the two teenagers Jason smashes together in zipped-up sleeping bags. But originally, producers approached Betsy Palmer about reprising her role as Jason's mom for the virtual reality scene. Screenwriter Todd Farmer revealed that Palmer's salary demand was too high for the production. Sadly, Betsy Palmer passed away in 2015.
6 The truth behind 'Kill, kill, kill, mom, mom, mom.'
There's no denying that link between Voorhees mother and son, however. "Chi, chi, chi; ha, ha, ha?" Composer Harry Manfredini revealed that the famous refrain is actually, "Ki, ki, ki; ma, ma, ma," or "kill, kill, kill; mom, mom, mom," which is meant to represent the voice of Jason in his mother's head as she embarks on her rampage.
5 Plans For Freddy vs. Jason Sequels
Freddy vs. Jason was going to be a big hit, so plans for a sequel were already being put in place before the movie came out. One of the original endings for the film would have seen the two killers come face to face with Pinhead from the Hellraiser series, but New Line Pictures did not want to acquire the rights.
Then, it was decided to develop the sequel and connect it to the Evil Dead franchise. Titled Freddy vs. Jason. vs. Ash, the movie would have continued the story from the 2003 film and brought in Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams. The story treatment was written by Jeff Katz, but the project was eventually rejected due to disagreements between New Line Cinema and Evil Dead creatives Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell.
The story would eventually be adapted into a comic series of the same name that was released between 2007 and 2008. A third and final chapter in this trilogy was then released in 2009, titled Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors, which brought back many survivors from the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th films.
4 Jason Might Be a Deadite
One of the biggest questions, as eloquently posed by comedic actor Jason Mantzoukas in the Jason X episode of the brilliant How Did This Get Made podcast: "What is Jason?" The sequel to Freddy vs. Jason may have come close to answering this. In what began as a treatment for a movie but became a comic instead, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash could offer some grander explanation for Jason's various resurrections and superpowers by bringing him into the Evil Dead universe. It's even been suggested that the Voorhees family is descended from some powerful warlocks. Maybe the Necronomicon plays a role. Ok, we'll admit it, we still can't really answer the big question: "What is Jason?" But it has recently come to light that he may, in fact, be a Deadite.
3 Warner Bros. Traded Jason For Christopher Nolan
In what sounds like a studio version of Pokemon cards, Warner Bros. actually gave the rights to Jason to Paramount Pictures to get distribution rights on Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. The original Friday the 13th rights were split in the 1980s as Paramount Pictures had the domestic rights while Warner Bros. distributed the films internationally.
When the rights reverted back to Sean S. Cunningham, he took them to New Line Cinema (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.) in the 1990s in an attempt to get Freddy vs. Jason made. While that was in development, they made two films in the form of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday and Jason X. When it came time for the 2009 reboot, Paramount Pictures had certain rights to the original film and had to be brought in as 50/50 partners with New Line Cinema.
Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan had become a big director for Warner Bros. following hits like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Inception. When he signed on for Paramount Pictures Interstellar, stepping in for director Steven Speilberg, Warner Bros. wanted a piece of what they saw as another potential Inception-level blockbuster and to maintain their working relationship with Nolan. Warner Bros. gave up its rights to co-finance the next Friday the 13th movie to Paramount, as well as its stake in future South Park television shows and movies, to get onboard Interstellar. Yet Paramount had a five-year window to develop a Friday the 13th movie and never did.
2 The 2009 Reboot Almost Got a Sequel That Had Many Release Dates
A movie getting many different release dates is nothing new. Avatar: The Way of Water and The Flash are two notable recent examples of films that had many release dates over their development process. Yet those films did actually happen. Friday the 13th: Part 13 never happened despite being dated so many times.
The film was planned as a sequel to the 2009 reboot. That film had a massive opening weekend, propelled by opening on Friday the 13th in February 2009. While it dropped like a stone quickly, it still grossed $9
David Brucker (The Night House) was brought on to direct a found footage sequel that Paramount was keen on making, and the film was slated for release on May 13, 2016. Then, the movie was delayed to January 13, 2017 (a date Paramount Pictures would later give to its family film Monster Trucks), and Brucker left the project. Then, it was retooled into an origin for Jason, similar to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Breck Eisner (The Crazies) entered talks to direct, and the film was then moved to October 13, 2017.
On February 6, 2017, almost six years to the date the 2009 film opened in theaters, Paramount canceled the movie and gave the prime October Friday the 13th release date to Mother!. By that point, the rights were then reverted back to Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line.
1 Rights Issues May Now Separate Jason From Friday the 13th
It has been over 14 years since Jason Voorhees was last seen on screen in 2009's Friday the 13th. Why has it been so long since the hockey mask-wielding killer graced the screens? Well, it is not for lack of trying, as even NBA superstar LeBron James wanted to make a Jason movie. No, the real issue is the rights issues surrounding Friday the 13th.
Original Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller sued Sean S. Cunningham over the film rights to Friday the 13th. Miller claimed it was an original idea that Cunningham bought, while Cunningham claimed it was a work-for-hire script. Miller was awarded the copyright on Friday the 13th, but there are some caveats. Miller owns the original screenplay of Friday the 13th and the elements introduced in it, like Crystal Lake, Pamela Voorhees, and the title. Yet he does not own the adult Jason character or the iconic hockey mask. Miller's claim also only maintains the domestic rights to the franchise.
Now that means there are multiple Friday the 13th entries in development. Currently, Miller is working with Bryan Fuller on a prequel series for Peacock centered around Pamela Voorhees. The series will be titled Crystal Lake and will be produced by A24. Meanwhile, a new Friday the 13th reboot film is in development by Sean Cunningham that is not related to the upcoming Crystal Lake series. He is also considering a Friday the 13th legacy sequel. Yet, due to the complicated rights issues, these projects might be a long way from happening.
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