Maybe, it’s just because you never forget your first penetration. I’m, of course, talking about slasher flick villains and why Voorhees is my favorite. I was twelve, on vacation at a beach house that had HBO—in the days when there was only one—and Friday the 13th Part III (the episode that gives birth to the iconic hockey mask) was on and my twelve year old eyes couldn’t believe a pupil had just popped like bull’s eye when Jason offed some chick in the lake with his harpoon gun’s dart crashing right into the socket. I knew I had to see more, and since it was 1992 I had seven more movies ready for me.
Throughout my teens, I dabbled in all the other slasher flick franchises, but Friday the 13th always appealed to me the most. Why? Simply because Friday the 13th was all about the killing and Voorhees was a blue collar worker that got the job done. He didn’t wax philosophical or have witty dialogue to spice up each death like colleagues Pinhead and Krueger. He didn’t have hobbies like Leather Face and he wasn’t gender confused like Angela or Bates. And while a small uneducated bunch might say Myers was interchangeable with the same edge, Voorhees had a slightly more rustic charm. Jason was the working man’s slasher—a guy us middle class stiffs could relate to…
The series itself has a had a rollercoaster of inconsistencies with risks and just plain dumb choices. Yes, Jason fights a telekinetic girl in part seven. Sure, he turns into a worm that switches bodies in Jason Goes to Hell, and yeah, the franchise commits the major my-slasher-flick-jumped-the-shark-sin and shipped him off to space for Jason X. However, Voorhees has taken on Manhattan, Hell, Freddy, and even got owned by Corey Feldman, but somehow still dusted off the mask and emerged on top. The series contains twelve movies, three slashers, almost 200 victims and it’s hard to believe the heads will stop piling up.
As Matt covered, rumors of his demise are being whispered behind the trees of Camp Crystal Lake, but I’d rather doubt that. Even Superman and Sherlock Holmes met their deaths but the reaper was never able to fight the public’s need for more. This was true in 1893, 1992, and will remain so in 2010. However, if they do send my boy over Reichenbach Falls then they better give him an end worth of the name Jason Voorhees.
Regardless, Happy Birthday, man. Slash on.
#1 by Wings (Caffeinated Joe) on November 14th, 2009
I have always been especially fond of Mr. Voorhees, as well.
“Halloween” is my all-time favorite movie, but the “Friday the 13th” series is my favorite, er… series of movies.
Michael is dark, evil personified. Jason is more like anger and/or hate personified.
And yeah, I am not too worried about the rumors of his demise. Been down that road before.
#2 by Chris on November 14th, 2009
Your Michael Verse Jason break down is awesome I couldn’t put it into 4 words so well