For nearly fifty years now, Jason Voorhees has been a name that has struck fear into the hearts of audiences. And yet, he is a character whose childhood death is actually the inciting incident for all of the murderous events that follow in the entire Friday the 13th franchise. This, of course, raises a central question: how exactly is Jason Voorhees alive?
Over the years the franchise has given various answers to this question, some of which have been more well-received than others. With the prequel series Crystal Lake releasing soon, it’s no real wonder that fans are speculating ravenously about what the series may or may not reveal about Jason’s origins. But let’s wind the clocks back and look at how Jason’s undead status has been explained over the years throughout the original Friday the 13th films.
In the original Friday the 13th, Jason is canonically dead. The killer is infamously his mother, Pamela Voorhees, who is exacting her revenge on any and all individuals who dare to tread the grounds of Camp Crystal Lake after some counselors (allegedly) neglected her son to (allegedly) mess around, resulting in his (alleged) drowning. Simple enough, right? Well, yes, right up until the end of the film when a little zombie boy version of Jason jumps out of the water for a final jump scare. This is subsequently played off as a bad dream, but it planted the seed (sort of) for what was to come.
By the time Friday the 13th Part II rolled around, it had been decided that Jason was actually really alive, and yes, that dream sequence was at least partially correct. The only real change was that Jason wasn’t a little zombie boy; he was a full-grown redneck man who had been living in a shack in the woods and now worshipped at the altar of his mother’s head, which the final girl of the first film had swiftly removed from her body. Jason begins killing camp counselors to exact revenge for the (alleged) death of his mother but is implied to very much be a real, alive guy.
This continues for the next several films, with Part III and Final Chapter (which is the fourth and nowhere-near-final film) each picking up precisely where the previous film leaves off. Jason takes some massive blows in these films and is even taken to a morgue in the opening of Final Chapter, but none of his survival is played as magical in any way. He is still just a big dude, who happens to be alive. That is, until the end of Final Chapter, when his head gets caved right in by a machete-wielding little Corey Feldman.
The next film, New Beginning, sidesteps the issue by focusing on a Jason copycat. Which left it to the aptly titled sixth film, Jason Lives, to be the first sequel to really have to answer the question of how Jason could come back to life, and boy does it ever. Jason Lives literally opens with Jason’s grave being desecrated and his corpse being struck by lightning, Frankenstein-style. This revives him and turns him into essentially a super-powered zombie killing machine.
The franchise figured this explanation was as good as any for a while (correct) and rolled with it until the eighth installment, Jason Takes Manhattan, which sees the character being disintegrated by raw sewage. The next film, Jason Goes to Hell, inexplicably opens with Jason alive and his body intact once more but then quickly sets about having him be blown to bits by a firing squad. The rest of the film is devoted to explaining how Jason is a demon worm that can be passed from person to person and can only really be killed by a special MacGuffin dagger wielded by a blood relative. It’s all kind of insane and was subsequently dropped from any following films.
Both Jason X and Freddy vs. Jason just kind of roll with the assumption that audiences get the gist. Jason X features the character in space and getting a mecha upgrade but leaves it undetermined as to how he’s alive again after the events of the prior films. Similarly, Freddy vs. Jason posits that he’s still just the zombie killer from Jason Lives, who goes into rest mode on the camp grounds until being summoned back to life by the presence of horny camp counselors or a nefarious Springwood slasher. The 2009 remake is decidedly non-committal, mostly pitching Jason as just a guy again but also dabbling a bit in the super-slasher abilities of the latter sequels.
So at the end of the day, what is Jason’s deal? It very much depends. Various films have pitched various potential answers over the years, and some have stuck around much longer than others.
My personal favorite has always been the Jason Lives classic monster movie response; it’s simple, effective, and tons of fun. The question remains as to how Crystal Lake will handle all of this. My personal hope is that it simply doesn’t, and instead just focuses on Jason and Pamela as characters, rather than getting bogged down in any kind of deep lore-related reasons for him to be the way he is. Time will tell.
Add us as a preferred source on Google