Jason Voorhees is amongst the most iconic slashers of all time. If there’s a Mount Rushmore of great slasher villains someday (and I certainly hope there will be), he will unquestionably be on it. Throughout the history of the Friday the 13th franchise, he’s taken on many different forms, more than just about any very popular, recurring slasher in cinema history.
See also: Celebrate FRIDAY THE 13TH Across The Year With Regal’s Screening Series
Freddy Krueger has changed slightly but, for the most part, Freddy has always looked like Freddy. Michael Myers, similarly, has had moments of varying quality in masks but he largely looks like Michael at the end of the day. That’s not to say that Jason isn’t instantly recognizable but the evolution of one Mr. Jason Voorhees from his minor role in 1980’s Friday the 13th through later entries like Jason X is pretty fascinating and varied.
Today, in honor of this most fitting day on the calendar, we’re going to look at Jason's evolution in the Friday the 13th franchise. Run to Regal tonight and watch Friday the 13th on Friday the 13th at a Regal theater near you. Now, sharpen those machetes and gather round the campfire as we run it down.
Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s loving and twisted mother, was the killer in the original Friday the 13th, taking revenge on neglectful camp counselors on behalf of her beloved son. We don’t see much of Jason in this one but we do see him just a bit as a boy, particularly at the end when he memorably leaps out of the lake, as seen above. Things would change rapidly from there.
When the movie became an unexpected hit, Paramount Pictures naturally made a sequel. That sequel emerged in 1981 in the form of Friday the 13th Part 2. This is where Jason became the killer for the first time, growing up quite a bit between installments. Also of note, for more casual viewers, this version of Jason might be downright unrecognizable, as he doesn’t have his signature hokey mask or any of his more well-known clothes. This is “baghead” Jason who looks more redneck-y in nature, for lack of a better way to describe it.
In 1982, the franchise once again returned (as it would annually for the duration of the ‘80s) because Paramount couldn’t say no to free money. Time and time again, it seemed like Jason was killed only to return once more. Friday the 13th Part III represents a key moment though as this is when Jason Voorhees truly becomes the Jason Voorhees that, more or less, springs to mind first when he’s referenced in popular culture or remembered in the minds of fans, generally speaking.
Roughly midway through Jason’s killing spree in the third movie, our killer finally gets his signature hockey mask, which he takes off of one of his victims. Once he puts it on and once he’s out of those overalls, this is when he becomes instantly recognizable. It’s remarkable, in retrospect, that it happened this far into the third movie in the franchise. It would be like if Freddy didn’t have his sweater, hat and claws until midway through Dream Warriors.
This is more or less the look that Jason had for a while. He maintained a very similar look in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. Paramount tried to move on from Jason in 1985’s Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning, but they quickly realized that wasn’t going to work long term. So, he was brought back in 1986’s much-beloved Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.
For as much as Jason Lives reinvents the wheel in many ways, going full horror/comedy in delightful fashion, it does keep Jason’s look intact for the most part. That said, he was reanimated by lightning and buried under ground for a couple of years, so his look did evolve into something more sinister and, well, gross. This is very possibly the moment where Jason Voorhees became undead, though that’s subject for debate.
This more soggy, eroded by time and (being undead) seemingly unkillable look was maintained through the next couple of movies for the most part, including Part VII: The New Blood and Part VIII: Jason Goes to Manhattan. However, this period represents a key change because Kane Hodder took over in the role of Jason Voorhees, which is when he got huge. There was Jason before Hodder and Jason after Hodder, at which point he became downright hulking.
That hulking figure endured after a several year break when the franchise returned with Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday in 1993. This movie offered Jason a very distinctive looks, with more morphed skin and tattered clothes. We also get more of Jason with his mask off and time has been rather unkind to what’s been going on under that hockey mask all these years. A horrifying, hideous creature, to be certain.
Again, the franchise took several years off but returned with a new idea in 2002. The idea was to send Jason to space in Jason X, which featured Hodder under the mask for the final time as he wouldn’t reprise the role in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason. Jason X offers up a couple of new looks for Jason. One is a riff on what we’d seen in Hodder’s era, but the most important is the so-called Uber Jason that we see in the movie’s third act, with a metal mask and futuristic, space-age look to suit the sci-fi nature of the slasher.
Come time for Freddy vs. Jason when Ken Kirzinger donned the mask, Jason went back to a more classic look, one that sort of remixed many of the elements we’d seen from over the years, offering up something more familiar for both longtime and casual fans.
Similarly, the 2009 Friday the 13th remake, which was the last time Jason graced the silver screen, we get a fairly “classic” Jason, but also a huge, physically imposing one thanks to Derek Mears. But because the movie kind of serves as a greatest hits mixtape of sorts, we get a little bit of Jason with the bag on his head earlier on before he gets his hockey mask later on in the movie.
Most recently, Jason returned in the official short Sweet Revenge, which offered a redesign of Jason’s look, though it does mirror the classic version of the character that we’ve come to know and love over the years.
As for the future? A new movie is in early development, not to mention A24's upcoming prequel series Crystal Lake. Details remain scarce on the movie front. But there will, at some point, but yet another new chapter in the continued evolution of Jason Voorhees on screen though, that much is certain.
