Welcome, everyone, to Horrorfest 2020, our annual event where I, Red Lanyard, tell you about terrific (and sometimes absurd) horror movies during the month of October to help you prepare for Halloween, the most wonderful time of the year. This year for Horrorfest, I’m structuring my pieces around various icons of horror–the people, either real or fictional, who have made our beloved genre the delightful niche and multi-million dollar industry that it is today. This first week, I’ll be highlighting some of the fictional antagonists who have carried the horror genre on their backs, briefly discussing what they’ve contributed to our macabre hobby and a recommendation for you to watch. Enjoy!
Jason and Pamela Voorhees (Friday the 13th)
This was a weird one for me to decide on, but you really can’t talk about the icon Jason without talking about the titan whose shoulders he stood on, his mother Pamela. In 1980, audiences got treated to Friday the 13th, a delightful slasher in which Pamela Voorhees kills camp counselors and the new local camp owner as a way of avenging her son Jason’s neglectful death several years prior. Pamela’s identity as the killer was a bit of a twist, and the movie ended perfectly to set up future sequels in which Jason could take over as his own justice distributor. And boy howdy, did they do sequels. Friday the 13th currently has the most installments of any horror franchise, though this is a contentious claim depending on your inclusion of the Puppet Master series and how many of those in-universe installments you consider legitimate (this qualifier is mostly for admin WiseSage).
While Jason has had some of the more absurd horror movies over time, he does have a strong albeit misunderstood legacy. From having the most horror movies (despite only briefly appearing in the original) to his iconic hockey mask now synonymous with slasher films (despite not wearing the mask until the third installment), Jason has staying power. His appearance in several video games attests to this, as does his numerous references in music and TV. Though he was not the first antagonist whose killings were interpreted to be a symbolic way of punishing teenage sex and debauchery (good ole Michael beats him by a couple years), he definitely did the most to legitimize the now-classic movie extrapolation.
Jason and his mother are important because they, in many ways, represent the broad spectrum of horror films. You want a classic slasher movie filled with creative 80s deaths? Jump into the first 1-3 movies! You want an absurd shlock-fest with more laughs than frights? Try on Jason X, Manhattan, or Goes to Hell for size. Which is why I’m not suggesting a single Friday the 13th film. Instead, do this. Grab your nearest 12-sided dice (call your Dungeons and Dragons friends if you don’t have one) and roll it. Whatever number it lands on, that’s your Jason film for the night! This can be done for almost a full two weeks of October, so get ready to enjoy a smorgasbord of horror from one the genre’s giants.
