Jason Voorhees is the silent, hockey-masked killer of the Friday the 13th franchise, and for many fans he is the definitive slasher horror villain. The twist is that he was never supposed to be the star. In the 1980 original he is a drowned boy whose death drives someone else to kill, and only later did he become the unstoppable figure stalking Camp Crystal Lake with a machete. More than four decades on, Jason is still one of horror’s most recognizable silhouettes.
At a glance
| Franchise | Friday the 13th |
| First appearance | Friday the 13th (1980), as a boy; first appears as the main killer in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) |
| Creators | Victor Miller (writer), with contributions from director-producer Sean S. Cunningham, Ron Kurz and makeup artist Tom Savini |
| Portrayed by | Ari Lehman (young Jason, 1980) Warrington Gillette and Steve Dash (Steve Daskewisz) (Part 2, 1981) Richard Brooker (Part III, 1982) Ted White (The Final Chapter, 1984) Tom Morga (A New Beginning, 1985) C.J. Graham (Jason Lives, 1986) Kane Hodder (The New Blood, 1988; Jason Takes Manhattan, 1989; Jason Goes to Hell, 1993; Jason X, 2001) Ken Kirzinger (Freddy vs. Jason, 2003) Derek Mears (Friday the 13th, 2009) Schuyler White (short film Sweet Revenge, 2025) |
| Weapon of choice | Machete (signature); the films also show him using almost anything within reach |
Origin story and backstory
As the original story goes, young Jason drowned in Crystal Lake in 1957 while the camp counselors who should have been watching him were busy elsewhere. His mother, Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), never recovered. When Camp Crystal Lake tried to reopen years later, she began killing the new counselors. That is the famous reveal of the 1980 film: the killer is not Jason but his mother. Final girl Alice Hardy (Adrienne King) kills Mrs. Voorhees, and the boy’s body lunges out of the lake in one last shock that may or may not be a dream.
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) changed the rules. Jason, it turned out, had survived his drowning and grown up as a hermit in the woods, and he had seen his mother die. Wearing a sack over his head, he took up her revenge. From Part III (1982) onward he wore the hockey mask that made him famous.
From backwoods killer to supernatural force
After Tommy Jarvis killed him in The Final Chapter (1984), the series brought Jason back as something more than human. In Jason Lives (1986), a bolt of lightning resurrects his corpse, and from then on he is effectively an undead, regenerating killer. Later entries pushed the mythology further, with a body-hopping demonic heart in Jason Goes to Hell (1993) and a trip to the year 2455 in Jason X. The 2009 remake went back to basics, showing a living, cunning Jason who sees his mother killed and stays in the woods to protect his territory.
Writer Victor Miller has long pushed back against the direction the sequels took. He said of his original script: “Jason was dead from the very beginning; he was a victim, not a villain.”
Iconic moments
- The lake scare (1980): Tom Savini argued for the final jolt of Jason bursting out of the water. It has been imitated in countless horror endings since.
- The sack-head Jason (1981): Before the mask, Part 2 gave us a hooded Jason and a shack in the woods with a grim shrine to his mother.
- The mask arrives (1982): Part III was shot in 3D, and it is the film where Jason takes a hockey mask from a victim and puts it on for the first time.
- Tommy Jarvis (1984): In The Final Chapter, young Tommy (Corey Feldman) shaves his head to look like the boy Jason once was, which buys him the moment he needs.
- Resurrection by lightning (1986): Jason Lives brings him back Frankenstein-style and adds a knowing, darkly comic tone, plus Alice Cooper songs on the soundtrack.
- Jason vs. telekinesis (1988): The New Blood pits him against Tina Shepard, a young woman with psychic powers, in one of the series’ most physical showdowns.
- Crossovers and far-out sequels: Jason rides a ship to New York in Jason Takes Manhattan, ends up in space in Jason X, and fights Freddy Krueger in Freddy vs. Jason.
Appearances
Films in release order
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
- Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
- Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), where Jason appears only in dreams and hallucinations and the killer is a copycat
- Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
- Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
- Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
- Jason X (2001; U.S. theatrical release 2002)
- Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
- Friday the 13th (2009 remake)
TV, crossovers, remakes and what’s next
TV and beyond: Friday the 13th: The Series (1987–1990) shared the name but had no connection to Jason. The headline crossover is Freddy vs. Jason (2003), and the 2009 film rebooted the series. In 2025 the official “Jason Universe” released Sweet Revenge, a 13-minute short film directed by Mike P. Nelson.
Upcoming: Crystal Lake is an eight-episode prequel series from A24 and creator Brad Caleb Kane, starring Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees. All episodes premiere on Peacock on October 15, 2026. Announced (in development): rights holder Horror Inc. has confirmed that a new feature, the 13th film in the series, is in active development. No title, director, cast or date has been announced.
Trivia and behind-the-scenes facts
- Victor Miller built the name from his two sons, Josh and Ian. “Voorhees” came from a girl he knew in high school, a name he thought sounded creepy.
- Miller originally wrote Jason as a normal-looking boy. The deformed look was Tom Savini’s addition.
- The famous hockey mask was a happy accident. During a lighting test on Part III, 3D effects supervisor Martin Jay Sadoff, a hockey fan, pulled a Detroit Red Wings goalie mask out of his gear bag. The crew enlarged it, punched new holes and added the red triangle markings.
- Richard Brooker, a former trapeze artist from Britain, was the first actor to wear the mask.
- On Part 2, Warrington Gillette received the screen credit for Jason, but stuntman Steve Dash performed most of the masked scenes.
- Kane Hodder played Jason in four consecutive films, more than any other actor. He also played Freddy’s gloved hand in the final shot of Jason Goes to Hell.
- For Freddy vs. Jason, director Ronny Yu cast Ken Kirzinger partly because, at 6 ft 5 in, he would tower over Robert Englund. Kirzinger had already doubled for Hodder in two scenes of Jason Takes Manhattan.
- Composer Harry Manfredini has explained that the series’ whispered “ki ki ki, ma ma ma” motif comes from Mrs. Voorhees’ line “Kill her, Mommy.”
- Miller later used U.S. copyright termination law to reclaim the rights to his original 1980 screenplay, with attorney Marc Toberoff, the same lawyer who later helped the Wes Craven estate with A Nightmare on Elm Street.