Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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shard of broken mirror above his head, and in a single take, plunges it from the top
right of the frame to the bottom left and then below the frame. There is a slashing
sound to indicate the penetration, followed by a louder scream from Tamara. The
image cuts after the slashing sound to coincide with her final scream to a shot of the
boat’s horn, sounding, blending in with her scream and drowning out the score. The
shot lasts four seconds, making Jason the primary focal point of the death sequence
without tying the visual element directly to Tamara. Through this, the perspective of
that moment is ambiguously placed between Jason’s and an omniscient positioning.
Following this is the death of Mr. Carlson, the first mate on the ship. In a single
shot, the camera is positioned outside the bridge, looking into the front windows.
The rain and thunder are the only things heard on the score. The camera pushes in
slowly, keeping Mr. Carlson in the right of the frame. Jason comes up the stairs on
the left of the frame, the score playing the hushed “Ch-ch” theme indicating his
presence. He then uses a harpoon to stab Mr. Carlson in the back, an event obscured
by a structural separation between two of the windows as well as the rain dripping
down the glass, and accompanied by a crunching sound, as a sustained orchestral
sting coincides with the death. The rain and thunder still dominate the soundtrack,
and the viewer is consistently separated from the event by the windows. This is
designed to create a distancing effect from the event, providing another instance of
omniscient perspective.
Despite its extensive use of unverified diegetic sound and editing for death
sequences, Jason Goes to Hell largely recycles the structural elements of sequences
from the previous films in the franchise. One exception is the death of Officer Ryan,
which adapts the technique used in the death of Mr. Carlson. At the left of the
frame, Sheriff Landis is talking on the telephone in close up. It is shot in deep focus,