Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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establishing an idea of the relationship between the two, Jason Goes to Hell not only
does less of this, but in some ways creates an account of events that have not
previously been shown in the series.
The film begins with an establishing shot of Crystal Lake at night, and then
cuts to a woman driving a convertible through the forest, past a sign noting that
Crystal Lake is four miles away. The sequence involving the woman at the cabin,
Jason’s chase of her and the attack by the FBI has been discussed in Chapter 3, and
throughout, there is no indication of back story or context, aside from the apparent
fact that Jason has been sought and tracked by the FBI. It is not until the shots
interspersed throughout the opening credits showing parts of the autopsy, that his
name, “Jason Voorhees” is spoken into a tape recorder for the coroner’s report.
After the coroner eats Jason’s heart and becomes possessed, killing his assistant and
the armed guards, there is a cut to a television show called “American Case File”.
This is the first time that any background on Jason is given. The voice over by
Robert, the show’s presenter, reveals that Jason is a known serial killer. Robert
reports, “For over twenty years, the mere mention of the name Jason Voorhees has
been enough to send a shudder of fear through the hearts of an entire nation. Born in
1946 to Elias and Pamela Voorhees, Jason was believed to have drowned in Camp
Crystal Lake at the tender age of eleven. Sadly, he did not. Since then he has been
responsible for eighty-three confirmed murders and speculated scores of others.”
After this, Robert interviews Creighton Duke who is introduced as a bounty hunter
and tells of Jason’s ability to move in and out of other people’s bodies. This manner
of establishing Jason is the culmination of an increased presentation of him as a folk
hero, or folk monster, throughout the series.