Whilst there have been countless discussions on the merits of the slasher’s ‘final girls,’ the victims themselves are often overlooked. The Friday the 13th series, more than any other, has boasted a cream of undiscovered talent that would later go on to enjoy varied degrees of success in Hollywood. Kevin Bacon, Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover would all gain acclaim for their subsequent roles, with their contributions to the Friday the 13th franchise often dismissed by interviewers and biographers. One actress whose association with the series was minimal but would later launch her Hollywood career was Kelly Hu, known to fans for her role as the shy class nerd Eva Watanabe in 1989′s Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Hu was born on February 13th 1968 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents were Herbert and Juanita Hu and Kelly Hu was of Chinese, English and Hawaiian descent. Her passion for performing began at a very young age, taking an interest in singing from the age of two and later making her stage debut at her pre-school’s Christmas pageant.

Hu was taught ballet at dance school, whilst also simultaneously being shown kung fu by her older brother. When Herbert and Juanita divorced, Hu was sent to live with her grandparents in Kahului, Maui, before returning to live with her mother two years later in Honolulu. Throughout high school Hu had taken a keen interest in drama and was able to travel to Indiana to attend the International Thespian Conference, whilst also visiting Hollywood and Broadway, which further fuelled her appetite for performing and, specifically, acting. Having been approached by a modelling agent, Hu was advised to enter a beauty pageant and, in 1985 at the age of sixteen, she was crowned Miss Teen USA. By this point, Hu had relocated to Los Angeles in an effort to pursue a professional acting career and landed her first major role in the popular soap opera Growing Pains. This lead to regular television appearances in such shows as Night Court and 21 Jump Street, the latter being an episode entitled The Dragon and the Angel which would co-star Steven Williams, later a fellow victim of Jason Voorhees with his turn in 1993′s Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.

Following several TV shows, Hu was cast in Paramount’s Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, although her time on set would be restricted to Vancouver as her character would die before production reached New York. Whilst hardly launching her career, her involvement in Jason Takes Manhattan lead to further supporting roles in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and No Way Back, the latter starring a pre-fame Russell Crowe. Hu began to build up an impressive résumé on the small screen with Sunset Beach, co-starring Mexican actress Laura Harring, who had also taken part in Miss USA 1985. Another significant role came when Hu was casy by CBS as Grace Pei Pei Chen for two seasons of the action crime show Marshall Law, in which she would co-star alongside talk show host Arsenio Hall (who, ironically, had interviewed actor Kane Hodder in full Jason Voorhees make-up back in 1989 for his show in publicity for the release of Jason Takes Manhattan).

After over a decade of struggling, Hu’s big Hollywood break came in 2024 with a lead role in the hit movie The Scorpion King, Chuck Russell’s spinoff of The Mummy Returns that featured former wrestler The Rock reprising the title role. Following the action flick Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li, Hu gave a memorable turn as the sexy-yet-ruthless Lady Deathstrike in Bryan Singer’s highly anticipated sequel X-Men 2, which many critics would cite as being far superior to its predecessor (Rolling Stone would label Hu’s appearance as ‘dazzling’). For her performance, Hu would be nominated for Best Fight at the MTV Movie Awards for her sequence with star Hugh Jackman (in the lead role of Wolverine), although they would lose to Uma Thurman and Chiaki Kuriyama for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Hu later returned to the world of television for recurring roles in CSI: NY, In Case of Emergency and Seth Green’s surreal animated pop culture satire Robot Chicken. More recently, Hu has appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man, The Vampire Diaries and the computer game spinoff of Terminator Salvation.

Director: Rob Hedden
Writer: Rob Hedden
Starring: Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves, Barbara Bingham, Peter Mark Richman, Martin Cummins, V.C. Dupree, Kane Hodder
Producer: Randolph Cheveldave
Music: Fred Mollin
Special Makeup Effects: Martin Becker

By the end of the 1980s the slasher film had all but run its course. Whilst franchises such as Halloween, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Sleepaway Camp and A Nightmare on Elm Street had struggled to keep the interest of their fans, other lesser efforts like Offerings, Intruder and The Horror Show (aka House III) had failed to reignite the cycle. The horror genre itself was losing popularity; no longer was sleaze and gore a box office draw, instead cinemagoers were spending money on psychological thrillers like Fatal Attraction, The Stepfather and, a couple of years later, The Silence of the Lambs. It had been almost a decade since Jason Voorhees had first entered popular culture and for several years Friday the 13th dominated the genre, but recycled ideas, overzealous censors and poor box office returns would cause the slasher’s most beloved franchise to run aground.

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood had done little to prove to Paramount that the series was still a success and soon the studio began to give serious thought to killing off Jason once and for all. They had tried this once before with 1984′s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter but, at that time, the franchise was still making money. But now, five years later, the generation that had flocked to see the first movie had grown up and the kids of 1989 had little interest in horror clichés and such a one-dimensional character. Even as The New Blood earned a modest amount at the box office (although far less than its predecessors), the producers began to discuss potential ideas for the next sequel, with both director John Carl Buechler and actress Lar Park Lincoln pitching concepts that would carry on the story of Part VII‘s disturbed heroine, Tina. Eventually it was decided that the series had run its course and the eighth movie would be the last.

In late 1987, Friday the 13th: The Series made its debut on American television and, despite its suggestive title, had no relation to the movie franchise. The show would, however, feature contributions from several directors who had already carved a name for themselves within the horror genre: these would include slasher veterans Tom McLoughlin (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives) and Armand Mastroianni (He Knows You’re Alone). One director who would get his big break through the show would be Rob Hedden, a young enthusiast who had previously worked as a writer for Paramount on MacGyver and had been offered the chance to pen an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series. On the condition that he could also direct, Hedden was eventually brought onto the show and was given the opportunity to helm two episodes, The Electrocutioner and 13 O’Clock, which would appear in the first and second season, respectively. Whilst filming the latter, Hedden was visited by Frank Mancuso Sr., the head of Paramount whose son, Frank Mancuso Jr., had nurtured the Friday the 13th movies since the first sequel and was looking for a filmmaker to both write and direct the eighth installment.

Although Hedden had worked on the TV show he had little knowledge of the movie franchise and so immediately watched the previous seven films to familiarise himself with the formula and mythology. Soon after he found himself in Mancuso Jr.’s office pitching his concept and it became apparent that the producers were concerned that New Line’s A Nightmare on Elm Street had begun to steal their thunder (1988′s A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master had grossed over $49m, whilst The New Blood had managed just $19m) and would demand something a little different from their new director. Hedden decided to introduce a new supernatural element to the story, in which Jason would appear to the heroine like a ghost, whilst also moving the action from Crystal Lake to New York City. Mancuso Jr. immediately sensed the potential of Jason embarking on a killing spree around the Big Apple and Hedden began to suggest possible locations: Madison Square Gardens, Broadway, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge and even the Statue of Liberty. But before long Paramount grew concerned that the concept could inflate the budget and decided to cut back on many of Hedden’s ideas.

Initially, New York was to be introduced at the end of the first act, but Hedden was then instructed to base the first half of his script on a cruise ship, and finally – when the overall budget was calculated at $4m – he was told he would only get one week to shoot in New York. To save cost, the producers decided that Vancouver in British Columbia would make an ideal substitute and so Mancuso Jr. contacted Randolph Cheveldave, whom he had worked with a few years earlier on the slasher comedy April Fool’s Day. Cheveldave had worked for Mancuso Jr. as a production manager and the two had become friends and, with Mancuso Jr. tied up with the thriller Internal Affairs, he offered Cheveldave the chance to produce Friday the 13th Part VIII. Hedden, who at that time was relatively inexperienced and unable to debate with a major studio, was forced to deal with the changes suggested by the producers and rewrote his script accordingly. The final draft saw a graduating high school class embarking on a cruise onboard the SS Lazarus from Crystal Lake to New York but are picked off one-by-one by Jason, before a handful of survivors escape into the city.

Although the previous four Friday the 13th movies had featured the obligatory blonde heroine, Hedden was determined to cast against type for the role of his ‘final girl,’ Rennie. Amongst the young hopefuls to read for the part were Dedee Pfeiffer (The Horror Show), whose older sister, Michelle, had enjoyed minor success with Grease 2, Scarface and Tequila Sunrise, and Elizabeth Berkley, whose subsequent career would include the hit show Saved by the Bell and the notorious flop Showgirls. Jensen Daggett, who would eventually win the role, had come from an acting background and had pursued theatre in high school, before relocating to Hollywood at the age of eighteen. For her audition, Daggett was required to perform a ‘scream test’ in order to prove that she could deliver the goods during the film’s more tense moments. Hedden would be pressured by the studio to have his lead strip for the movie but Daggett refused and, unable to even convince her to appear topless in a scene, eventually stopped asking.

At this point, no actor had wanted to or had been given the chance to play the character of Jason more than once. Jason Lives‘ C.J. Graham had initially been considered to return for The New Blood but the director, Buechler, had insisted on casting actor/stuntman Kane Hodder, whom he had previously worked with on the flick Prison. Hedden was offered the chance to recast the role and the producers had considered a Canadian stuntman for budgetary reasons, but Hedden had been impressed by Hodder’s turn as Jason and fought to have him return to the role. The supporting cast would be primarily made up of fresh young talent who would enjoy various degrees of success in their subsequent careers: these would include Kelly Hu (The Scorpion King), Martin Cummins (Dark Angel), Scott Reeves (The Young and the Restless) and Gordon Currie (Beverly Hills, 90210). Scott Reeves, who would play the male lead, had not been the first choice for the role of the heroic Sean but had been brought in early in the shoot after the actor originally cast was replaced.

Just prior to principal photography, the boat that the production were to use for the majority of the shoot was taken away due to scheduling conflicts and the producers were forced to find a replacement as soon as possible. Filming took place early in 1989 in Britannia, a small town thirty kilometers north of Vancouver for approximately seven weeks, before relocating to New York City for one week. Daggett was not the only actress that the studio wanted to feature naked in the movie, something that they felt their core audience demanded. Sharlene Martin, who would play the obligatory bitch Tamara, is killed by Jason whilst showering and the producers were eager for some T&A. Martin, far removed from her obnoxious character, was uncomfortable about peeling off her clothes but Hedden, who wanted his cast to be at ease during the shoot, stripped off and stepped into the shower to show her how easy it was. Unknown to Hedden, director of photography Bryan England had left the camera rolling and when the producers saw the next set of diallies they were shocked to see their director standing naked.

To recreate New York in Vancouver, Hedden and his crew worked overtime by transforming abandoned tunnels under the city into a subway, laying down tracks and building a fake subway car. For the climax, in which the sewers are flushed out with toxic waste, the production moved to the gymnasium of an old school, in which they constructed large tanks that held 5,000 gallons of water that could be released easily. There was one sequence that could not be shot in Vancouver: Rennie and Sean trying to escape from Jason by running through Times Square. But when Hodder stepped out into the street he was greeted by thousands of die hard fans who were shocked to see their hero loose in New York. Mancuso Jr. had allocated the production a further $25,000 to film for seven days in New York and the hype that surrounded Jason’s surprise appearance helped to generate a buzz around the movie. One aspect of the film that fans were less than impressed with was the ending, in which Jason drowns in the toxic waste and reverts back to a scared young boy, something that even Hodder felt was an anticlimax.

The editing would be handled by Steve Mirkovich, who had previously collaborated with John Carpenter on Big Trouble in Little China and Prince of Darkness. Mirkovich’s son, Timothy Burr, had been brought on the set for several weeks in Vancouver when the actor hired to play Jason as a boy was unable to cope with the various underwater scenes. Resident composer Harry Manfredini had been replaced by Fred Mollin, whom he had shared credit with on The New Blood and had scored the TV series. The original cut of Jason Takes Manhattan came in at just over two hours, forcing Hedden to remove much of the dialogue and character scenes, instead focusing on the action and suspense. The movie was released by Paramount on July 28th 1989 and would earn just $14.3m at the US box office, whilst critics were quick to point out that, despite the film’s title, very little of the movie actually takes place in New York, with the Washington Post stating: “The on-screen body count is 19 and Jason Vorhees doesn’t even get to New York until the last 20 minutes of Friday the 13th: Part VIII – Jason Takes Manhattan.”

Further reading -
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.1 – Friday the 13th (1980)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.2 – Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.3 – Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.4 – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.5 – Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.6 – Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) (1985)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.7 – Alice Cooper: He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask) (1986)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.8 – Friday the 13th: The Series (1987-1990)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.9 – Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

If the Friday the 13th franchise is to be remembered for anything, other than the iconic hockey mask, then it will be the elaborate and graphic special effects, which were created by various different artists and workshops, from the legendary Tom Savini and Stan Winston to the likes of Martin Becker and Greg Nicotero. Twelve movies, hundreds of victims – it would be impossible to narrow their gory highlights down to just a few but here’s thirteen of Jason’s most memorable kills.

I couldn’t decide which one should claim the top spot so instead these are listed in chronological order. No doubt you’ll have your own favourites so tell us which you would have included.

Enjoy!

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) – Jack (Kevin Bacon)
Long before the awards and critical acclaim, Kevin Bacon’s claim to fame was his iconic death in the original Friday the 13th. Storyboarded by associate producer Steve Miner (who would later direct the first two sequels) and executed by special make-up effects artist Tom Savini, the sequence saw an arrow being driven through Bacon’s throat from underneath the bed. This relatively complex gag would be created by designing a cast of the actor’s torso, whilst his real body was hidden underneath the bed. With a neck cast attached to Bacon, a hand belonging to stills photographer Richard Feury (who would later be credited as second assistant director on Part 2) reached up from under the bed to pull Bacon’s head down whilst the arrow was pushed through the neck cast. But when the tube that ran the blood from a bag to the neck cast came loose Taso N. Stavrakis, Savini’s assistant, improvised and blew hard down the tube, causing the blood to spray out from the open wound. Although not a Jason kill, this is still a favourite amongst fans.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981) – Mark (Tom McBride)
To prove that Jason Voorhees was an equal rights serial killer, Part 2 saw him dispatch of the franchise’s sole wheelchair-bound victim. Having seemingly scored with pretty-yet-naïve Vickie (Lauren-Marie Taylor), Mark (Tom McBride) waits patiently before heading outside the house, where he is suddenly struck in the face by a machete and sent hurtling backwards down a set of steps. For this highly effective sequence, special make-up effects artist Carl Fullerton designed a mask for McBride to wear, which the balsa wood machete was then attached to. Pulling the blade away from the actor’s face, the footage was then played back in reverse to create the illusion that Mark had been hit in the face by the machete. McBride was then replaced by stuntman Tony Farentino (who would later work on the underrated slasher Alone in the Dark the following year), who was sent backwards down the stairs using a rig to avoid the wheelchair losing control.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 (1982) – Vera (Catherine Parks)
Having rebuffed the advances of shy practical joker Shelly (Larry Zerner), Vera (Catherine Parks) finds his wallet in the water and looks through the contents, before realising that a masked figure has appeared from behind the house. Believing it to be Shelly, who had previously scared her whilst wearing his hockey mask, Jason (Richard Brooker) raises a speargun towards her and fires a shot directly into her eye. Yet another gag played back in reverse, the sequence began with Parks reacting to the arrow being pressed against her eye, before the arrow was retracted via a wire and rod. Cutting away, the next shot saw Parks with an arrow attached to her eye as she fell backwards into the water, although this could only be shot once as the prosthetics that the make-up crew had created would fall to pieces when wet. This scene has an important place in the history of the franchise as it would be the first on-screen kill committed by Jason after obtaining his infamous mask.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 (1982) – Rick (Paul Kratka)
Accommodating for the 3-D effects that would be the selling point for Friday the 13th Part 3, director Steve Miner took every opportunity he could to have objects jumping or reaching out at the camera; from yo-yos and joints to spears and even eyeballs. The latter would be used for the death scene of Rick (Paul Kratka), the lumberjack boyfriend of heroine Chris (Dana Kimmell). Having returned to find the house deserted, Chris searches for her friends whilst Rick heads outside, only to be accosted by Jason. Grabbing his head from behind and crushing his skull, Rick’s eyeballs burst literally from their sockets under the pressure and leap out at the audience. Weeks before principal photography had begun, Kratka was brought to the FX workshop to have his upper torso and head cast in plaster to create a life-size dummy that would be used for the majority of the sequence. With a mark having been set between the two lenses that were used to capture the images in 3-D, the eyeballs were sent out of the fake skull using wires after several attempts using compressed air had failed to achieve the desired result.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984) – Axel (Bruce Mahler)
Despite having launched his career on the back of his work on the first Friday the 13th movie, Savini had declined the chance to return for the subsequent two sequels, instead choosing to work on other splatter flicks like The Burning and Creepshow. Yet when the possibility to end what he had helped create by killing off Jason once and for all for 1984′s The Final Chapter arose he found the offer too tempting. After two relatively tame sequels, Savini was determined to outdo his own work on the original by creating some of his most brutal set pieces since The Prowler in 1981 (which, coincidentally, was also directed by Joseph Zito). Aside from Jason’s own demise, the stand out death scene was awarded to Axel (Police Academy‘s Bruce Mahler), an obnoxious orderly whose failed seduction attempts with a nurse (Lisa Freeman) results in him watching aerobics on television. Jason (Ted White), having awoken from the slab after believing to have died from his wounds endured at the end of Part 3, sneaks up behind Axel and grabs him by his head, before taking a surgical hacksaw used for cutting through bone and slices deep into his throat. A dummy was created using a cast of Mahler and a saw, whose blade was filled with blood, was placed against the throat, which also allowed for the head to be violently turned as Jason sunk deep into his neck.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 5: A NEW BEGINNING (1985) – Joey (Dominick Brascia)
Sweet-yet-simple loner Joey (Dominick Brascia) is often dismissed by his fellow patients at the relatively laxed Pinehurst mental institution and, after an attempt at helping two of the girls with the laundry results in the clean clothes being covered in chocolate, tries to make friends with resident psychotic Victor (Mark Venturini, also known to splatter fans for his turn in Return of the Living Dead, released the same year). Angered by his persistence, Victor swings his axe down on Joey’s back and begins to hack him to pieces as the other patients watch in horror. Some time later, an ambulance arrives on the scene and one of the paramedics (Caskey Swaim) pulls back the sheet that is covering his corpse to reveal hacked-up body parts. Whilst the murder itself is shown off screen (with only a brief reaction shot from Brascia at the point of impact), it is the following scene when the state of the body is revealed that showed the gruesome handiwork of the special effects team. Not technically a Jason kill, but the murder would become the catalyst for the Jason copycat murders that followed.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 6: JASON LIVES (1986) – Sheriff Garris (David Kagan)
Sheriff Garris (David Kagan) would prove to be the archetypal authority figure of the slasher film. Much like A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Lt. Donald Thompson (John Saxon), who would also refuse to believe the fact that a seemingly dead killer was responsible for a recent series of grizzly murders, Garris’ ignorance and refusal to accept the warning from former mental patient Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews, Venturini’s Return of the Living Dead co-star) would eventually cost him his life. Having made his way with his deputies to Camp Forest Green – formerly Camp Crystal Lake, the scene of countless murders at the hands of Jason (C.J. Graham) – Garris soon finds himself alone and takes shelter in the bushes as he watches Jason from afar. But when his daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke), arrives at the camp with Tommy, Jason heads back out of the woods to kill them both, forcing the sheriff to finally face the truth and fight back, resulting in him being literally broken in two. Although heavily censored by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) prior to release, the sequence was achieved by fake legs being bent back over Kagan’s shoulders as Jason breaks his back. In an effort to avoid the same kind of problems with the censors that the previous movies had encountered, director Tom McLoughlin would shoot several versions of the scene, including one which would be relatively gruesome, although sadly this would not be used in the finished print.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 7: THE NEW BLOOD (1988) – Judy (Debora Kessler)
Unlike his contemporaries, namely A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Freddy Krueger and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Leatherface, Jason Voorhees has never taken much pleasure in torturing his victims, instead opting for the fastest way to dispatch them. Kane Hodder, who would be cast in the role at the insistence of director John Carl Buechler, would take the character of Jason to new heights by creating a unique body language that he would use through the subsequent three sequels. With Buechler also being a renowned special effects artist, many of the set pieces in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood would be extremely elaborate and graphic, this was until the MPAA ordered drastic cuts to many of the film’s highlights. One sequence would see one of the young vacationers, Judy (Debora Kessler), dragged across the ground by Jason in her sleeping bag and swung against a tree, killing her instantly. Originally, Jason was to have thrown her against the trunk several times but the MPAA ordered the filmmakers to reduce the number of hits, resulting in Jason simply swinging her against the tree once and then tossing her body aside. Ironically, this would make the sequence all the more effective.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 8: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (1989) – Jules (V.C. Dupree)
Although ultimately defeated at the end of each movie, Jason rarely faced a character who was able to match him physically, with his victims often resorting to weapons, water or even telekinesis. In 1989′s Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, the latest graduating class embark on a cruise from Crystal Lake to New York City, which soon turns into a fight for survival as Jason (Kane Hodder) makes his way onboard and begins to dispatch each of the teens one-by-one. Although the majority of the deaths would be relatively blood-free (again, due to strict regulations from the MPAA), one that would stand out would be that of Julius (V.C. Dupree), undefeated high school boxing champion who, tired of running, faces off against Jason on top of a building in a rough neighbourhood of New York. With bloody knuckles and gasping for breath, Julius in unable to fight Jason any longer and challenges him to punch him back. In one swing, Jason sends Julius’ head from his shoulders, down the side of the building and into a dumpster in the street below. Showcasing his sick sense of humour, Jason later left Julius’ head on the dashboard of a police car as the other students attempt to escape.

JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY (1993) – Deborah (Michelle Clunie)
With Paramount having eventually sold the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise to rival studio New Line Cinema (the home of A Nightmare on Elm Street), the series received a makeover in 1993 with Adam Marcus’ Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Ostensibly a rip-off of Jack Sholder’s 1987 science fiction thriller The Hidden (also distributed by New Line), the movie boasted impressive special effects by the always reliable KNB EFX, although predictably these would be heavily censored for the theatrical print. Thankfully, Marcus’ original cut was later released on video and featured in all its glory the murders of horny young campers Deborah (Michelle Clunie) and Luke (Michael B. Silver). With their friend Alexis (Kathryn Atwood) having allowed them to keep the tent for the night whilst she sleeps outside, the couple had begun to make out before moving onto sex, whilst a coroner (Richard Gant) from a hospital who has been possessed by the spirit of Jason appears at the tent, thrusting his weapon through the material and into Deborah’s stomach, before violently thrusting it upwards, tearing her torso in two.

JASON X (2001) – Adrienne (Kristi Angus)
With the regular setting of Camp Crystal Lake having grown stale over several installments, filmmakers had been forced to try new locations in which Jason could continue his bloodbath. New York had failed to impress the fans and so the makers of Jason X, in a last attempt to rejuvenate the formula, sent their antagonist into twenty-fifth century deep space. This new science fiction location would allow for an array of possibilities; some of which would be exploited, whilst others were sadly neglected. The film’s best death would go to scientist Adrienne (Kristi Angus), who is given the responsibility of performing an autopsy on the recently thawed out Jason (Kane Hodder), whose body was found in an abandoned space station. Whilst distracted, Adrienne is unaware that Jason has awoken behind her and grabs her by her hair, forcing her face-first into a sink filled with liquid nitrogen, causing her head to immediately freeze. Removing her and looking at his handiwork, Jason would smash her head against the work surface, shattering her face, before tossing her corpse aside.

FREDDY VS. JASON (2003) – Trey (Jesse Hutch)
Freddy vs. Jason had been fifteen years in the making, pitching the villains from the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises against each other in a fight to the death. Having gone through numerous writers and directors, the task of bringing the concept to the big screen fell to Ronny Yu, who had previously given the Child’s Play series a postmodern makeover with 1998′s Bride of Chucky. The story that was eventually selected saw both antagonists trapped in the bowels of Hell, with Freddy desperate to escape so he can continue his killing spree at his old stomping ground, Elm Street. Allowing Jason (Ken Kirzinger) to escape Hell, he lures him to Elm Street in an effort to evoke enough fear in the town’s teenagers so that he will be able to break free from his restraints and control the dream world once again. Jason makes his way to the former home of Lt. Donald Thompson and his daughter, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), a house which Freddy is strangely drawn to time and time again. Finding a group of teens partying without the supervision of parents, Jason appears over the bed of obnoxious jock Trey (Jesse Hutch) and begins to butcher him with his machete to the point that the bed breaks in half, crushing Trey’s lifeless body.

FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009) – Nolan (Ryan Hansen)
Having made a suitable impression on the executives at New Line with their script for Freddy vs. Jason, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift were given the task of resurrecting the Friday the 13th franchise for Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes (previously responsible for the all-style-no-substance remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hitcher). Taking elements from the first four movies, arguably favourites among fans, the reboot saw Jason (Derek Mears) reinvented as a hunter, who kidnaps a young woman (Amanda Righetti) who resembles his dead mother, prompting the girl’s brother (Jared Padalecki) to head out to Crystal Lake in search of her. Whilst the characterisation would be lacking, even for a slasher film, and the acting would be subpar (with the exception of Mears and Danielle Panabaker, the film’s only truly sympathetic character), some of the murders would be gruesome enough to delight fans of the series. The most memorable of which was the death of Nolan (Ryan Hansen) who, whilst out on the lake with his girlfriend (Willa Ford), is suddenly shot in the head by an arrow.

Throughout its thirty year legacy, the Friday the 13th franchise has boasted some truly memorable moments. But there were several scenes that were cut, either from the script or the finished film, for a variety of reasons. Here’s a few that, in a perfect world, would have made their way into the series…

JASON X:
One scene to have made its way into Todd Farmer’s script but not the movie was a sequence in which an explosion on board the Grendel resulted in a temporary loss of gravity. With both cargo and crew floating aimlessly, ship android Kay-Em manages to grab hold of the wall using her magnetics and attempts to rescue her friends, who desperately try to escape from Jason. This scene would involve several characters who were eventually omitted from the movie (Thorgan, Rizzo, Boeman, DeLongpre) forming a ‘human chain’ as Kay-Em tries to stop them from drifting towards Jason. Sadly, despite a few promising moments, the scene would not result in any zero gravity bloodshed but could still have made an interesting sequence.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES:
Having been rescued from the depths of Crystal Lake by Megan, Tommy Jarvis looks out at the water and declares ‘It’s over, it’s finally over. Jason is home.’ The next scene to have originally been included in writer/director Tom McLoughlin’s tongue-in-cheek script would have been the introduction of Jason’s as-then-unmentioned father, Elias Voorhees. Martin, the cemetery caretaker (who had not been killed in the original script), is knelt down pulling weeds from off of a tombstone when a large shadow is cast over him. Quickly turning around, he nervously says ‘Nice to see you again, Mr. Voorhees…Haven’t seen you in Crystal…er, Forest Green, in quite some time.’ Martin insists to the imposing figure that he has been taking care of both his wife and son’s graves as he is passed his regular payment. Left alone to inspect the resting place of his family, McLoughlin describes that ‘These eyes are truly evil. Cold. Dark. Demonic.’ Elias Voorhees was once again set to appear in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday but was eventually cut from the story.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3:
Instead of the generic retread of the first film’s infamous climax, in which this time the rotten corpse of Pamela Voorhees would jump out of the lake and pull heroine Chris under the water, only for the event to be revealed as just a dream, a planned alternative ending for Steve Miner’s 3D spectacle Friday the 13th Part 3 would have been far more shocking. Having seemingly defeated Jason and survived until dawn, Chris opens the door to discover that Jason is still very much alive and, with a swift blow of his machete, slices her head clean off. Again, this was to have been a dream and the character would have been shown to still be alive at the end, but the sequence would have packed more of a punch. Another effect which the filmmakers attempted saw Jason having his stomach hacked open, causing his guts to spill out at the camera in 3D. Sadly, nervous executives at Paramount chose to ignore both endings and eventually went with the one used in the theatrical cut.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKEN MANHATTAN:
Avoiding the usual criticism of very little of the film actually being set in New York (due to budgetary issues), one minor incident to have been removed from the script was on the characters’ first arrival in the Big Apple. Having made their way to shore after the massacre that took place on board the S.S Lazarus, the kids head off into the city whilst Jason climbs out of the water. His first evil deed would have been to brutally kick a dog, presumably just for the sake of it (Hodder’s performance in the movie was at Jason’s most angry). But, surprisingly, the actor refused to do the scene, stating that the one thing Jason would never do is hurt a dog. A somewhat redundant argument as he succeeded in doing just that in the second film, but perhaps the way that writer/director Rob Hedden had scripted it was a little too savage.

FRIDAY THE 13TH:
The original opening for Sean S. Cunningham’s movie would have been a more dramatic and action packed sequence than the one eventually used in the finished release. Having left the campfire to be alone, young lovers Barry and Claudette were to have taken a walk around the lake as the unseen killer slowly followed them out-of-sight. A chase would have then ensued around the boathouse, instead of them simply being stabbed in the barn. This drastic re-write was necessary as, on the first night when the sequence was due to be filmed, snow would caused various technical problems and a more simplistic scene was required.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD:
Whilst it would hardly have made a drastic change including the brief scene, The New Blood would have originally featured an epilogue after the action packed finale in which a fisherman is seen out on the lake enjoying a leisurely morning, when suddenly Jason jumps out from under the water and drags him down below. Perhaps, with similar sequences having already been used in both the first and third film, director John Carl Buechler decided against using the shot.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING:
Probably the most uninspired killing in Danny Steinmann’s otherwise ultra-sleazy Friday the 13th movie A New Beginning was the death of punk chick Violet. Whereas her friends had been dispatched in a variety of brutal and inventive ways, Violet’s demise came with a simple stab to the gut. But that was not how Steinmann had originally envisioned it. Whilst performing her bizarre-yet-awesome robot dance to the tune of Pseudo Echo’s ‘His Eyes’, Jason would slowly sneak into the room and make his way towards her. Sensing a presence, she turns around as a machete is thrust violently up between her legs, the blade digging deep into her crotch. Realising that the movie would fall foul of the censors (it would eventually take nine attempts to get the film past the MPAA), Steinmann panicked and re-shot the sequence.

Anyway, when the Deluxe Editions started trickling out last year (I’m not talking parts 1-3, I’m talking the real Deluxe Editions – 4-8 produced by Dan Farrands of His Name Is Jason) I noticed the early films getting re-releases on my end of the globe. Different cover art, but also different extras – Friday The 13th part 3 lacked 3D, however did have the missing chapter of Lost Tales From Camp Blood so I made the decision to follow the train of local releases. I waited and waited. Eventually we got shitty bare-bones editions of part 4 onward instead. Mind-boggling. So I slapped the USA Super Deluxo’s in my digital cart and… timejump to today.

Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter – $11.99 – bingo! Not so fast, bucko. A New Beginning, Jason Lives, The New Blood and Jason Takes Manhattan all ranging from – $24.50 to $26.99 or completely unavailable at all. Sure, Amazon Marketplace can help, but individual postage from each buyer is going to make a buy there a no-go. Alright, back-up plan: screw the certificate and take my moolah to DVD Empire – but the truth doesn’t get much better over there when they confirm those four sequels are Out Of Print.

Ouch, man. That hit me right here in my hellbaby heart.

I figure it’s an elaborate conspiracy to teach me a very large lesson to strike while the iron’s hot, haste wakes waste, he who hesitates is lost, etc. etc. etc. But listen, I’m seeking a solution. I’ve relied on Amazon for a decade (and Ebay for single purchases) so haven’t stepped foot outside their perimeter into the online DVD retailer market much. Perhaps someone out there can recommend a reputable place I can get all four for decent prices?

I posted a story about this several months ago, but thought it relevant to feature these items again as there may have been those who did not get a chance to see them. Below are pics of one of the Jason Takes Manhattan costumes used during production accompanied by analysis of the clothing by Mario Kirner.

Mask
The hock looks a bit different compared to mine. The shape is a bit off and the color and paint looks different too. It has different straps and closures attached to it. In 2024 I met the memorabilia manager Carmen Hemus who confirmed that the mask is indeed a replica that was added to round this display up. Mario mentioned and also it is apparent in the full image above, that the Planet Hollywood costume consits of shirt, pants, boots, gloves, head appliance and one arm appliance.

Originally, the end sequence of Jason Takes Manhattan was to showcase a very gooey and eaten away corpse of Jason after being bombarded by toxic waste. The idea of adding the little boy’s body to the sequence was added later. Below are BTS (Behind The Scenes) images of the crew and Jason’s corpse that was supposed to be in the film. Now this would have been awesome to see as Jason’s final appearance!

In a previous update from October, we saw an in-progress image of a new Jason Takes Manhattan sculpt that, without the paint added, looked really good! Now, we have been provided with a new, completed image of the Part 8 Jason, which is below. The sculpt looks awesome and would surely complete a definitive Jason Takes Manhattan figure.

The answer is yes! We dug out an image that shows V.C. proudly displaying the prop. We wonder if anyone has ever approached him to purchase his head?

One of the pleasant surprises was the discovery of the wide shot of Tamara’s glass shard-ridden body by Eva. The unedited shot showed that Jason dispatched of Tamara in a more brutal fashion, which the fans all want to see. However, what if this was not the first choice of how Tamara was to be discovered by Eva? Well, looking at the Call Sheet for the day of filming for the scene. It looks as though Tamara was supposed to be found a different way.

According to the filming documents, Tamara was to be found hanging on the door hook of the bathroom door! Eva discovers Tamara on the door hook while seeing her reflection in the shards of glass on the floor. Pretty cool to see that at one point there was an alternative discovery of the body. Somewhere in the creative process, the filmmakers decided to change the scene to what we see today. Would the original discovery of the body been better?