Friday Conversation: Where Jason Hangs His Hat

One major point of emphasis for the negativity of the 2024 Friday the 13th was the fact that Jason lived in underground tunnels at the abandoned Camp Crystal Lake. Many fans could not understand where the tunnels came from and failed to realize that the tunnels were part of an old mine that had long since been abandoned. The debate raged on for a while as to where Jason really would have set up shop, so to speak.

In Friday the 13th Part 2 Jason’s make-shift shack was located deep in the woods and seemed to be a suitable situation for him to live. However, once the shack was found, he was forced to go on the run and hide out in a barn in Higgens Haven. What if Jason lived in underground tunnels in the 1981 film, Part 2? Would he have been able to stay near Camp Crystal Lake and not forced to go on a murder spree at Higgens Haven and then at the Jarvis household in The Final Chapter? Having the underground tunnels at that point may have served him well.

Which do you think makes more sense, Jason living deep in the woods in a small house/shack or staying close to the camp under the vail of underground tunnels?

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jasonsfury

Email questions: jason.parker@fridaythe13thfilms.com. Follow me at: www.twitter.com/jasonsfury

20 Responses to “ Friday Conversation: Where Jason Hangs His Hat ”

  1. Hmm, I’m partial to the makeshift shack in the woods. It’s fitting to a backwoods slasher, which esentially what Jason is. We already have a slasher stalking mines in My Bloody Valentine. Had Jason access to the tunnels in the earlier films he probably would not have had to flee to Higgin’s Haven. He never would have acquired the hockey mask from Shelly, and ultimately, he would not have ventured to the Jarvis house, which means Tommy Jarvis would not have slammed a machete in Jason’s dome. It’s interesting to think Jason would still have the sack, and not ever have been a supernatural hulk.

  2. Ressurected by Tommy Jarvis.

  3. I actually think both work out well for each movie. I liked Jason’s old shack in the woods. It looked like he went and stole some old camp cabin wood, doors, and debris from the surrounding community. His “head shrine” room was spooky, but I can’t help but think that someone would have found that before the overweight cop in part 2 did. Maybe they did, and Jason took care of them.

    In the remake, the kids in the beginning talk about the old mine not showing up on GPS, but it still existed. The mine made sense to me. I also dig Jason stashing all the bodies there. Super creepy and gross. I did not think that the hiding of the head in the wall was right. But, maybe that’s where he thought it would be the most “safe”. That was his most prized posession. Alot of people have safes hidden in their walls.

    I just thought of this the other day….maybe Jason in part 3 wasn’t trying to rape Chris. Maybe she reminded him of his mother, like Whitney in the remake. Jason might have been trying to drag Chris to some place to keep her like Whitney.

    People are quick to diss the 2024 movie, but it was good to me. Better than half of the other Friday movies.

  4. I like the original setup much better. I like the shack in part 2. It was fascinating and frightening to me as a child. I have always loved the barn in part 3. I really enjoy Jason in the morgue in part 4. None of this would have happened with the tunnels.

    The mines were just another reason why the reboot has no replay value short of the nice rack.

  5. I don’t understand why some people had a problem with his underground hideout in the remake. I thought it showed how smart Jason was to use the abandoned mine as a way to stealthly get around the grounds of camp crystal lake. It all made sense to me.

    I agree with washingtonbc and I like both for each series. I do think Jason in the remake had the advantage of alluding authorities because of the fact that his lair was not out in the open.

  6. The mine made sense to me. I also dig Jason stashing all the bodies there. Super creepy and gross.

    I don’t understand why some people had a problem with his underground hideout in the remake. I thought it showed how smart Jason was to use the abandoned mine as a way to stealthly get around the grounds of camp crystal lake. It all made sense to me.

    I agree with washingtonbc and I like both for each series. I do think Jason in the remake had the advantage of alluding authorities because of the fact that his lair was not out in the open

    I really liked the tunnel system and the fact that he could hide all of the eveidence of his murder spree. He truly made his victims vanish.

  7. I think the shack was awesome and so was the mines, I am not sure Ben why people had a problem with the mines I mean to me it was a great idea and made allot of sense for the fact of how he shows up where he does and how fast he does like with the trip wire and bells, I think Platinum Dunes succeeded in what they wanted to do Jason from 2-4 Smart aware of his surrounding etc.

  8. I don’t really have a problem with the underground mine network. I know a few fans did. But in retrospect, I don’t think Jason would have acquired the hockey mask (in the earlier series) had he access to the underground tunnels. But the underground mines work for the new entry.

    Personally, I would think with Camp Crystal Lake being long abandoned property, Jason would have free run of the whole place. Now that would be cool.

  9. I think the shack would have been a great “first” home for Jason, after he got himself out of the lake as a child. He would have wanted to make a home for him and his mom.

    But once it was gone, found and corrupted, it would make sense to find somewhere else, somewhere safer. The tunnels would have been perfect.

    And I think they helped explain how Jason could pop up here and there in the campgrounds and forest. He had his own “highway system”.

  10. The difference between the two homes portrayed, with almost thirty years in between, is so revealing. The original little home he had in Part 2, was quite realistic in a way, one could assume he built it and slept there(Maybe it already stood there and was neglected by someone), the tunnels in the remake fit the way Jason looked in that movie, he was big and strong and totally bad-ass, the tunnels are much more menacing, more sinister than a little cottage. I don’t mind the remake all that much, watched it today again by the way and loved it, the tunnels play a cool part in that movie, it works. Two very different movies, two different Jasons and two different homes.

  11. Being underground means private, and it would mean less murders in different areas, so not many films.
    So moving house means the oppisit!
    It also feels more like Jason, finding an old place and making it his then tunnels.

  12. I like both really. I enjoyed the creepy old shack look but I enjoyed the realistic approach they took with the mine shaft. How he rigged it to notify him when someone was around the camp site. We saw Jason sharpen up his machete there and we saw all types of tools around the mine and it made it this cramp menacing place where who knows what happened there in the past.

  13. Jason was a smart killer, even in the original series. Sure, he was more savage than the remake, but if the tunnels had existed in the originals he would have retreated to them and not have been caught. I’m sure that the hock would have been introduced at some point, as the camp would have been closed and he would have gotten hungry, forcing him to venture to the Higgins Havens and Jarvis houses nearby.

  14. I actually like the underground tunnels in the remake. I mean He has to go somewhere when hes not killing. I always used to wonder what Jason did during the daytime like in part 7. There were no day kills in that installment, so like where did He go, what did He do? Maybe the Voorheees house from JGTH, or maybe He built another shack. But anyway the tunnels was something new for the series, plus it kinda shows how Jason gets the drop on people with the traps and bells. Just holding Whitney hostage didnt really sit well with Me, it didnt really make sense. I get the whole She looks like His Mom thing, but still it seems unlike Jason to hold someone captive.

    But however, I think the shack in part 2 is more realistic. Jason is still kind of human in that movie, and in real life I could see finding a shack deep in the woods as opposed to underground tunnels. And it also shows Jason isnt stupid, He built that thing all by himself, and the shrine with His Moms head thats always been creepy. In the remake Jason had Her head stuffed in a wall, that kind of didnt make any sense. The one person in the world He does love and care about, and He puts Her head in a wall? Nah, the shack is way better. After that Yes He hid in the Higgins barn. But in part 4 I wonder where He hung out between kills. Although at the beginning He was making His way back from the morgue, and bannana girl just happened to be in His path. Another day kill, just like the paintballers in Jason Lives. He was trying to make His way back to the camp. But anyway, Ive always loved Jasons shack and I do love it better than the underground tunnels. Oh and to close, Jason actually had a toilet. Can You imagine Jason taking a piss?

  15. You know something that was one of the few concepts that I actually liked from the remake. That explains how he can get around so fast. The shack has its place in the Jason mythology, but I prefer the vast system of tunnels underneath the camp. The other question you posed, about whether or not those kills from the sequels would have happened or not is an interesting one. I do believe he still would have killed them because those woods belong to Jason and whoever enters gets killed. If you really think about it most of the kills take place away from camp anyway. Revenge is revenge. The whole motive for the way Jason kills has always been to punish the teens who allowed him to drown and the person responsible for killing his mother. From Jason’s perspective all teens are responsible and need to be punished. So it would fit that Jason kills anybody who enters his territory and those woods surrounding the camp belong to him.

  16. I didnt really care for the tunnels.I prefer the shack,which is stated in the novelization that its part of the original camp.

  17. Nothing beats the part II shack. That was his best home of the series. It looked believable and I love how it was salvaged through all those years.

    It truly looked like the remains of some run downed abandoned cabins. Plus I have seen huts like that before were some homeless people had built in the woods before.

    Weird thing is, the time I ran into these the whole F13 experience started playing in my mind and I passed going inside :)

    Steve
    mWd

  18. I didn’t “fail to realize that the tunnels were part of an old mine that had long since been abandoned”…I found the idea stupid and unnecessary. It’s been done before in other (slasher) movies; why even ‘rip off’ the concept?

    Old abandoned mines right by a summer camp? That turned up into an over turned school bus? And were lit up in parts? Didn’t like the idea at all.

    Jason never had to slink around like a rat in a maze before. Give me an old run down shack for his lair any day.

  19. I think the minertunnels were more realistic…that way, Jason could pop up anywhere..just like he used to do in previous movies…it makes alot more sense than having an old shack deep in the woods..( although it wasn’t that deep in the woods, since the police officewr finds it just a couple of minutes walk away from the road)

    Friday 2024 wasn’t the best, but gave me more explanations that could make Jason much more scarier as a human being.
    Just didn’t like the music and actors.
    I think it’s very hard to make a Friday the 13th in the same creepy atmosphere as the first 4 movies…

  20. I say that the remake is a continuation of the series. Jason started out in a shack and could hunt his prey on the topsoil no problemo. But as he grew older and \wiser\ he knew his speed couldn’t last forever and decided to make a tunnel system to compensate for his slower speed.

    AS to the question as to what Jason does during the daytime. Well the remake exlpained that he is a botonist of the finest Ganja. He tended to his garden by day and protected his crop by night!!!!

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