JASON OF CRYSTAL LAKE
(aka Summer Camp of Dishonor on a Friday Afternoon)
The Mancusos and Paramount were excited to turn Jason into a property like Freddy Krueger had become for New Line. The desire was to branch out to younger kids and make a monster with the appeal of the old Universal Monsters. 1989 was meant to be the turning point, as February saw the successful launch of the Friday the 13th NES Game. Not wanting to miss a chance to strike, Paramount worked with emerging anime house Studio Ghibli to produce a horror anime feature film for the Summer of 1989. Ghibli jumped at the chance to pair a darker film with their planned launch of Kiki’s Delivery Service in late July.
The film was an animated retread of Jason’s origin and a loose magical interpretation mash-up of the first four films. Gone were Voorhees’ deformities and most of his parentage. Pamela Voorhees was treated as a magical mother figure that had died when Jason was very young. Blessing Jason with her magical sweater, she entrusted him to the care of the local Summer Camp. The camp counselors were cruel and ignored Jason to his detriment. Many later scholars would see early touchpoints that would be revisited in Spirited Away during these sequences.
One night, while trying to visit the local Water Fairy for guidance, Jason’s poor body gave out and sunk beneath Crystal Lake’s dark waters. Years passed and no one looked for him, as Jason faded into memory. The camp changed hands and a group of exciting new young people came to bring honor back to the summer camp. This awoke Jason, as his mother’s magical sweater had placed in him a protective coma in the watery depths.
Rising out of Crystal Lake, Jason returned to judge the teenagers living at the Camp. If you bring shame to your family and dishonor their memory with sex and drugs, Jason would kill you. If you were pure and righteous, Jason would let you live to see the following Saturday. The plot seemed simple enough until the final mandated scene that would make Miyazaki sever all ties to Paramount…
Final Scene:
After Jason realizes that all teenagers will eventually bring dishonor to themselves and Camp Crystal Lake, Jason decides to eliminate all camp residents. The youthful Tommy Jarvis, after learning how to successfully summon the dead, turns his counselor Ginny Fields into Pamela Voorhees. Jason feels confused by the return of his beloved mother and begs forgiveness. That’s when Tommy beheads him and allows Jason’s spirit to rest in the Great Beyond. Realizing that the camp needs a new Guardian, Tommy gives himself to the Spirit of the Lake and vanishes.
Upon seeing the mandated final scene, not amped up on the idea of animated nudity and gore…Miyazaki mumbled the only words he knew in English at the time. With a hardy “get…the…fuck…out”, Paramount was never allowed back at Studio Ghibli again.
