Movies
13 Days of F13: Jason’s Most Unique Weapons
Platinum Dunes’ Brad Fuller and Andrew Form have been promising a return to basics for Jason Voorhees, and they weren’t lying: Derek Mears’ Jason uses a variety of weapons, but they are more “traditional”: knives, arrows, and, of course, his machete. So let’s get nostalgic and take a look back at some of Jason’s more unique weapons of choice that he has used over the past 30 years.
JASON’S MOST UNIQUE WEAPONS
Freddy stuck to his blades. Leatherface had his chainsaw. Michael Myers rarely went outside his comfort zone of knives and his bare hands. But Jason… that dude had weapon ADD or something. As the series went on, he got more and more creative, eschewing multiple spear and machete kills for needles, guitars, liquid nitrogen, and even a goddamn party favor.
That sort of dedication to keeping things fresh should be honored, I think, so let’s take a look back at some of Jason’s most unique implements of destruction. While not the BEST kills per se, the following 15 items definitely demonstrate Mr. Voorhees’ ability to think outside of the box.
Jason proves his determination to use as many items as possible right off the bat, using an ice pick for his very first kill. The icepick would re-appear in a dream sequence in part 5, but otherwise, Alice remains the only human ice cube in the series.
Jason bookends Final Chapter with two interesting weapons, though he sticks to the basics for the middle of the movie. It would be a long time before Jason got to use medical instruments again, so enjoy it while it lasts. Plus, the harrow isn’t powerful enough for an instant kill, so we get the wonderfully goofy sound of Rob yelling “He’s killing me!” over and over while Jason hacks away.
It wasn’t really Jason, but that didn’t stop Roy from using Jason’s traditional weapons for most of the film. But his first kill was pretty inspired – shoving a lit road flare into a guy’s mouth.
A rare “plan ahead” kill in the series has Roy looping a strap around a guy’s head and a tree, then twisting the leather from the back until the poor sod’s head is crushed. This occurs right after he had garden sheared a girl’s eyes out. Go Roy!
Kane Hodder’s favorite kill, and many fans agree with him. Jason picks up the bag and swings it against a tree, instantly killing its occupant. The MPAA kept us from seeing the scene as intended (multiple swings!) but its impact was no less weakened: the makers of Jason X and the remake both paid homage to this legendary moment.
Jason proves how strong he is by shoving a plastic item (one that usually breaks when you attempt to use it properly) into a girl’s eye socket.
The logistics are a bit muddled (why is there a gas powered weed whacker in the middle of the woods?) but it’s still a great kill, and the shot of Jason wielding the thing is one of the most iconic moments in the entire film.
This kill would be even more epic had it not been filmed so clumsily – blood begins to spray before Jason even makes contact. But the clever play on words (guitar = axe) is enough to warrant its inclusion.
Jason originally threw darts into the eyes of Julius’ sparring partner, but the MPAA didn’t like that too much, or maybe they cried foul that darts had already been used (in part 6). So instead, the scene was reshot entirely, with Jason shoving a hot rock into the dude’s stomach (it even causes a small fire!).
Once Jason gets off the boat, he goes all out with his weapons. No knives or machetes, just syringes, steam pipes, wrenches, and sewage. Welcome to New York.
In the movie’s best kill, Jason dips a girl’s head into the “instant ice” stuff, then smashes her face on a countertop. Awesome.
Jason used his machete for pretty much every kill in this one, so I guess we should be thankful when Ronny Yu mixed it up a TINY bit, using a machete ON FIRE to take out one of the many annoying kids in this movie.
For every guitar or weedwhacker, there’s a dozen machete kills. By my count, here are the total number of Jason kills (not counting dream sequences or the remake) for his top 5 most trusted weapons:
Machete: 29
Bare Hands*: 24
Spears: (or similar) 17
Knife: (any type) 9
Cleaver: 5
*does not include smashing people against another object, or drowning.
Some other trivia bits worth mentioning:
– Jason does not use his trademark machete in Final Chapter, often considered the best film of the series (he is killed by it though).
– While Mrs. Voorhees used it a few times, Jason never killed anyone with an arrow
– If one were to consider the environment a weapon (trees, water, the ground, walls, etc), it would be one of Jason’s favorites: a total of 17 kills
– 8 people in the series were killed by “good guys”, i.e. Vicki accidentally shooting a guy in the diner in Jason Goes To Hell
– The 3 films with the highest body counts are the 3 New Line entries (not counting all of the anonymous deaths in Manhattan when the boat sinks).
– The only film with 13 deaths per Jason is The Final Chapter
(Note: the remake is not included/counted for any portion of this article)
Thanks to Fridaythe13thfilms.com for the “Body Count” list which assisted me in this count!
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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