Jason Voorhees: True Villain or Misunderstood Anti-Hero?

I'm watching Friday the 13th, Part 8 on Bravo right now. That's the one where Jason goes to New York City, but spends the majority of the movie on a cruise ship. So I'm watching this, and I got to thinking about Jason's role in the franchise. He's ostensibly the villain, but with every new entry in the series, I find myself cheering more and more for Jason. Pretty much everybody he kills has it coming, which really paints Jason as more of an anti-hero than a villain.

Yes, Jason kills nearly indiscriminately, as we see him avoid killing children in the sixth movie. (Though, to be honest, that doesn't explain why he wanted to kill a young Corey Feldman so badly in Part 4.) Most of Jason's quarry are jocks, slutty party girls, bullies, potheads, and the occasional nerd. In later movies, it seems he kills for the sake of killing, with no real rhyme or reason. But in the early going, his kills were revenge for the death of his mother and for his own supposed drowning as a child. By that logic, there's an argument for Jason being considered the horror genre's answer to The Punisher. As I said earlier, his victims more or less ask for it, especially in each further installment of the series.

I've also noticed that with each new sequel, Jason's kills become less scary and more outrageous. It's as if someone said, "Okay, guys, Jason isn't as scary anymore, so let's see if we can make him cool instead." Just watch some of the later sequels, and you'll see what I mean. In the early movies, his kills were simple. Mainly just a lot of stabbings, with the occasional broken neck or head-squashing. But from about the middle of the series on, the kills get bigger, badder, and a lot more violent. While part of it is probably catering to the gorehounds in the audience, it also works to make people say, "holy crap, did you see that?!" during the movies.

I also think that since Jason is more "cool" than "scary" nowadays, the creative kills are his main drawing point. So why not accentuate the positives, deemphasize the negatives. Why do a simple machete to the chest when you can punch somebody's head clean off their shoulders and slam dunk it in a dumpster?

I don't really know where I was headed with this post when I began it. When I started, I just felt like posting, and I decided to talk about the first thing that popped into my mind. And really, what's better to talk about on Friday the 13th than the Friday the 13th movies? Not a lot, that's what.

And I've pretty much talked myself out for tonight. I should be back later with some Saturday the 14th talk, if everything goes according to plan. Me and my crew were aiming to see The Grudge 2 tomorrow night, but I just need to get ahold of everybody else and make sure we're all on the same wavelength in regards to that. So until then, true believers, excelsior.