10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Jason Voorhees
6. His Motif Is ‘Chi-Chi-Chi, Ha-ha-ha’
Harry Manfredini’s score created the perfect creepy atmosphere for the first movie, and was so successful that he returned to score the majority of the sequels. The music is part of the franchise’s iconography, as much as Jason’s hockey mask and the shimmering surface of Crystal Lake.
The hook of the piece is the whispery vocals, chanting something like 'chi-chi-chi, ha-ha-ha.' It may just sound like abstract noises to unease the viewer, but this motif has a specific meaning.
During the climax of first film, as a manic Pamela Voorhees chases after final girl Alice (Adrienne King), she talks to herself with the persona of her lost son. Putting on an eerie infantile voice, she urges, “Kill her, mommy! Kill her!” to motivate herself into a vengeful fury. The score's vocals are the voice of Manfredini, chanting in a low, breathy tone, ‘kill kill kill, mom mom mom,’ echoing Mrs Voorhees’s unsettling self-talk.
As Pamela is killed and her son takes over for the sequels, the motif remains, arguably becoming more associated with Jason than it ever was with his mother. In this way, its meaning has become slightly muddled, but it’s now impossible to separate Jason from this legendary horror score.