10 Things You Didn't Know About Jason Voorhees
5. An Academic Study Named Him King Of Killers
In 2005, 1166 Americans responded to a survey by California State University’s Media Psychology Lab “exploring choices for a favourite movie monster and reasons why a monster chosen was their favourite.” Ages ranged from 16 to 91, and of the 10 monsters used in the survey – which also included Chucky, Godzilla, Dracula and Hannibal Lector – Jason scored the highest in each category involving killing variables.
In the snappily titled The Psychological Appeal Of Your Favourite Movie Monsters, authors Stuart Fischoff, Alexandra Dimopoulos, Francois Nguyen and Rachel Gordon attribute this to something that less academically inclined viewers knew already: “He is an unstoppable killing machine. His cornucopic feats of slicing and dicing a seemingly endless number of adolescents and the occasional adult is impressive to his fans.”
The survey concludes: “Considering that his body count does not compare with those of Godzilla or the creature from Alien, it is an impressive accomplishment to be effectively anointed the King of Killers. Jason’s audience appeal among movie monsters is further abetted by his immortality, his apparent enjoyment of killing and by his superhuman strength.”