13 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Jason Voorhees

The Friday the 13th you know, the facts you don't!

Jason Voorhees
Paramount

Happy Friday the 13th, horror nerds! Of course, that can mean only one thing: we're going to take a look at the man - and his franchise - that made the date famous. Only unlucky for some, eh?

The most deadly of horror movie characters out there, Jason Voorhees has firmly established himself as the raddest and baddest of slasher villains with hundreds of bodies to his name - clocking in as the quite literal all killer, no filler king of death in horror movie history. Born from Friday the 13th but not quite hitting his iconic heights until the third instalment, his influence as one of the pedigree slashers is undeniable.

But just how well do you know the machete-wielding madman four decades since his first emergence from that dastardly Camp Crystal Lake?

As familiar as that old hockey mask might be, as soft as the inside of a pulped sleeping bag might seem, and as warm as his crushing embrace might feel on those cold nights, there's still plenty that Jason has kept to himself. So on this finest of Fridays one can get - the 13th, just in case that wasn't clear - let's take a look at the lesser known facts of the masked murderer himself.

13. Eating Jason's Heart Made Richard Gant Sick

Jason Voorhees
Paramount

In the ninth Friday the 13th movie - Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday - good old Mr Voorhees manages to get himself blown up and sent in bits to a morgue. There, his still beating heart goes all Jumanji drums on coroner Phil, who is compelled to eat the thing and house the soul of Jason, because why the hell not, hey?

Turns out though that Phil's disgust at chomping down on the gigantic, filthy heart wasn't acting. Actor Richard Gant was faced with a prop made from gelatine, filled with fruit cocktail, and finished off with black dye, which is hardly the lunch you'd be wanting for a long day of filming. In fact, it was so repellant to Gant that he reportedly could barely finish the take, attempting to hold back spew so he didn't blow Jason chunks all over the set.

In the end, the jumbo, sludgy, disgusting heart did its job perfectly, and was actually repurposed as a vampire heart in From Dusk Till Dawn, too.

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Contributor

Horror film junkie, burrito connoisseur, and serial cat stroker. WhatCulture's least favourite ginger.