Horror Movie Theory: Jason Vorhees Is Actually A Deadite From Evil Dead
That tatty book wasn't just an Easter Egg...
As the Friday the 13th films went on, it became increasingly difficult to accept why Jason Vorhees seemed completely impervious to any sort of final solution. He's basically an immortal, unstoppable force, intent on stopping teenagers having special lake-side tops-off cuddles and honestly, it was all getting a bit silly.
When would it end? Why is he not subject to the same rules most horror movie villains are? Why doesn't he have the decency to die?
Well, there's now an answer to that particular little quandry, thanks to Jason Goes to Hell director Adam Marcus, who managed to really upset the fandom by trying to destroy what was best about the Friday The 13th franchise and having Jason star in it only minimally. It was a bold move. It was not one that paid off.
However, the film does include one delightful Easter Egg that Marcus has used as his justification for a fan theory that suggests that Vorhees actually belongs to an entirely different horror movie franchise: The Evil Dead.
In one scene, one character discovers both a huge ornate knife and a tattered book, which were both featured in Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead films. The knife is, of course, the Kandarian Dagger and the book is the Necronomicon (the book of the dead). Not just things to leave casually lying about the place, and not just placed into the movie by Marcus as a reference to his favourite horror movie.
Marcus told Horror Geek Life recently that he actually included the artifacts as a means to change the Friday The 13th canon. Instead of Jason being a run-of-the-mill vengeful zombie, intent on getting back at those who conspired to lead to his death by drowning at Camp Crystal Lake (and everyone else who goes there ever in future), Marcus wanted to reveal the truth that, actually, Jason is a Deadite from Evil Dead. And what's more, he's summoned by his mother Pamela Voorhees after his death:
“[Pamela Voorhees] makes a deal with the devil by reading from the Necronomicon to bring back her son. This is why Jason isn’t Jason. He’s Jason plus The Evil Dead, and now I can believe that he can go from a little boy that lives in a lake, to a full grown man in a couple of months, to Zombie Jason, to never being able to kill this guy. That, to me, is way more interesting as a mashup, and Raimi loved it!”
Advertisement
That's actually a really smart way of crossing over two legendary horror movie franchises, though Marcus says he had to keep it on the downlow from his own studio over rights concerns:
“It’s not like I could tell New Line my plan to include The Evil Dead, because they don’t own The Evil Dead. So it had to be an Easter egg, and I did focus on it… there’s a whole scene that includes the book, and I hoped people would get it and could figure out that’s what I’m up to. So yes, in my opinion, Jason Voorhees is a Deadite. He’s one of The Evil Dead.”
What do you think? Should Marcus' explanation be allowed into the canon? Should we see a full-blown Evil Dead/Jason cross-over? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.