“Now, I know that some fans will have their machetes out because they like Jason to be a revenant, mysterious, and supernatural. I grant them that, and that’s fine,” Kane told Dread Central about Jason’s origin story in the series.
He continued: “I’ll take the slings and arrows. I took a swing, but I didn’t send him to Hell. I didn’t send him to space. I didn’t put him up against Carrie White, all things that people have done in this series. I took a much more grounded swing.”
I haven’t finished Crystal Lake yet, so I won’t share my full opinion on the series until I do watch all eight episodes. I have heard some things about how Jason is handled in the series, but again, I’ll reserve judgment until later.
But yeah, Jason’s story was changed from the first movie to the second movie, so fans of the franchise have learned to accept inconsistency.
I will say though, just because other people put Jason into weird situations, that doesn’t mean fans necessarily accepted those ideas. I loathe Jason Goes to Hell, not the least of which for how it almost completely disregards even the basic ideas of the movies that came before it. And no, I’m not interested in getting into a Jason Goes to Hell debate here.
It took me a while to get on board Jason X as well. I like it now for exactly what it is, but I still don’t think it’s a good movie. It’s fun, but it’s not particularly good.
I’m okay with Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood though (that’s the “Carrie White” reference Kane is making in his quote). I actually like the movie. Yeah, they wedged a Carrie-type character in there with Tina, but a telekinetic young woman doesn’t feel too odd in a movie about a hulking, undead killer who rises out of a lake.
What I’m saying is, I don’t buy this specific argument that so many people, including Brad Caleb Kane, use. They seemingly try to excuse all criticism by saying that “well, other movies did dumb stuff, so this is fine and probably better.” Actually, I guess Kane didn’t really say that, but plenty of people online have said things like that. It’s simply not a good argument.
But like I said, I’m not making a judgment on Crystal Lake yet because I have tons of stuff to watch and I haven’t finished the show yet. I do like Jason’s origins essentially being a campfire story though (as told in Friday the 13th Part 2). The mystery, in my opinion, is part of the appeal.
