What Does Friday The 13th's Jason Voorhees Look Like Under The Mask?
Jason Voorhees from the "Friday the 13th" franchise has one of the most iconic looks out of any horror movie villain. He sports a hockey mask, making him a faceless visage of terror who's slaughtered more than a few teens over the years. However, Jason used to be just a boy, and he's taken off his mask on several occasions to show his victims what he really looks like.
In fact, Jason's first appearance in the original "Friday the 13th" in 1980 has him unmasked. He jumps out of Crystal Lake to pull Alice (Adrienne King) into the water. It's a quick moment, but viewers can see his deformed face. It plays into what we know about Jason from earlier in the film when Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) blamed her son's drowning on the camp counselors, who were too busy having sex to keep an eye on him. Mrs. Voorhees dies in the movie, but Jason's decomposing corpse is still out there, and he only grows more grotesque with each subsequent installment.
This can be seen in "Friday the 13th Part 2." This marks Jason's official transition into the franchise's main antagonist, and audiences see him unmasked again at the end of the film. He lunges through a window to attack Ginny (Amy Steel) sans mask, with his face continuing to be deformed and slightly drooping on one side. From there, his facial features would change in each sequel.
Jason's unmasked face resembles that of a decomposing corpse
If there's one thing you can count on to happen in every "Friday the 13th" movie, it's that Jason's going to remove his mask at some point. The trend continues into "Friday the 13th Part III," where Chris (Dana Kimmell) sees an unmasked Jason, and in an ensuing fight, she hits him with an axe to the head, which sadly isn't enough to stop the monster Jason has become.
He's back in "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter," which would prove to be false advertising. Jason loses his mask again after being hit in the head. Many consider this version of maskless Jason to be the definitive one, in part thanks to the great special effects work from legend Tom Savini. In 2008, he spoke with Friday the 13th: The Website about his contributions to the franchise and what went into the character's iconic death toward the end, "Jason's death evolved when one of my crew guys held up the Dawn of the Dead machete to his head and that gave me the idea of hitting Jason in the head with a machete, but then making him slide down the blade. They didn't have an ending to the film until I showed up, replacing Greg Cannom, and we came up with all sorts of things besides his death."
"Friday the 13th: A New Beginning" had Roy Burns (Dick Wieand) as the new killer, pretending to be Jason. But when Jason actually returned, he would take on a more monstrous visage.
Jason Voorhees becomes more demon than human later in the series
Starting with "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives," he takes on a more demonic form when he's not wearing his hockey mask. He's straight-up a monster at this point who gradually grows more grotesque. This can readily be seen in one of the most horrific scares in "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood," when Jason's mask breaks, revealing a haunting appearance. While Jason's real face morphed over the years, a certain trajectory could be tracked early on. But then his face changes in each new installment from here on out.
For example, the next entry, "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," sees the antagonist's face as more bloated. It takes on more of the aesthetic that Jason likely should've had from the start, meaning if he drowned as a boy, his corpse probably would've retained water. And by the time "Jason X" comes around, it's back to being somewhat more human, albeit slimy.
The slasher would lose his mask in "Freddy vs. Jason," but in this dream world, he's a child. So viewers get a glimpse at what Jason would've looked like before his drowning. It's removed once again in the 2009 reboot "Friday the 13th," but he's mostly shrouded in darkness, making it hard to see what he looks like. There appears to be some type of deformity, but the unmasking mainly happens, so he has an excuse to try on his signature hockey mask. Jason Voorhees has gone through many forms over the years, and while most people associate him with the mask, seeing what his face looks like each time is a treat in and of itself.