A growing encyclopedia of all things Friday the 13th — characters, lore, behind-the-scenes, and media. Fan-built, and open for you to add to.
20 entries
The drowned boy of Camp Crystal Lake who refused to stay dead. Across the films he goes from a feral, sack-headed hermit to a masked, machete-wielding force of nature — and finally to something openly supernatural and unkillable. The hockey mask and the machete are his enduring signatures.
Jason’s mother and the killer of the original 1980 film. Convinced the counselors’ negligence let her son drown, she takes a slow, methodical revenge — the grief at the root of everything that follows. Her death on the shore is the wound that wakes her son.
The closest thing the series has to a recurring hero. Introduced as a horror-effects-obsessed boy who kills Jason in The Final Chapter, he returns across the next two films — institutionalized by trauma, then forced to face (and accidentally resurrect) the thing he once stopped.
The wild-eyed local harbinger who warns each new wave of counselors that the camp has a death curse and they are all doomed. Dismissed as the town crank in two films — and proven right both times.
The final girl of the original film, who survives the night and beheads Pamela Voorhees on the shore. Her hard-won survival is cut brutally short at the start of Part 2.
The resourceful final girl of Part 2, a child-psych student who survives by donning Pamela’s old sweater and impersonating Jason’s mother long enough to stop him — the first hint that his devotion can be turned against him.
The original sin of Crystal Lake: a young Jason drowns while the counselors meant to be watching are distracted. His body is never recovered — leaving room for a mother’s denial, and for the lake to keep its son.
The nickname locals give Camp Crystal Lake after its killings — a place so cursed that every attempt to reopen it ends in fire, fouled water, or worse. The name is folklore the townspeople use to keep outsiders away.
Jason’s most iconic feature arrives almost by accident in Part III, lifted off a prankster named Shelly. Before it he wore a burlap sack. After it, the white mask became one of horror’s most recognizable images.
No death in the series is ever final. Jason is stopped, drowned, blown apart, and frozen — only to return by lightning, by telekinesis, by body-hopping possession, and by cryogenic thaw. The mythology runs on the simple promise that he always comes back.
Jason Goes to Hell introduces the rule that Jason can only be truly killed — or reborn — through his own blood relatives, revealing a surviving sister and niece and tying his fate to a cursed family dagger.
In Jason X, future nanotechnology rebuilds a damaged Jason into a sleeker, armored cyborg version of himself — fan-nicknamed “Uber Jason.” The lake’s monster, upgraded for the 25th century.
The makeup-effects artist who designed the original film’s practical gore and later returned for The Final Chapter — specifically to help “kill” the character he’d had a hand in creating. A foundational name in the series’ visceral reputation.
The stuntman who played Jason in four films (Parts VII and VIII, Jason Goes to Hell, and Jason X), more than any other performer. For many fans his physical, lumbering menace is the definitive Jason.
Composer Harry Manfredini’s signature stinger — a whispered, stabbing vocal rhythm meant to evoke Pamela’s voice in Jason’s head (“kill, kill… mommy, mommy”). It became one of horror’s most instantly recognizable cues.
Paramount produced the first eight films, then sold the rights to New Line Cinema — “the house that Freddy built” — which is how Jason eventually ended up in a long-teased crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street.
The infamously difficult LJN game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, in which players defend campers against Jason. Brutally hard and oddly beloved, it became a cult touchstone of so-bad-it’s-memorable licensed gaming.
An asymmetrical multiplayer game where one player hunts as Jason while others try to survive as counselors. Praised for capturing the films’ tone, its life was cut short by a real-world rights dispute that halted new content.
An exhaustive documentary chronicling the making of the franchise film by film, widely regarded as the definitive behind-the-scenes record for fans who want the whole story.
Jason has headlined numerous comic series over the years from publishers including Topps, Avatar Press, and WildStorm — expanding the mythology and even staging further crossovers in print.
Know a piece of Crystal Lake lore we’re missing?