Ok, I have to be honest, this has been making the rounds on Reddit and other places over the last few days and it seems to be old news, but – for the sake of transparency, it slipped under my radar completely so, in case you’re in the same boat, I thought I would share it as it blows my mind.
In an interview a while back, Jason Goes To Hell director Adam Marcus revealed that not only did the movie set up the Freddy Vs Jason movie, but it set up a much deeper cut connection too.
In the movie the Necronomicon-Ex Mortis in the Voorhees basement – for those not in the know, the Necronomicon-Ex Mortis is the Book of the Dead that Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) used to call forth the Deadites and bring darkness on the earth.
Now, to many this was a sure fire nod to The Evil Dead and the Friday the 13th Franchises being all set in the same universe – heck, there was even a Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash comic sequel to Freddy Vs Jason – but to others, it was just a sly nod for the fans.
But not only was it a deliberate set-up, it was suggesting something even bigger! Jason Vorhees is a deadite!!!
What?!
“[I] wanted to create a mythology for Jason in this movie, because it had driven me nuts as a viewer,” Marcus said at the time.
“She [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 [Sam] Raimi loved it!”
It’s not that we didn’t know that a Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash movie wasn’t planned, with Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell saying 2016: “I’ll be honest with you. I’m not real interested in crossovers. One of the main reasons why ‘Ash vs. Jason vs. Freddy’ did not come to pass is because we couldn’t control any other character other than Ash. That felt like a creatively bankrupt way to go. Not to mention, you’re splitting the proceeds three ways with partners you might not want.”
But, honestly, I never believed that a link was canon. Until now.
“It’s not like I could tell New Line my plan to include The Evil Dead, because they don’t own The Evil Dead,” Marcus added, “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.”
“It absolutely is canon.”
I love this… I have made no secret of my love for a good crossover and this, to me, sounds like it could have been a hell (literally) of a lot of fun.
What say you all? Let me know, horror fans…
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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