He’s back! After a near-decade long hiatus, the holiday themed killer of Haddonfield returns to the big screen with a familiar face. Jamie Lee Curtis will once again be reprising her role as Myer’s sister, Laurie Strode. The two will take sibling rivalry to the next level as they both try to put each in the ground once and for all in 2018’s Halloween. Believe or not, Michael Myers isn’t the only unstoppable masked mass murderer on the block. Just two years after the original Halloween release in 1978, the world was introduced to yet another sinister serial killer. That’s right, I’m talking about the infamous Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. The two bear much in common from their pension for bladed weapons to their date specific murder patterns. Especially, their shared hatred for teenagers, man do they slicing them up! There’s just one nagging question though: who’s the superior slasher?
In keeping with the spirit of the season, we’ll be putting these two horror legends against one another in our versus arena. We’ll be examining the characters’ history, skills and even supernatural powers. That’s right, we’re taking all the films into account, even the terrible ones. So lock your doors and check your calendars because this is Michael Myers vs Jason Voorhees!
Background
Unsurprisingly, the Halloween and Friday the 13th universes have had so many retcons, reboots and downright silly sequels, it’d frankly make your head spin. Therefore, we’ll be breaking down the history of these two killers based on their first films, giving you only the main essentials that have retained over the years. Since Halloween was made 2 years before Friday the 13th, the elder shall go first. Michael Myers started his homicidal habits from a young age, 6 to be exact, when he murdered his older sister Judith. His parents admitted him to a mental institute, where a persistent Dr Loomis spends 15 years trying to reform the boy. Alas, he fails and comes to the realization that Michael is simply evil. He breaks out of Smith’s Grove Sanitarium and heads to his hometown of Haddonfield. There he begins stalking teenage babysitter Laurie Strode, who in actuality is his sister. Michael Myers is a being of pure hatred, driven by a need to end every single member of his family, mainly Laurie though.
As for Jason, he was born to a single mother Pamela Voorhees. Due to his facial deformities, Pamela became very protective of the young Jason. She even opted to homeschool the boy in an attempt to minimize his interaction with other children. For a good reason as well, mind you. His mother was a cook at Camp Crystal Lake and frequently brought Jason along with her. Apparently, she couldn’t get a babysitter. The kids in camp would bully him due to his unusual behaviour but one day they took it way too far. They threw him into a lake and poor Jason drowned. The camp counsellors that were supposed to be watching campers were off getting it on in the woods. The death of her son drove Pamela insane and returned to Camp Crystal Lake to murder the two irresponsible counsellors. The fact that she found them going at it certainly didn’t deter her. She massacred her way across the camp before being decapitated by one of the counsellors. A revived Jason witnessed the events and swore vengeance on all sex-crazed teens and trespassers of Camp Crystal Lake.
Intelligence and Skills
In both film franchises, Myers and Voorhees share a lot of common traits in terms of operating method. For one, both of them have shown a remarkable aptitude for stealth, being able to sneak behind their victims with relative ease. They have also shown great proficiency with blades, with Myers sporting his signature kitchen knife and Voorhees a machete. In past instances, they were able to adapt to using multiple tools. In Halloween, Michael strangled a woman to death using a phone cord and killed another using a syringe in the sequel. Jason does have a slight edge, however, seeing that he’s not only proficient with melee weapons but with projectile based ones as well. In Friday the 13th Part III, Jason launches a spear gun into the eye of a camper, killing her on the spot. The closest thing Michael has ever done to firing a gun is impaling somebody with a shotgun in Halloween 4.
As for intelligence, I’ll also have to give it to Voorhees. While Myers does rival his opponent in tracking skills, shown in his ability to locate his blood relatives without aid, he’s not exactly a forward thinker. Sometimes, he’ll idiotically make himself known to his victims before killing them. I mean get it that he’s playing mind games with them but that offers his victims opportunities to escape. Jason, on the other hand, is a strategist. He is capable of setting traps as seen in Friday the 13th Part 2 when he snags a camp counsellor in a rope trap. Restraining his victim and waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Don’t get me wrong, Myers certainly is intelligent but he’s just not as methodical as Jason. Looks like mama Pamela taught him well.
Strength and Powers
Jason and Michael are known in their respective franchises as unstoppable killing machines. Time and time again, these two mute maniacs have refused to stay dead. One important aspect that should be noted would be the source of their durability and strength. Since we’re pitting them against each other at their strongest, we’ll also be taking their supernatural origins into account. Between Halloween 4 to 6, it is revealed that Myers’ superhuman strength and durability stems from a curse given to him by the Thorn cult. To keep the cult alive, its members require a child to murder his entire family. It’s never really clarified if the curse can be revoked by existing cult members but that’s irrelevant seeing that Michael murdered all of them.
Jason’s supernatural origins is even murkier! It’s never explained how he was resurrected or where he draws his powers from. He just kinda decided not to stay dead. Unlike Michael, Jason has the ability to possess people as seen in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. That being said, the film also reveals that Jason does have a weakness, a dagger forged to kill him. Jessica Kimble in Final Friday manages stab Jason sending him straight to hell. He does come back to life in Freddy Vs Jason but that’s only because Krueger revived the hockey-masked killer. Without him, Voorhees would pretty much have remained dead. This round would honestly have to go to Myers, barely though. If Myers’ powers are drawn from his mission to kill every single one of his family members, he’ll pretty much stay immortal forever. Why you may ask? Because even if he does kill every living relative he sees, he can’t kill himself! It’s also seen that his powers are independent of the Thorn Cult. After murdering them all, he’s still just as strong. There is a sort of implied way to kill him for good stated by Dr Loomis in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. But then again he isn’t an authoritative expert on this matter. As for Jason, we know for a matter of fact that there is a surefire to kill him once and for all.
Verdict
In a clean fight, armed with only their signature weapons, it would obviously go to Jason. Myers is armed with a freaking kitchen knife! If he’s up against Voorhees’ machete, he’s gonna end up a legless, armless thing (like a turd in the wind). Michael would have a lot more trouble trying to hack off Jason’s limbs with a kitchen knife. By the time he’s digging into Jason’s arm, his opponent would have hacked his limbs off by then. Furthermore, Jason has shown to be Michael’s tactical superior. Honestly, Myers probably wouldn’t stay dead but he would be severely incapacitated. So unless Michael can somehow obtain that magical Jason-killing dagger, he’s going to be locked in a losing battle with Jason for all eternity. So what do you guys think? Do you believe that Voorhees would prevail over Myers? Or that the Halloween hacker would be his doom? Let us know in the comments down the below, and be sure to tell us who you want to see in the next versus arena!
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