Director Sean S Cunningham gave genre fans the beginning of a saga with his film Friday the 13th back in 1980. Following the classic theme of camp horror, the film was quick to become a pop culture icon. To date, every Friday that falls on the 13th day of the month reminds fans of this film, and people dress up as Jason, the famous killer from the franchise, even today. Friday the 13th was followed up by sequels Friday the 13th Part II, Part III, Part IV: The Final Chapter, Part V: A New Beginning, Part VI: Jason Lives, Part VII: The New Blood, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. The film also has two spin-offs (Jason X, Freddy vs. Jason) and a remake titled Friday the 13th.
Paramount wanted Jason to die a death more gruesome than he already did
Recently we find that in the fourth film (Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter), Jason would have met a death that would have left him that way for good and, consequently, putting a stop to the franchise. The death was meant to be gory, justifying all the murders he committed. Still, the makers changed their course several times and finally settling for what we have seen in the film officially where Tommy, dressed as a young Jason, kills him using his machete. This alternate death that Jason did not face (thankfully) involved Tommy killing him with a hand-made device instead, and it would have fried his brain till the point of explosion using electric currents.
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It all worked out for the better
The Director of the film decided to go with the machete, believing it was poetic justice that Jason was killed with the weapon he used to massacre so many people. Not only this but the ending of the film that the makers finally settled with played a big role in the film’s huge success, and that convinced Paramount to go ahead with more sequels. Many fans speculated that in the follow-up film, it would be Tommy who plays the killer and even responded negatively just based on the speculation itself. Perhaps this was the reason behind bringing Jason back and not using a copycat killer.
