Michael Myers versus Jason Voorhees

This is a showdown between the two titans of slasher horror - Michael Myers of the Halloween series and Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th series. They’re both silent, they both like to kill teenagers (although they aren’t too picky) and they both spawned an epic chain of slasher films. These legendary characters have featured in recent remakes but for the purposes of this competition we’ll focus on the original films. So gloves off, get ready to slash your way to victory, join us live for Myers vs Voorhees.

Round 1 – Originality
Michael Myers spawned the entire slasher genre so this round has to go to him. Director John Carpenter had no idea what he was creating in 1978 with his low budget smash hit Halloween. The basic format went on to serve as the blueprint for countless slasher films. Friday the 13th didn’t crop up until 1980 and even then Jason wasn’t the killer, he first appeared in part 2 but he didn’t pick up his trademark hockey mask until part 3 in 1982.

Round 2 – Body Count
Jason managed to accumulate more appearances than Michael but even looking at the individual films he always tended to be a bit more bloodthirsty. By my estimation Jason has killed at least163 people while Michael has slaughtered a paltry 74. This round goes to Voorhees.

Round 3 – Evil
Michael was always described as being “pure evil” and even his psychiatrist Dr. Loomis thought he was beyond saving. He killed his own sister when he was just a child to kick off his murder spree and he never shows any humanity. Jason on the other hand is quite a sympathetic character, bullied and drowned as a kid he returns for vengeance and he loves his mother. Interestingly both characters avoid killing small children so there is some limit to their evil unlike their contemporary Freddy Krueger. This round goes to Myers.

Round 4 – Imagination
Their usual choices may be kitchen knife for Myers and machete for Voorhees but neither is above some improvisation. The Friday the 13th films took this to new lengths though and Voorhees has to win the imaginative murder award. He memorably bashed a girl in a sleeping bag to death by thumping her against a tree, he scored a two for one with a young couple having sex and a handy pitchfork and he even killed one girl with a party hooter to the eye.

Round 5 – Supporting Characters
The Halloween series always had strong supporting characters. Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis was awesome and he really afforded the films a bit of gravity and helped to heighten the horror. Halloween also had Jamie Lee Curtis as a recurring character. For Friday the 13th it was a fresh batch every time and the closest they got to a recurring character was Tommy Jarvis although he was a different actor each time. Myers has to take this round.

Round 6 – Appearance
For the original Halloween they grabbed a William Shatner mask and altered it to create Myers look. He often wore a boiler suit along with it. Voorhees started out with dungarees and a sack with one eye hole and graduated to a hockey mask with swamp stained shirt and jeans. You never see Michael behind the mask whereas Jason is revealed as deformed troll who gradually becomes a rotten, maggot infested corpse. Jason has to win this one.

And the winner is…..well actually it is a cop-out otherwise known as a dead heat. They’re both the kings of slasher films. There’s just no choosing between them.