http://dbd.game/killswitch
Serious question: Why are people so into Jason?
From what I've seen, he's as bland as they come. Just a generic slasher/"torture porn", nothing that sets him apart from every other slasher ever. Saw had some vague philosophical depth to it and both it and Candyman had some psychological elements (and Candyman touched on racism). Jason is boring. All flash and no substance, as they say.
A common criticism of Candyman is that he's not that famous outside the USA, but neither is Jason. I didn't even know he existed until I dated a girl who was into F13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street. Other than her, though, nobody knew about either of them or cared.
EDIT: Since people are (rightly) saying that my social circle doesn't represent the world, I looked at the box office. About 18% of the box office for the entire F13th franchise came from outside the USA. Usually it'd be a 50/50 split for something that's considered "iconic". A Nightmare on Elm Street has a 75/25 split, more or less.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_(franchise)#Reception
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nightmare_on_Elm_Street_(franchise)#Box_office
Comments
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He's the last of the "Big 3" slasher Icons. We've got Meyers, Krueger, and now we just need Jason for the collection to be complete
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Yeah, Myers and Freddy aren't famous outside the USA either.
I take it you missed the part about the girlfriend and how nobody else knew or cared about Jason or Freddy?
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Hockey Mask.
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So you didn't read it, gotcha. Let me know when you have.
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Maybe hes that bland because he was one of the earliest once and didnt need to be creative or indepth. (Kinda like dbd itself lol).
I mean, hes a big hulking dude, maybe people are just thirsty for dem abs?
But i think its because he's one of the more well known slashers.
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That first sentence makes sense and is a fair justification for why he's so bland.
Also, abs are overrated.
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I didn't know one person's social circle represented the whole world. I see the opposite. Many people inside and outside the US know him or at the least the look. The only truth in the post really is that the movies aren't that good and nowhere near the best in the genre... There's far better horror movies. Many however do not make for engaging gameplay and don't have the iconic appeal.
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He is iconic, simple as. Having the Freddy-Jason-Leatherface trio in the game would be massive.
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No, my social circle doesn't represent the whole world, but you'd think at least someone would've heard of them, right? Also, people know the look of "hockey mask"? Why is that surprising, given that sports as a whole are the among biggest industries on the planet?
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I don't believe you did. If you had, you wouldn't be claiming I was the only one who didn't know Jason.
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That's another one I'd never heard of until DbD. I'd ask my current social circle, but they're not into horror movies, so it might just be me.
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If you say so. Seems to me the films are only famous in the USA, but...
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Nah mate, I live in Mexico and he is pretty recongnized here as well, maybe not at the extent Freddy Krueger or Myers are, but he is still present.
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I mean, if you just compare box office for Friday the 13th, you can see that the vast majority of the box office comes from the USA. Usually, about half of it would be from the USA, and half from outside the USA. However, according to Wikipedia, about 383 million USD of the box office came from the USA, and about 84 million USD from outside the USA. Those are numbers for the whole franchise, BTW.
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In one person's social circle? I could name off a well known musician, major footballers or powerful historical figures and easily get many that don't know them in mine if any at all. if I'm just approaching people I know in real life anyways. Why? Because not everyone has an interest, pays attention outside of their bubble, seeks out knowledge or is just too young.
It isn't surprising it is known when it is combined with a muscular guy carrying a machete that's known for killing teenagers. That iconography is known. Not just a hockey mask. There's a whole costume that used to be all over the place. That's like saying Freddy is only known for wearing a striped sweater or being a burn victim. Maybe not by people you know but clearly the fan base is big enough that he has a big following. One big enough that people do have a major interest in him to go buy a DLC for it. That's probably not going to happen.
And if we're using our SO's as the end all be all my boyfriend knows all three while hating horror movies. I have to talk him into seeing any. He knew them before me when he's from Nepal originally, lived much of his life in HK and London. Why? Because if you're born in your 70s, 80s or early to mid 90s then chances are it had some impact on pop culture. Again he's kind of overrated but by no means not iconic.
And yeah I didn't mean to post twice.
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Well, you're right about my social circle not representing the world, which is why I looked at the box office instead. According to that objective data, F13th isn't popular internationally.
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Jason, Freddy etc. are well known outside of the US. Candyman tho is not even popular in there. Just a failed franchise.
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Candyman is indeed not popular in the USA (though the fact that it's getting a reboot/remake would call into question that "failed franchise" bit). However, according to the box office numbers, the other ones aren't well known outside the USA either.
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They are in the EU at least. As americans say, the rest if the world doesn’t exist.
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If Jason, Freddy, and Myers are all unpopular outside of the US, then which horror icons are popular? And if they're so unpopular then how come I keep seeing references to Freddy and Jason in foreign works?
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Anything and everything is getting a reboot right now(I mean Bubsy got a reboot and his games are universally panned).
Secondly jason's look is iconic even outside of the USA sense his likeness is on characters like Grieghton the Wanderer from Dark souls 2/3 which is a Japanese franchise.
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Abs aren't overrated! The body's core muscles (which includes your abs) provide the foundation for all physical activity.
Additionally your abdominal muscles in particular serve to shield your delicate lower organs from physical harm.
Jason though, he's more or less a big walking corpse. Any sizable abs he may have had are probably mostly putrescent.
Which leads into his appeal.
He is the origin of the archetypal impervious, ever-returning, superhuman slasher. The reason he seems boring or derivative is because his success was the impetus for those slasher films that seem so similar.
Before he was around that more or less didn't exist. F13 made it popular and kept it popular for about a decade.
It's easy to say in hindsight, "Jason's not so special", just like it is to say, "Star Wars isn't that creative", or "Dracula's just another lewd vampire story" - but that's ignoring the innovations at the time that made those stories possible.
F13 is a special franchise: one that certainly defines the golden age of the slasher movies that DBD draws so much inspiration from.
Also, for some people, the hulking, unstoppable Killer archetype is still interesting; Jason and his silent hatred, devotion to his dead mother, and proclivity for using a variety of common tools as weapons to kill mostly innocent teens (that are typically developed as characters and not just immediately thrown into a meat grinder), in particular.
Just because you don't see the appeal to the above, doesn't mean there is none.
I personally find the quasi-philosophical ramblings of Saw and the rather ludicrously violent nature of the later traps to be a bit tedious, but that doesn't stop it from having a large fan base who do appreciate those traits.
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If Jason, Myers and Freddy aren’t famous, then which horror slasher is?
They are iconic and defined the whole slasher genre. Toss in GhostFace/Scream and Leatherface you have the 5 biggest together.
they may tend to be more iconic/known in the US (and EU) but really, what else would count as iconic if not them?
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I meant abs are overrated for attractiveness.
I'm not saying there's no appeal, quite the opposite. I recognize there is appeal, I'm just wondering why.
"Outside the USA". Read that again, then look at the box office numbers.
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hmm. I didn’t argue against them being less known outside the US..
I just wanted to know what would count as iconic for the slasher genre. I would just assume it is kind of a genre that is generally more iconic for US-movie-industry as a whole.
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We are soooooooo close to the full group!
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Ahem, Big 4 the quartet, Bubba may be the least iconic of the four but he is there.
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I'm hoping the next killer is Jason that way we can complete the whole squad:
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Yes!
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I don't know who candyman is.
But i know Jason like 20 years.
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Im confused on why you think your source proves your point. While it grossed more domestically it did quite well internationally. (Second column are US Numbers, 3rd column is international, im showing the last 2 made)
And furtger you called him bland and generic, he was so influential that he helped define what the generic slasher is:
I get that outside the US hes probably not AS well known, but hes MORE well known than the VAST MAJORITY of the slashers/horror killers out there. How many people outside the US have heard of Maniac, Pumpkinhead, Puppetmaster? My guess is very little. Want to bet more have heard of Jason than have heard of Candyman? In terms of Horror Icon status, its simply undeniable that he fits that definition.
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I agree, the movies are actually some of the worst of all time. There isn't a single decent movie in the 12 F13 movies there are. Once you have watched the first, you have watched all of them, they all follow the same plot. Horney teenagers, horney teens get killed, final girl, final girl discovers bodies, final girl's boyfriend dies, final girl kills Jason, etc etc.
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*Cough* I believe you mean Big Quintet. @Lazerboy88 @KiloOfSalt Ghostface singlehandedly revived this entire genre in the 90s after it played itself out.
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