Comparing and contrasting Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers

I think it’s unfair to call Jason Voorhees a knock off version of Michael Myers. Yes, they are both silent, masked men with a penchant for sharp objects. But that’s really where the likeness ends. So here some differences I’ve noticed:

MASKS (and why they wear them)

Cosmetic differences aside, I think the both killers wear masks for very different reasons.

Jason wears one to cover up his deformities. Throughout his young life, Jason was tormented, bullied, and ostracized because of his physical appearance. Perhaps into his adulthood he came to resent his own person and basically used whatever he could find to cover his face: settling with a fabric sack in F13 part 2. Jason ends up ditching the Baghead look in favor of the hockey mask because it provided better visibility.

Apart from his eye injury, Michael is not disfigured and would have no trouble blending into society. Michael’s reasoning behind being masked isn’t to hide a disfigurement or to even conceal his identity (since everyone knows who he is). He wears a mask to unsettled and instill dread into his victims. Michael is shown to be a sadist who takes pleasure in toying with his victims before killing them. This mask is used as an intimidation tactic.

SILENCE (why they don’t speak)

Jason’s muteness can be attributed to a mental handicap, though he is capable of grunts, groans, and occasional yowls of pain. Assuming that his mother was the only person he ever really interacted with, it makes that would have trouble communicating since he was practically living off of the wilderness.

Michael Myers is fully capable of speech, according to Loomis and Sartain. He just chooses not to speak because of Eeeeeeeeevil!

INTENTIONS

This is where both killers are fundamentally different.

If you follow his story arc in pts 2 through 4, Jason is villainous version of “the wild man of the woods” character archetype. After his supposed drowning, he spent all his life in living in the woods in solitude. He holds a personal vendetta against irresponsible youths, blaming them for his drowning and his mother’s death (regardless if they actually had anything to do with either transgressions). Jason is motivated by rage and vengeance.

Michael, however, doesn’t need to have a motive. He’s evil and he derives some twisted form of pleasure and amusement in stalking and killing victims.

Jason can be a somewhat sympathetic character because he was made into a monster by the tragedies in his life. Michael, on the other hand, just is a monster.

Thoughts?