The Journey of the Part III Mask

The first glimpses of Jason's hockey mask

Friday The 13th parts II - V may not be perfect continuity-wise, but I think they have the best continuity flow movie-to-movie of the entire franchise. Parts II - IV tell a story over an extended weekend of the rampage of the serial killer Jason Voorhees from start until he is finally killed at the end of Part IV. I still say that the franchise would have ad a lot more credibility if it ended with The Final Chapter or even A New Beginning. Regardless of the (near) fatal blows Jason took through parts II - IV (i.e. a machete severing his sub-clavian artery in II, a hanging in III, etc) -which all can be contributed to logic errors- these entries can be realistically easily be set in reality about a real-live killer. If Jason was once and for all defeated at the end of Part IV, I think critics would have given the franchise a bit more credit than they do now.



At any rate, one of the continuous flows between said movies (Part II being excluded for an obvious reason) is the hockey mask. Parts III, IV and V are the only movies in which a hockey mask was shared and I will break it down best to my knowledge. I really do not claim to be an expert at this subject, so please feel free to correct me if I am wrong or if you wish to add something!

Hell, we all know that Jason obtained his infamous hockey mask from Shelly Finklestein in Friday The 13th III. According to Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Shelly played hockey as a goalie where he wore his now infamous hockey mask. Here is the evolution, if you will, of that mask from parts III - V.

Part III
Below is some of the earliest close-up views we got of this mask. Notice the scuff marks that may have been put there by the SFX team and may have gotten there from shooting. However, if you go back and take a close-up look of Shelly's mask after he scares Vera it has the same scuffs. That leads me to believe two scenarios; that scene with Shelly was shot after some scenes were shot with Jason in which the scuffs made it to the mask or again, they were put there by the SFX team.

Here's another shot of the Part III mask in which you can see a scuff on the left cheek. I only point this out for a reason I will later address.

The mask we see at the end of Friday the 13th: Part III

The above mask is the "hero" mask, so to speak. The mask is a completely different mask in the film; used for stunts, most notably the axe to the head stunt in which Jason was defeated. This mask is actually a lot more beat up than the other mask, the left side cheek scuffs looks exaggerated and larger-- as if they were put there by the SFX to sort of sync up with the "hero" mask for continuity reasons. You can also see in the mask of Jason laying dead in the movie that part of the top chevron was missing-- something that continued on into Part IV. In this scene you can see most of the cheek scuffs in which the top layer of beige paint was scratched off revealing the white inner paint showing through the clear hockey mask blank.



Part IV
Again, we really don't get a good close-up of Jason's mask until the climax of the film-- during Doug's death in the shower. In that shot we get a good glimpse of it and with that shot you can see mark-for-mark that it's indeed the Part III stunt mask. By this time the right cheek chevron has started to peel as well as the forehead triangle has lost a bit more of the infamous vinyl triangle. This has been associated with the rain machine causing it to peel off, as well as stunts and routine trauma to the mask while shooting. Attempts were made to super-glue it back on, which later in the movie you can clearly see the residue from it.

The same mask used at the end of Part III

Later in the movie you can get other close ups of the mask where you can really see the damage the mask has taken over the course of (now) two movies. Only one hockey mask was used in this film and some continuity is askew since the movie was not shot in complete sequence. For instance, when Trish runs from her house to the 'party house' after Jason is hit over the head with the TV as Jason enters the other home you can see his mask still has two cheek chevrons. By the time he makes it to the top of the stairs it is back to the hockey mask seen below, which (in the movie) was moments before he was hit in the head. In this shot both cheek chevrons are completely gone. This scene is also where his mask acquired that swiggled line starting at the axe cut to the eye socket- a lot of people thought it was blood draining when in fact it was a crack from the rubber hammer that Jason was hit with during this scene.

The scene were the hockey mask gets cracked

The only reason why I say that is indeed a crack (other than the obvious reason) is in this shot from the outtakes, you can see the crack on the inside of the mask. It seems like after this scene the mask was glued back together, however blood probably oozed into the crack staining the glue and being lodged into the crack creating that iconic red line.

You can see the crack on the backside

Back to the chase between Trish and Jason-- here's a shot where you can really see the abuse the mask has taken. At this point the infamous scuffs we see at the end of Part III has been spray painted over with white.

The battered hockey mask

Part V
Okay, so we all know that Jason was not the killer in this movie aside from the two people in the hallucination. However, the Part III/IV mask does make an appearance in this film. The first look we got of A Jason mask was a replica that SFX creator David Miller made out of re-casting the Part III/IV mask. In his version we now have a full forehead chevron and we no longer have the infamous cheek buttons. The straps are also riveted on in a peculiar way-- reversed of which they were in Parts III and IV, from the inside of the mask. This version was a muddy version of one that we saw later in the film.

A new hockey mask made from a a copy of the Part III and IV

This is the same mask, but since the opening scene was shot after principal photography, it was after this scene was shot. Basically the same deal, just clean.

Another look of the new mask

Other than the quick shot of Tommy's hallucination earlier in the movie, this is the only appearance of the Part III/IV mask in the movie. In this shot you get a really good look at the scratches and scuffs. However, one thing that sticks out is that the straps and buttons are no longer snapped-buttoned on, they are screwed. The reason for this is that when David Miller created his replicas, he had to remove the buttons to do so and afterward he re-secured them with machine screws.

The mask used in III and IV makes a cameo

A close up of the Part III and IV mask in Friday the 13th: Part V

After Part V it seemed like the buck used to actually create the first blanks used in Part III went onto produce masks for a good handful of the forthcoming movies with the help of SFX artist Martin Becker who worked on a III and V as well as VI, VII and VIII. So, in an odd way pretty much all of the masks are related to each other, but never have the same-exact mask has been used over the course of two movies much less three.

The mask has now been retired and safely resides in the collection of stuntman extraordinaire Dick Warlock.
UPDATE: Warlock sold the mask to an anonymous buyer.

The original mask used in parts III, IV and V in a private collection