Cool Horror Videos: Jason Voorhees interviewed by Arsenio Hall

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I wish I could go back and relive the '80s era of horror, when FRIDAY THE 13TH movies were being released on a regular basis and Jason Voorhees and his fellow slashers were a major presence in pop culture. I was there to see and be fascinated by some of it, but I was a little kid at the time. I couldn't even see an F13 in the theatre until FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN in 1989.

It was in '89 that Paramount Pictures had the genius marketing idea of having Jason appear on a talk show they produced, The Arsenio Hall Show, which had its premiere at the start of that year and quickly became a hit.

There was no slacking when it came to this appearance, either. They didn't have some random stand-in play Jason, they got the man who played the character in the film (and the previous one, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD), Kane Hodder. They had Hodder made up the same way Jason looks in JASON TAKES MANHATTAN, and sent him out on stage to interact with Arsenio in character.

While Jason holds back from killing people for a few minutes, Arsenio tries to conduct an interview with someone who doesn't speak, and it's a lot of fun to watch their interaction. 

The video of this 1989 interview can be seen above.