In the world of modern horror, slashers tend to survive just about anything. However, it seems that Jason Voorhees from the Friday The 13th franchise is the slasher that has overcome just about everything. Is Voorhees truly unstoppable and completely indestructible?

In Friday The 13th Part III, Jason was pronounced dead after an axe to the head. Jason experienced death-by-machete in The Final Chapter. He was brought back to life in Jason Lives. Voorhees was blown to bits, engaged in body-jumping and was dragged to hell in Jason Goes To Hell. He successfully battled another slasher, Freddy Krueger, as well. In Jason X, Mr. Voorhees was blown up aboard a space ship and subsequently reconstructed with futuristic nanotechnology. Jason has endured a lot to say the least. What’s more, he never stops killing.

Other movie slashers have gone through their share of adversity. Nevertheless, what they’ve encountered doesn’t seem as severe as what Jason has gone through. Halloween’s Michael Myers has been consumed by fire, hit by vehicles, electrocuted, injected with corrosive agents, fallen down a shaft, shot hundreds of times, and escaped decapitation. Myers, however, has never been to the depths of hell (yet). He also needed to rest for a year between the events of Halloween 4 and Halloween 5. Jason only seems to rest when he’s dead.

The film Freddy vs. Jason showed us that Freddy Krueger doesn’t quite have what it takes to survive in the real world – he had his head chopped off. Jason, on the other hand, can survive in both the real and dream worlds. Another vulnerability that Freddy has is that his victims have to believe in him or else he loses his power (as seen in Freddy vs. Jason and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare). Jason Voorhees doesn’t need anyone to believe in him.

When speaking of challenges to Jason’s indestructibility, Hellraiser’s cenobite Pinhead comes to mind. Whereas Jason has been sent to hell, Pinhead lives in hell. Pinhead was once a human but was transformed into a demon. He must be summoned to the Earth via a mystical Puzzle Box. On Earth, Pinhead can kill people by turning them into cenobites or by commanding objects that come out of nowhere. However, the film Hellraiser: Bloodline revealed that Pinhead was destroyed in the distant future in outer space. Jason has also been to space, but his ultimate fate is unknown. Jason entered the planet’s atmosphere but didn’t disintegrate right away.

An unlikely rival to Jason Voorhees’ indestructibility is Ghostface from the Scream movies. The Scream slasher Ghostface is different in the 4 films released thus far. Ghostface is more about a legacy and a concept. Ghostface is always human, but relies on an idea of fear to empower and inspire new killers.

A saying, attributed to civil rights activist Medgar Evers, goes, “You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea.” I agree with this statement. But does it apply to the world of movie slashers? Jason Voorhees is more of a zombie than a man, now. Ghostface remains an idea for the most part. Is Voorhees the only indestructible slasher in the world of movies? Perhaps he is. Or would Ghostface (or another killer) challenge that assertion?