Wiz: ...and the horrifying boogeyman of Haddonfield, Michael Myers.
First, the hosts tell the tale of the undead murderer that haunts Crystal Lake, Jason Voorhees. As the story goes, Jason was once an ordinary yet deformed boy, bullied and harassed due to his physical appearance with only his mother Pamela to care for him. However, she was unable to save him when one day he fell into the waters of Camp Crystal Lake. With the camp counselors otherwise occupied elsewhere, Jason disappeared beneath the waves and drowned... supposedly. In the years since that fateful day, gruesome murders began to occur around Camp Crystal Lake, with the victims including the irresponsible camp counselors who could've saved the young Jason from his fate. It seemed that someone or something was seeking retribution for this tragic incident... and indeed, the perpetrator was none other than Pamela Voorhees, driven mad with grief over the loss of her only son. And though her vengeance would be cut short when she was eventually decapitated by the sole surviving counselor, the murders somehow continued, as if someone else was continuing the killing spree in Pamela's stead. And as fate would have it, that was exactly the case: Jason had somehow survived his drowning years ago and was now slaying all who set foot around Crystal Lake, all in the name of his dear departed mother.
The hockey mask-wearing murderer is terrifyingly durable; taking an axe to the head, having half his body blown off, and even being caught inside a massive explosion will do little to slow him down. Even when one Tommy Jarvis hacked him to death with a machete, Jason rose once more thanks to two well-placed bolts of lightning. Nobody knows the true source of his power, but the speculated causes include an Indigenous curse, the Necronomicon, and even a Hell worm. Whatever the case may be, one must exercise caution lest they become victim to Jason's signature machete, which he wields with enough strength to split a skull with one swing or stab through a metal wall. Though it would be folly to believe the Crystal Lake Killer powerless should he be unarmed, for he has utilized several different weapons and objects to put an end to his numerous victims with macabre creativity; such kills include repeatedly slamming a woman inside a sleeping bag against a tree, dunking someone headfirst into a water-filled garbage can, and snapping a man in half with a bedfold. And should this masked man catch sight of you, fleeing will only delay the inevitable, for Jason can move swiftly and silently enough that he seemingly teleports... which Wiz and Boomstick debate momentarily if he is actually able to, with DUMMI's video analysis supporting this and Ringmaster noting that Jason has the ability to do so in video game appearances... before DUMMI suddenly disappears.
Jason's unrelenting bloodlust and determination to find and kill his prey makes him a terrifying hunter, with not even a foot of solid steel enough to prevent him from reaching his mark. And if the masked murderer wasn't frightening enough, in the far-off future he would be further modified into Uber Jason, an even more powerful cybernetic form borne from Jason's remains through technological and mystical means. This new form would even fight his base counterpart, who managed to hold his own against his enhanced self for a time, which would only be natural for one experienced in fighting other supernatural foes such as Freddy Krueger, Leatherface, and Ash Williams. With no end to the Crystal Lake Killer's reign of terror in sight, one would do well to stay far away from the waters of Crystal Lake, lest they end up becoming the newest victim of Jason Voorhees.
From one masked murderer to another, Wiz and Boomstick now tell the story of Michael Myers, born a seemingly ordinary boy one Halloween night. Somehow surviving stillbirth, Michael's cold and stoic expression hid an evil darkness within, as another Halloween night in 1963 when he was only six years old, the boy would stab his older sister Judith to death with a knife. For this, Michael was institutionalized in Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where he would sit completely still, staring out the barred windows of his room with machine-like stoicism. The psychiatrist assigned to him, Dr. Samuel Loomis, would spend eight years trying to rehabilitate the boy, but Myers never spoke a word. Yet despite his confinement, Michael managed to commit several more murders, including Loomis's fiancé; it was clear that to him, the urge to kill was irresistible. After spending fifteen years inside the insane asylum, the night before Halloween of 1978, Michael broke out, only leaving behind a single word inscribed on the door of his room: "sister". For Judith was not Michael's only sister; his younger sister Laurie lived still, and clad in a blue jumpsuit and white William Shatner mask, Michael was now ready to eliminate her, as well as anyone else who got in his way.
In the murderous hands of Michael Myers, anything and everything can be a deadly weapon, with reports of several of his grisly killings across the town of Haddonfield, from exploding heads and boiling people alive to stabbing an unfortunate victim and leaving his body pinned up on a wall with an ordinary kitchen knife. Michael is also surprisingly clever, somehow teaching himself how to drive a car despite being confined for most of his life. Evidently, this time was spent plotting, but all the death he caused was a means to an end to reach his true target, his long-lost sister Laurie. And though on the night after his escape he would find and almost succeed in killing her, his former psychiatrist Dr. Loomis managed to save her, shooting Michael several times and sending him falling from a second-story balcony. Yet despite his seemingly fatal injuries, his body vanished, and he would appear again later that night seemingly no worse for wear. Michael's title of the Boogeyman is well-earned, for even when set aflame and rendered comatose, the Shape of Haddonfield simply would not die, almost suggesting a supernatural means of strength. Jocelyn interjects that while there are many speculated causes for this, less reputable sources suggest that Michael is bound to the ancient druidic Curse of Thorn, the symbol of which supposedly being an ancient icon of Halloween but is actually just a symbol representing the Norse god Thor. Though she complains about this, and Ringmaster jokingly poses that Michael could actually be a Viking, Wiz continues that whatever the source of Myers's power may be, he is driven by an inexplicable urge for murder, and that his victims never see him coming... before he and the other two notice that, like DUMMI before him, Ringmaster has vanished as well, with only his gaming console left behind.
Regardless of any possible explanations, the truth of the matter is that none know the reason for Michael's cruelty, violence, and fortitude; the Shape of Haddonfield's evil gives no explanation for his sheer unstoppable might, and he thrives not just on the death he leaves in his wake, but the fear he causes in his victims. His kills are carried out with surgical precision, and the deaths he inflicts come as swiftly or as slowly as he pleases. And though his reign of terror was nearly brought to an end by his would-be target Laurie, his intelligence was displayed when it was revealed that he faked his death using a body double, manipulating his sister into killing for him. With either an incredible amount of stealth or the power of teleportation, Michael once somehow moved through a yard filled with motion sensors without activating a single one until he moved to strike. Being riddled with bullets and caught inside an explosion have also failed to kill him, and even when the citizens of Haddonfield banded together to kill Myers once and for all, Michael endured the mob's beating and rose back up to kill them in retribution. Most terrifyingly, he was never caught and detained, and the Shape continues to haunt the town of Haddonfield to this very day.
The scene has been set, and the two serial slashers are now ready to cross blades. A few advertisements for Babbel and Better Help later, and it's time for a spooky death battle!
One foggy night near a graveyard in the forests of Crystal Lake, the voice of Pamela Voorhees alerts her son Jason to a new victim as he drags along his latest kill, wrapped inside a sleeping bag. A scream then rings out, as nearby, a bespectacled woman with bloodied clothes desperately flees to a car. Briefly collapsing onto the car's hood in her panicked haste, she slowly turns and raises her hands as her pursuer corners her, her shriek of terror cut short as she is swiftly cut down. As he comes upon the girl's corpse, the Crystal Lake Killer pulls his machete from the body of his last prey, regarding the scene before him as the masked visage of Michael Myers appears from the shadows behind him, raising his knife...
FIGHT!
...but even as he sheaths it into Jason's back, the slasher is unaffected as he retaliates with a machete swipe. As both tyrants go at it, Michael eventually gets the upper hand by pinning Crystal Lake's terrorizer to a tree, mirroring one of his kills in his early years. As a equally terrified counselor attempts to look for his fallen friend, he accidentally stumbles across the seemingly-victorious Shape and makes a run for it, Michael taking chase and failing to notice Jason's twitching fingers. As the unfortunate bystander survives a near-axe swing from the Shape and fails to start a nearby car, he's suddenly pulled out of the driver's window; Jason's back in the game. As the hockey-mask murderer prepares to kill him, an enraged Michael once again backstabs Jason to stop him from stealing his kill, letting the counselor escape towards the graveyard. As the counselor attempts to take a breather behind a tombstone... Jason's machete stabs through the tombstone and his neck, taking the third party out of the fight. Myers appears behind him with the axe raised overhead, but the ensuing swing misses its mark and the axe is swatted away into the ground. But this doesn't deter the Shape, as he breaks a tombstone over the overzealous mama's boy. As Michael attempts to push the downed slasher's head into the rear spike of the fallen axe, Jason hears Pamela's voice once more. The sight of her tombstone fills him with motivation to end the battle in his favor and her honor, and Jason shakes off Haddonfield's stalker and plunges his machete in Michael's stomach, which the Shape feebly attempts to counter with a knife to the skull. As Michael reaches his hand out, either for mercy or to retrieve the knife, Jason slams the axe down into the Shape's head, causing blood to leak from the Devil's eyes, before Jason pulls the knife out and slices Michael's head clean off. With the dust settled, Jason proceeds to split the fallen Shape's head upon Pamela's tombstone, signifying he's made his mother proud. And as Jason walks away, crickets and whispers fill the woods, marking the threat to Haddonfield officially neutralized, and the fight having reached its conclusion.
KO!
Looks like the Devil's eyes will open no longer, as the spawn of Pamela Voorhees walks away with a couple of new marks to his name, and the hosts explain how the Shape of Haddonfield became the latest victim of the Crystal Lake Killer. In many respects, both Jason and Michael boasted similar showings of strength and speed in addition to their near-surgical prowess in ending lives. Even when taking into consideration the debates about whether either man could teleport or not, this shared commonality made this point moot. The stories have depicted them as near unstoppable killing machines, but ultimately, it was Jason who just had more of a threshold than Michael in a few key categories - chief among them being his sheer durability.
Jason has proven himself to be capable of fighting while missing entire appendages and organs such that recently inflicted injuries seem to patch themselves up in seconds, whereas Michael had no such luck in this category; his own injuries take far longer to heal which would be impractical in the context of a Death Battle, which explains his attempts to fake his own death as he would not be able to survive something along the lines of decapitation for instance. Michael had no way of working around Jason's vastly superior regenerative abilities, whereas Jason could eventually overtax his opponent given enough time. On top of this, only Jason boasted experience in battling supernaturally powerful foes. His clashes with the likes of Freddy Krueger, Leatherface and Ash Williams gave him enough awareness to deal with his opponent's own monstrous tendencies, and combined with his endurance, provided everything he needed to mark Michael's unlucky end this Halloween night.
[Jocelyn has now disappeared, too, and a familiar "ch ch ch, ha ha ha" echoes]
Boomstick: ...Jocelyn? ...Hello?!
[A silhouetted figure appears behind Wiz and Boomstick]
Wiz: Th-the winner... is Jason Voorhees...
This Death Battle includes examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: Though Deborah Kim and Brandon "Buggzy" Wilson from Friday the 13th: The Game appear in the animation, here they're known as Alex and Sam, respectively.
- All There in the Script: Sam's name is only revealed in the credits.
- Composite Character:
- Michael is given this treatment, as details are used from the various Halloween timelines including the Curse of Thorn from the 4-6 timeline as well as the mob beating he survived from the 2018 timeline (incompatible with the others for the facts that Michael was locked away after the events of the first movie and Laurie not being his biological sister), and the post-fight analysis mentions some of his perks in Dead by Daylight in a sidenote.
- In the animation, Jason's appearance from Part III is used, while also featuring the axe wound in his head from Part IV on.
- Darker and Edgier: Naturally, an episode featuring an Evil Versus Evil match between two masked serial killers who kill their victims in various horrible ways is bound to be darker and Bloodier and Gorier than most previous episodes. It's also a stark contrast to the previous episode, a light-hearted battle between two goofy underwater heroes.
- The Day the Music Lied: Once Jason beheads Michael, he begins to walk away from the scene with none of Michael's remains in view. The music progressively swells, implying that Michael somehow survived this or used a body double and is about to strike back, but the fight ends there and then instead. The shorter length of the animation compared to others also helps give this impression.
- Evil Versus Evil: They're Slashers who are inconveniently getting in each other's way trying to kill innocent bystanders.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Moments before Jason grabs the male victim out of his car, the latter runs past the tree that Michael pinned Jason to, further hinting at Jason's survival.
- Foregone Conclusion: Jason's superior resilience and healing factor alone are enough of an advantage that the hosts don't even bother crunching any hard numbers about strength or speed, as Myers simply lacked the ability to really put Jason down for good and they weren't really in a lab this episode anyway.
- Foreshadowing: The episode is presented as Wiz and Boomstick telling a campfire story. While innocent at first, it's a pretty big hint at Jason (who is famous for dwelling in a camp) winning the fight.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: This time, the entire cast is sitting around a campfire in the woods instead of the lab, with Wiz and Boomstick analyzing the combatants like a campfire story. The additional cast members disappear as the episode goes on, starting with DUMMI during Jason's analysis, Ringmaster in Michael's analysis, and lastly Jocelyn at the end of the post-fight analysis. The order in which the hosts introduce the combatants in the opening segment is also reversed, with Boomstick first and Wiz second, and their epithets are stated before their names.
- Futile Hand Reach: Michael does this before Jason decapitates him, possibly as either a last plea for mercy or a gesture of defiance.
- Halloween Episode: Fittingly enough for the featured combatants, this episode was released around Halloween 2022, and the episode is also the thirteenth of DEATH BATTLE!'s ninth season.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": When Wiz says Michael's victims never see him coming, Boomstick laughs and is about to say, "You said cumming." He stops himself when he notices Ringmaster is missing.
- Heroic Second Wind: Well, villainous second wind. At the climax of the fight, Michael has Jason under his foot, trying to push his head down onto the back spike of an axe. Just as his strength begins to fail him, Jason looks to his mother's grave, and hearing her encourage him to kill Michael to make her proud gives him the resolve to push Myers off him and take the win.
- Hope Spot: One victim is about to be impaled to a tree by Jason, when Michael interrupts him. This gives him a chance to run away and hide behind a headstone to catch his breath... only for Jason to stab through the cover, piercing through his neck and spine with his machete.
- Improvised Weapon: Both men are known for using whatever means available to off their prey. In the fight proper, besides the axe he pulls from a stump, Michael also grabs a nearby tombstone and slams it over Jason's head.
- Innocent Bystander: Two random people, Alex and Sam respectively as they appear, try to escape during Michael and Jason's fight, only to meet a grisly fate when each target them. Another was already in a bodybag (or rather, a sleeping bag) before the battle starts.
- Kill Steal: This is what starts the battle, as Michael kills the victim Jason was going after. It ends badly for the former.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Though both combatants are notorious slasher villains who've left an impressive amount of carnage in their wake, Jason's tragic backstory, genuine love for his deceased mother, and various humanizing qualities cast him as the more sympathetic party, also helped along by generally being no danger to anyone smart enough to avoid the area around Crystal Lake. Michael, on the other hand, is a remorseless engine of pure evil whose own sister was his very first victim. In the end, the lesser of two evils comes out the victor.
- Malevolent Masked Man: The main connection between Jason and Michael is they are both iconic masked serial killers who are also the main antagonists of their respective franchises.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- Jason and Michael's shared ability to "teleport" is discussed and debated by Wiz and Boomsticknote . Regardless, Wiz concludes that even if it was a thing, neither can gain an advantage in their fight because of it.
- Was Pamela really talking to her son to give him the rallying he needed to overpower Michael or was Jason hallucinating it?
- My Car Hates Me: After escaping from Michael, Sam scrambles into a car and attempts to start it, but it fails to do so before Jason pulls him out of it through the window.
- Mythology Gag:
- Jason first appears in the animation dragging along a corpse (inside a sleeping bag) before pulling his machete out of it, much like one of his intro animations in Mortal Kombat X.
- The two victims try to flee from their pursuers by car, which was one method of escape in Friday the 13th: The Game. Unfortunately, only one of them makes inside the car, and neither of them succeed.
- As he did to Bob, Michael manages to pin Jason to a tree with his knife. Unlike Bob, however, this doesn't keep Jason down for long.
- Sam failing to start the car he attempts to escape in serves as a nod to how Buggzy, the character he shares his model with, has an abysmal Repair stat in Friday the 13th: The Game.
- Jason finally kills Michael by decapitating him, just as Laurie did to his body double. However, Jason goes a step further by splitting the head with an axe after.
- Off with His Head!: This is how Jason puts down Michael for good, with him splitting Michael's head on a gravestone with an axe afterwards for good measure.
- Out of Focus: Very interestingly Played With here in the animation as Jason and Michael take a backseat for the second act of the fight, with it focusing on a survivor named Sam trying to escape the two slashers, though he's eventually killed as the fight goes into its final act and refocuses on the slashers.
- Retreaux: The fight uses a film grain effect to simulate the appearance of 70's and 80's horror films.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: Jason coming out the victor was the better option as that means he essentially did Haddonfield a favor by permanently killing Michael.
- Victory by Endurance: This was the deciding factor in the fight as Jason and Michael proved to be equal in just about every other regard. Jason proved to be far more unkillable than his opponent, having survived injuries far greater than anything Michael has shown to be capable of surviving. Adding to this is that Michael is explicitly human (though it is implied his survival is attributed to something supernatural). Jason, however, is an undead monster and is explicitly supernatural with zero ambiguity. This is best exemplified at the end of the of the fight, where Jason shrugs off having an entire knife stabbed into his head while Michael is clearly struggling with being impaled by Jason’s machete.
