Minnesota is known as “The Land of 10,000 Lakes,” and apparently Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th film series is at the bottom of one of them. Jason, of course, is one of modern horror’s most enduring icons, following the character’s smashing debut in the 1980 classic Friday the 13th. Since then, the demented serial killer from Camp Crystal Lake has slashed his way through eight subsequent Friday the 13th chapters (nine if you include Jason X), as well as the attempted reboot of the series with a 2009 film.
Apart from the films, the specter of Jason has also managed to creep into psyches of over-imaginative people pitching tents at campsites all over the world, leaving that last dreadful thought in their minds before they go to sleep whether they’ll be visited by a goalie mask-wearing, machete-wielding murderer in the overnight hours. If that isn’t enough, a genius prankster in the wilds of the Midwest has planted something in an unsuspecting place that is enough to give deep water divers a nightmare that will haunt them forever.
According to Bloody Disgusting, diver Curtis Lahr built a statue of Jason and tethered it 120 feet deep at the bottom of a lake and popular dive site in Crosby, Minnesota. And while Lahr dropped anchor on the statue in 2013 and video of it was uploaded the YouTube a year later, Jason has resurfaced, so to speak, as startling visuals of the statue in both 2014 and 2017 are making the media rounds in a pair of YouTube clips. Identified as “Camp Crystal Lake” in both videos, footage shows the statue is very much intact, although the 2017 update said Jason is “looking a little tough” because the life-sized figure has gathered some algae. See Lahr’s 2014 video at the top of the page, and the 2017 update below.
Fans of the Friday the 13th film series will appreciate that Lahr’s depiction of Jason has some cinematic history behind it, since at the conclusion of Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives, Jason ends up in chains at the bottom of a lake, but alive with his eye open. Lahr was clearly paying attention to detail when he crafted his version of Jason for the Minnesota lake, since any unfortunate diver who happens across his creation will find a piercing eye staring at them through Jason’s goalie mask.
Now that the secret’s out in a big way about the waterlogged Jason statue, perhaps not as many divers will be freaked out at the sight of the big screen maniac, but the thought of it being there is funny nonetheless. Perhaps Minnesota’s “Camp Crystal Lake” will become a new tourist destination for horror film fans, although some serious diving experience will be required. Maybe they’ll have to settle for the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues from Joel and Ethan Coen’s crime masterpiece Fargo instead.
Source: Bloody Disgusting
