1398 THE FIRST JASON: Why Monsters Never Die

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Ari Lehman** (0:02)
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**Richard Syrett** (0:05)
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**SPEAKER_4** (0:08)
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**SPEAKER_1** (0:15)
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**SPEAKER_4** (0:17)
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**SPEAKER_1** (0:20)
Not like the lottery at all, actually.

**Ari Lehman** (0:22)
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**SPEAKER_4** (0:27)
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**SPEAKER_4** (1:04)
Fears the virus is trending on TikTok. Vaccines are poison. Then your yoga teacher says that sex-trafficked children are being sacrificed by satanic liberals.
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**Ari Lehman** (1:35)
The part where you really wanted to get Alice, Adrian King scared, he resolved he wasn't going to say action. So he had me go out in the water, go underwater and he said, look up at the bubbles. When the bubbles clear, that's action. So poor Adrian is sitting in the boat, waiting for him to say action and he says, Ari, the cameras are rolling, okay? Just go out there and do it. And, man, so, and I'm underwater, I'm thinking, what's my motivation? And I thought, honestly, I thought, you know, she killed my mother. So I thought, you know, I grabbed, you know, bitch killed my mom, you know, I come out of the water with this, and she looks back and the poor gal, she had never seen the makeup.
So she got very scared and that was registered on the film.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:26)
Richard Syrett's Strange Planet, following the truth wherever it leads, exposing evil and corruption and the secret machinations of powerful elites, revealing the highest strangeness beneath the surface of our supposed reality. Coming to you from the great white north and his studio beneath the stairs.
Here's Richard.

**Richard Syrett** (2:53)
There are monsters and then there are the monsters that never die. For more than four decades, one name has haunted the nightmares of moviegoers around the world.
Jason. Hockey mask, machete, Crystal Lake, a silent, relentless force that became one of the most recognizable icons in the history of horror. But before Jason became a legend, there was one young actor who brought him to life for the very first time. My guest tonight is Ari Lehman, the original Jason from the groundbreaking 1980 film Friday the 13th. Yet that's only the beginning of an extraordinary story. Ari has spent a lifetime immersed in the world of horror, not merely as an actor, but as a musician, composer and a student of the myths, monsters and mysteries that have fascinated humanity for thousands of years. Why does every culture and every generation create tales of demons, ghosts, vampires and creatures lurking in the darkness?
Why are we so irresistibly drawn to fear? And what if anything do these stories reveal about the human soul? We're about to explore the hidden history of horror, Hollywood's enduring fascination with evil, the strange power of monsters as modern mythology, and whether the darkest stories we tell ourselves are rooted in something deeper than fiction. So dim the lights, lock the doors and ask yourself one question. Why do monsters never really die?
Ari Lehman, welcome to Strange Planet. How are you?

**Ari Lehman** (4:23)
Richard, it's me, Ari Lehman, Rhymes with Demon. Ari Lehman, Rhymes with Demon. That's what I always say at every show.
And yes, it's me, the first Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. So it's so happy to be on the show.

**Richard Syrett** (4:39)
It's great to have you, Ari.
Obviously, you have a very unique place in horror history. Before we talk about monsters and myths and the nature of evil, take us back to the beginning, if you're not sick and tired of talking about it. But when did you realize you weren't simply playing a character, you were helping create one of the most recognizable monsters in modern culture?