There’s always been something a little unsettling about the murkiness of what lies beneath our lakes. The depths. The darkness. The weird fish. It all plays off our fears of the unknown.
I know I’ll never forget my first terrifying lake experience as a young camper, when counselors pontooned us out to the middle of the ominously-named Devil’s Lake right at midnight: In complete darkness, one counselor began telling ghost stories and tales of an evil clown that resides in the lake (yes, there was a lake clown at our camp, because of course there was). Unbeknownst to us youngsters, another counselor had swum under the pontoon and, at the scariest moment in the story, he pounded on the bottom of the pontoon making us campers scream bloody murder.
Such fond memories…
But now, an evil lake clown may be the least of my worries as the land of 10,000 lakes has gained another haunting resident that also terrorized countless campers. In the depths of Crystal Lake in Crosby, Minnesota, one of the most notorious horror villains is chained to the bottom: Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise.
Jason Voorhees at the bottom of Crystal Lake, Minnesota
Wearing his iconic hockey mask and gripping his machete, unsuspecting divers stumble across this terrifying sight of Jason who was placed there by Chris Lahr – a man with a twisted sense of humor. For the non-horror movie aficionados, *spoilers ahead* at the end of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Jason is defeated by being chained to the bottom of a lake (also named Crystal Lake). This homage is 120 feet down and strategically placed in a popular diving spot to give divers a good scare – and, hopefully, a good laugh too.
The statue was chained to the bottom of the lake a few years back and as time has passed, with decay and the collection of lake goo, Jason has now taken on an even more ghostly and frightening appearance.
Check out the video below to see Jason in all his glory:
Video courtesy of Chris Lahr, originally posted on YouTube
Though we should probably continue checking back every few years, just to make sure he’s still down there and hasn’t emerged to continue his bloody reign of terror…
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