Found: The Missing Link Between the Part 7 and JGTH Masks

How did they make the Jason Goes to Hell masks? Evidently they used a spare promo mask from part 7.

Reel EFX usually kept around spare masks from previous films, even as the hero masks were lost or given to actors. They had at least one spare promo pull from part 7 in the shop and gave it to the team at KNB when they started work on Jason Goes to Hell in 1992.

Crew members with part 7 promo pulls, 1988ish.

Five of the promotional pulls.

While not as detailed as the movie mask, the promo copies had the same basic features, including the propeller damage cutaway on the right side.

The trimmed down part 7 mask was probably chosen for its small size as an ideal mask to build Jason's big meaty head around. You can see this mask sculpted into the head by FX artist Robert Kurtzman during pre-production of Jason Goes to Hell here. Note how the cutaway eats into two vent holes, just like it does in the above promo masks:

The only known photo of the "missing link" mask.

The hero mask, however, has the mouth vent hole intact and the second "sideburn" vent hole eaten into. The consistency with the above promo masks strongly suggests this transition mask was made in the same set as the promo masks, rather than with the hero during part 7's production.

The part 7 hero mask

The only problem for the crew was that this leftover mask still had the propeller damage, which didn't make narrative sense if Jason had obtained a new mask. So it appears they clayed up 80% of the old prop damage, recast the mask, and created the movie blanks.

You can clearly see the repair work to the propeller damage in this movie mold JGTH blank owned by Bob Ferden.

In the final masks, the repair work was scuffed up with a dremel and painted black. But you can still see a small error: they forgot to add the mouth vent hole back in at the edge!

Just a bit of mask history for you.