In 1978, John Carpenter changed horror forever with his slasher movie Halloween. What followed was a wave of copycats, with the most popular by far being Friday the 13th. When Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller collaborated on that first film in 1980, its success led to a 12-film franchise which arguably became more popular than all of the Halloween sequels.
Thanks to a frustrating lawsuit, there hasn’t been a Friday the 13th movie since 2009. With an A24 and Peacock series, Crystal Lake, coming soon, here’s hoping that Friday the 13th Part 13 happens sooner rather than later. Until then, here’s how I, a lifelong fan of all things Jason Voorhees, rank one of horror’s most bizarre franchises.
12
‘Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday’ (1993)
It was not the final Friday. In fact, this first sequel made by New Line Cinema instead of Paramount, doesn’t even feel like a Friday the 13th movie. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday ignores the fact that Jason Voorhees was turned to goo at the end of Jason Takes Manhattan. He’s a bloated mess at the beginning of this one, only to be blown up by a SWAT team in the first act! How in the world can he possibly come back ? By revealing that he’s a demon worm that can live in other bodies, of course.
It’s understandable that New Line would want to do something different with a once hot IP. This ain’t it though. Friday the 13th works because it’s a simple slasher with a masked man hacking up teenagers at a lake. Jason Goes to Hell jumps head first into the supernatural, and with an absolutely awful score backing it up. Not even the shocking ending of Freddy’s glove pulling Jason’s mask into Hell can save it.
11
‘Jason X’ (2002)
With the slasher era dead, so was Friday the 13th. If there was a time for the hockey mask-wearing killer to return, it was during the Scream fad. Instead, New Line waited until 2002, and having not learned their lesson nine years previously, decided to full-on jump the shark and send its villain to outer space in Jason X. That might work for silly franchises like Critters and Leprechaun, but not Friday the 13th.
This would sadly be the last time Kane Hodder played Jason Voorhees. It’s a silly, over-the-top film, with Jason losing his hockey mask and becoming a rebuilt, futuristic Uber Jason, complete with silver mask. Is Jason X a good movie? Heck no. Still, it’s at least watchable because it accepts what it is and has fun with it. It’s a dumb sequel, no doubt, yet one you can enjoy if you’re in enough of an altered state.
10
‘Freddy vs. Jason’ (2003)
For nearly two decades, horror fans were begging for the dream match of Jason Voorhees taking on Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). It finally happened in 2003 with Freddy vs. Jason, 10 years after a lot of people stopped caring. Kane Hodder isn’t under the mask, but at least Jason looks scary as hell, albeit a little too big with Ken Kirzinger in the role. The plot could have gone off the rails. Thankfully, it doesn’t get too crazy, with the story revolving around Freddy invading Jason’s dreams and using him to kill the kids he can no longer reach.
Outside of a cameo in an episode for The Goldbergs, this is Englund’s final time donning Freddy’s razor-blade glove. He gives it all. If only the script did too. Freddy vs. Jason is more of an action movie than anything remotely scary. There is no reason at all to care about the human protagonists, who are underwritten fodder in the way of what everyone wants to see. It’s not horrendous, but a scene of Jason shown being scared of water makes no sense at all given how often he’s been in Crystal Lake.
9
‘Friday the 13th: A New Beginning’ (1985)
For many, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is the most hated sequel. Jason Voorhees is dead (no, for real), so the choice was made to have a copycat killer take up his mask. This time, the action moves away from Camp Crystal Lake and plants itself at a halfway house for troubled teens where poor Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) is traumatized by the events of the last movie. Now he’ll have to face down the new murderer, unless it’s Tommy who’s the killer, that is.
If you can get past the fact that the killer in the hockey mask isn’t Jason, this isn’t all that bad of a sequel. It’s a run-of-the-mill slasher with some cool kills and creepy atmosphere. The nudity is a little too gratuitous, and final girl Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman) adds nothing, making her the worst of the franchise. Fun fact: a dream sequence with Jason means that actor Tom Morga is the only actor to play Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Leatherface on screen.
8
‘Friday the 13th’ (2009)
The last of the bunch, but fingers crossed it doesn’t stay that way. In the 2000s, horror classic reboots were all the rage. It worked for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween, so why not Jason too? Friday the 13th (directed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Marcus Nipsel) works by not being a reboot per se. After a fun opening act that shows the death of Mrs. Voorhees and Jason wearing a sack on his head, the hockey mask appears, and it’s Jason on a rampage against a new group of young’uns who dare invade his space.
Friday the 13th is a fun time. The issue is that it doesn’t feel much like a Friday the 13th movie. Derek Mears is much too tall and muscular, as if the idea is that Jason is scarier the taller he is. That’s not the case. He also doesn’t feel like Jason because the plot has him abducting a girl and keeping him in an underground prison because she reminds him of mommy. That’s not something he’d do. Still, the movie looks good, and has plenty of clever kill scenes, and the final boy and final girl combo of Clay (Jared Padalecki) and Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) are better than most in the franchise.
7
‘Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan’ (1989)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is the last of the Paramount movies and is the sequel where most fans saw the franchise really losing its way. The plot revolves around Jason saying goodbye to Crystal Lake as he becomes a stowaway on a ship headed to New York City. Along the way, he hacks up the passengers, before a showdown occurs in the sewers of Manhattan.
Kane Hodder is awesome as always as Jason. The idea itself isn’t all that bad if you let yourself forget that Crystal Lake is land-locked, so there’s no way this boat could sail the Atlantic Ocean! It’s the execution that’s so frustrating. Jason barely takes Manhattan. The Big Apple doesn’t show up until the third act, with Vancouver as a stand-in except of a scene filmed in Times Square. And what’s with those images of Jason as a boy at the end? It’s still fun, but the wheels are coming off.
6
‘Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood’ (1988)
What if Jason Voorhees fought Carrie? That’s the premise of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. When the telekinetic Tina (the late Lar Park Lincoln) accidentally brings Jason up from his watery grave, it’s superpowers versus a zombie in a battle that’s much more engaging than Freddy vs. Jason.
It’s a hokey plot, yet it succeeds because of how likable Tina is, combined with Kane Hodder’s first creepy performance as a rotting Jason. The New Blood could have been better if most of its gore hadn’t been censored. Despite that, this is the last sequel that feels like a real Friday the 13th movie with Crystal Lake as the setting and plenty of horny teenagers to slice and dice.
5
‘Friday the 13th’ (1980)
The one that started it all. If you’re waiting for Jason Voorhees, you’ll be disappointed. The initial film never shows the killer’s face until the third act, instead treating the story as a murder mystery, where unsuspecting camp counselors are being knocked off one by one for an unknown reason.
Harry Manfredini’s chilling and iconic score helps put this one high on the list. It’s a pretty routine slasher, with mostly forgettable performances, albeit one comes from a very young Kevin Bacon! A slasher with the reveal of an older woman being the killer could have been a disaster. It’s not, due to the crazed performance of Betsy Palmer as Pamela Voorhees. And a chef’s kiss to one of horror’s best jump scares at the end.
4
‘Friday the 13th Part 3’ (1982)
Friday the 13th Part 3 is most notable for being the one where Jason gets his mask for the first time. Before that, he’s seen in the shadows or from the neck down. When he walks out onto the dock donning the hockey mask though, an icon was born. The plot itself is bare bones. There are counselors at a camp. Jason shows up. A final girl takes him down. The end. But it takes what fans expect and does it well.
This one is admittedly a little bit silly because it was initially made for 3D. Instead of cool 3D kills, however, it’s shot after shot of in-your-face laundry poles and yo-yos. Whoa! How scary! What is scary is Richard Brooker as a lumbering Jason and a pulse-pounding third act that doesn’t let up.
3
‘Friday the 13th Part II’ (1981)
In Friday the 13th Part II, Jason is the star for the first time. There’s no hockey mask yet. Instead, he’s a hillbilly in coveralls with a sack over his head, making him look more like the killer from The Town That Dreaded Sundown than anything else. The opening scene is a shocker, as Jason dispatches of the first movie’s final girl, Alice (Adrienne King), before going back to get his revenge on a new group of killable teens.
Steve Miner, who later directed Halloween H20, helms this one. He keeps the action moving, and Manfredini’s anxiety-inducing score is a character unto itself. The first sequel also has the best final girl. Rather than being another dull trope, Amy Steel’s Ginny Field is studying to be a child psychologist. Initially, she feels sorry for Jason. Soon enough, she’ll fear him. We gotta take points away for her attack game though. Why would you think you killed Jason with a machete blow to the shoulder and walk away?!