With our second Friday the 13th upon us in just a month, a third headed our way in November, it felt like the right time to show Jason Voorhees how much he is missed in our horror fan hearts by taking on the daunting task of ranking the Friday the 13th films. While this franchise has never been considered high art, it’s always a good time heading back to Camp Crystal Lake for some slasher movie fun that goes down like the best comfort food. With an IP like this, they all have their charms, but some are certainly better than others. So, let’s head down memory lane at Camp Blood and show our favorite hockey mask-wearing slasher some love on this special Friday the 13th.
12. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
All love to Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees, as he will go down in history as the most committed, and for some, the most definitive, person to don the hockey mask, but it would’ve been great for this supposed “Final Friday” that the audience received more Jason than was given in this ninth installment. Directed by Adam Marcus from a screenplay by Dean Lorey and Jay Huguely, with story credit going to Marcus and Huguely, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday sees the ghost of Jason Voorhees possessing various people to continue his murderous rampage after death. To resurrect himself, Jason has to possess a member of his bloodline, but he can also be permanently disposed of if he’s killed by one of his family members with a magic dagger.
Even for a Friday the 13th movie, the plot takes some ridiculous turns, but credit should be given that they tried to do a little something different than the norm. That being said, it doesn’t quite work and robs the audience and fans of seeing Jason properly doing what he does best. He’s taken out during the cold open after being blown up by government agents, and from there he possesses other actors in the cast, including Richard Grant.
For it’s part, the film does offer up some very fun kills (the tent kill is a franchise all-timer) and it does end with a fun stinger of Freddy Krueger’s glove grabbing Jason’s mask and pulling him down to hell, which cemented that Jason as now at home at New Line Cinema and teased a Freddy/Jason movie that we wouldn’t get until 2003. Points for commitment to its premise and originality, but it feels the least like a Friday the 13th film out of the whole franchise.
11. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
How misleading this title is, since Jason mostly takes a boat before ending up in New York, which is primarily Vancouver, where those scenes were shot. Yes, it’s iconic to see Jason in Times Square, but it’s clear budget constraints prevented this movie from doing what was originally intended. Written and directed by Rob Hedden, Friday the 13th Part VII: Jason Takes Manhattan follows Jason (Kane Hodder) as he stalks a group of teenagers who are on their way to New York City. Jason Takes Manhattan has some of the best promotional art of the franchise (the retracted image of Jason slashing through the “I Love New York” logo is top-notch, as is the final poster with Jason looming over the city), but none of that lives up to the film that audiences ultimately received in 1989.
There are some cool kills as always (Julius (V.C. Dupree) getting his head knocked off will always make this entry worth it), and Hodder is honestly at his best in his second outing as Jason, with all of his movements proving he was meant to embody this role. The problem is that none of the characters are particularly interesting, Jensen Daggett doing her very best as final girl Rennie, but her backstory isn’t worth much exploration since it goes a long way in confusing the death of young Jason and adding a layer of mythology to it that simply isn’t needed.
Once Jason is chasing Rennie and Sean (Scott Reeves) through “New York”, things get a bit more thrilling, but it’s all too little too late by then. That being said, 1989 was a rough year for horror movie icons, with Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger also appearing in lackluster entries that year, so Jason can be forgiven for missing the mark a bit here. Fun Fact: This was the final film of the franchise to be distributed by Paramount Pictures until the remake in 2009.
10. Friday the 13th (2009)
On paper, the Friday the 13th remake is technically the most well-made film of the franchise but that would be easy to do given its bigger budget compared to the other main entries in the franchise and it’s certainly sleek and polished in all the right places but that makes what it does wrong more obvious, despite one of the best openings of the series that promises so much more. Directed by Marcus Nispel from a screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, Friday the 13th follows Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki), who is searching for his missing sister Whitney (Amanda Righetti) after she is captured by Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears) following a camping trip with her friends at Crystal Lake.
Beginning with what the film does right is the 20-minute+ cold opening that could’ve worked as its very own short film. It’s superbly directed, visceral, and that final slash of Jason’s machete before the title card is goosebump-inducing. The remake is worthy of your marathons for this sequence alone. That being said, things gradually fall apart as the film moves along, and we’re introduced to characters that don’t register beyond adding to the body count (true, other Friday the 13th films have characters like this, but somehow they have more charm) along with getting a remake that feels like it was put together by people who didn’t get the franchise at all. Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes, no stranger to horror remakes after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror, was behind this one, and if you watch some of the behind-the-scenes interviews done during its production and the press during its release, they intended to follow what made some of their other remakes “work” rather than honoring that this IP means to fans.
There are some positives throughout, with Mears being truly dedicated to adding character to Jason rather than making him a lumbering non-descript presence, and seeing Trent (Travis Van Winkle), one of the biggest assholes of the franchise, getting his just desserts is pretty damn satisfying, but something about all of it feels a little soulless. Also, while shocking, it’s pretty damn cruel to see Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) bite the dust when it looked damn apparent she would be the film’s final girl. This many years later, it still stings.
9. Jason X (2001)
Some of our biggest horror movie icons have taken off to space, so why not Jason Voorhees? Jason X is always silly and a bit over the top, but it’s still a lot of fun and manages to get a little better with each subsequent viewing, even if it’s on the lower end of the franchise. Directed by James Isaac and written by Todd Farmer, Jason X sees the titular character (Hodder) cryogenically frozen for over 400 years and awakened on a spaceship after being discovered by a group of students. In terms of sending horror villains to space, when compared to Pinhead or Leprechaun, the concept actually works better than it should here.
The movie leans into its silliness and B-movie sensibilities, which makes it clear that Jason X knows exactly what kind of movie it is. Much more than some of the later films, Jason is very much front and center, even though there are a plethora of characters (maybe too many) that serve as a distraction, but do add to the fun body count. Perhaps Jason should get more than his fair share of bad-ass moments in this film because this marked Hodder’s fourth and final outing in the role before what went down with him not being cast in Freddy vs. Jason. Hodder gets to mess things up as uber-Jason, including one of the best scenes of the film that sees Jason in a fun simulation of Camp Crystal Lake that pokes fun at the stereotypes and cliches of the franchise.
The interesting thing about Jason X is the timing of its release. It arrived near the tail-end of snarky self-aware horror films, and the screenplay is littered with snark that would make Kevin Williamson proud. The issue is that it doesn’t really feel like Friday the 13th, so if there are any problems, it’s that it occasionally tries too hard sometimes to be something it isn’t. That being said, it’s still a fun movie, and seeing Jason bring his slasher tendencies to space with the aid of some upgraded weapons will always be a blast to watch.
8. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Freddy vs. Jason isn’t a proper Friday the 13th film, but it’s still very much a part of the franchise because fans of both of these horror icons waited years for this grudge match to take place, and it mostly pays off. Directed by Ronny Yu from a screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, Freddy vs. Jason follows the residents of Springwood who have been taking medication to suppress their dreams, which has made the town forget Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). To become the stuff of their dreams once again, Freddy resurrects Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) to spread his own brand of fear so he can regain his power over them, but when Jason can’t be controlled, it leads to a violent showdown between the two horror titans.
It’s hard to get movies like this right (looking at you, Alien vs Predator). Still, Freddy vs. Jason hits the mark with characters that are likable enough not to distract from the main event, and it pays off the big brawl between Freddy and Jason in a way that satisfies. It’s fun, brutal, comical, and worth the wait for fans who have been craving all of this for years. The conundrum here is, who gets more agency in the film, between Freddy and Jason? Freddy is the fun and emotive one of the two, so he was going to dominate in that regard, but some fans have debated whether or not this feels more like a Nightmare on Elm Street movie rather than a Friday the 13th entry.
Then there is the issue of the winner. New Line Cinema tried to keep it ambiguous, but Freddy’s wink at the end seems to indicate that he was ultimately victorious, even though Jason had him literally by the head. As fans continue to debate this, perhaps the bigger winner is that the film itself functions far better than it should, with a coherent story that stands up well against the monster fans everyone had been waiting for.
7. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
If fans wanted to know what would happen if Jason Voorhees had to go up against Carrie White, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood gave them the best answer and had a lot of fun in the process. Directed by John Carl Buechler from a screenplay by Manuel Fidello and Daryl Haney, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood follows Tina Shepard (the late Lar Park Lincoln), a psychokinetic teenager who unwittingly awakens Jason (Kane Hodder) from his deep slumber from the previous film at the bottom of Crystal Lake, which allows him to go on yet another murder spree.
The New Blood is more interesting than it has any right to be as the seventh film of an aging franchise, due in large part because Tina is an interesting final girl with a backstory that audiences can care about. Some of the best Friday the 13th films make the final girls stand out just as much as Jason, and that is the case here. He gets a formidable protagonist to go up against, and they are matched pretty equally, even though Jason lets it be known in this film that he’s also a force to be reckoned with. This film marks Hodder’s first appearance as Jason, and he makes the role his own instantly, cementing his horror icon status for life. A lot of fun is had here, but the film has a major issue that isn’t really the movie’s fault.
The MPAA has always been hard on the Friday the 13th movies, but they were especially hard on this one. The censors went to town on The New Blood, which dilutes some of the best kills and what they could’ve been. It’s obvious cuts were made, which is a detriment, but the seventh installment is still a good time, and it’s easy to see why it’s a fan favorite.
6. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
After the real Jason Voorhees was absent from the fifth installment, Paramount Pictures gave the fans what they wanted by resurrecting the real deal in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, a film that was meta before it was cool to be meta. Written and directed by Tom McLoughlin, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives follows Tommy Jarvis (now played by Thom Mathews), following the accidental resurrection of the hockey-wearing maniac after he tries to destroy his body so he would never return. Jason (C.J. Graham) is now back for another killing spree, and Tommy has to face his fears to stop him.
This begins the series of films with undead Jason, and while the previous installments are my personal preferred version of him, Jason Lives has a lot of fun with the absurdity of the franchise and honestly embraces all the reasons horror fans have come to love the films over the years. It’s over the top, but it’s knowingly over the top without giving a cheesy wink to the audience. This is, dare I say it, the smartest of the Friday the 13th films, at least in terms of its quips and references (the machete opening title card is a direct reference to James Bond) and it has some dark humor as well that work (as Jason is stalking a cabin full of kids one of them says, “So, what did you want to be when you grew up?”).
This also completes the Tommy Jarvis trilogy of films, and even though three different actors portrayed the character, it’s cool to track the character’s growth from film to film, from someone consumed by fear of him to someone who takes action to destroy him. This is honestly the jolt the franchise needed at the time if they were going to bring Jason back properly, and it continues to work, with most fans citing it as their favorite of the franchise.
5. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
You’ll likely find this entry further down the list on most rankings because it’s not well-liked and widely considered the Halloween III: Season of the Witch of the franchise. After all, fans felt they didn’t get the real deal. After the fourth film, which was dubbed “The Final Chapter,” Paramount Pictures wanted to go back to a cheap IP that made them easy money, but Jason Voorhees was dead. Whatever could they do now to keep things going? Their decision to have a Jason impostor of sorts is something that continues to not sit well with some, but there is a group of us that think the criticisms of Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning are far too harsh.
Directed by Danny Steinmann from a screenplay he co-wrote with Martin Kitrosser and David Cohen, Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning follows a teenage Tommy Jarvis (played by Corey Feldman in a dream sequence and John Shepherd as an adult) who is now institutionalized at a halfway house that just happens to be near Crystal Lake. Tommy has been plagued with nightmares about the man he killed in the previous installment, and another killing spree suggests that Jason may be very much alive. As everyone knows, Jason is never alive in this film, and it turns out to be Roy Burns (Dick Wieand), a paramedic who arrived at the halfway house after his son Joey (Dominick Brascia) was murdered.
The event drove him mad and drove him to seek revenge with Jason Voorhees (Tom Morga) being his inspiration. While it’s understandable why this bait and switch could be upsetting, A New Beginning deserves points for at least trying to add some mystery to the franchise again, after the first installment, and it still has the typical DNA of the franchise that fans have come to love. The kills are top-notch (Miguel Nunez Jr. gets a great one in an outhouse after having too many damn enchiladas), and Shepherd’s take on Tommy Jarvis actually showcases some of the best acting of the series (even though, as the lead, he’s missing from a good chunk of the film until appearing again for the climax). Once you get over the Roy Burns of it all, A New Beginning is a solid entry that deserves more love than it gets.
4. Friday the 13th (1980)
It might be considered sacrilege to have the first film of the franchise in this spot, but it’s simply because the remaining entries are just so much fun. The original Friday the 13th is still a signature slasher film of its time that’s not as expertly constructed as Halloween, but at least this whodunit can stand as the one film of the series that attempts to be a fairly realistic movie. Directed by Sean S. Cunningham from a screenplay by Victor Miller, Friday the 13th focuses on a group of teenage camp counselors who are in the process of reopening Camp Crystal Lake following a series of tragedies that have made the area the stuff of legend.
Eventually, they are stalked and murdered by an unknown killer who clearly doesn’t want the camp to be reopened. Jason Voorhees (Ari Lehman) is only seen as a drowning victim in this film and during a finale stinger that honestly still works no matter how many times you’ve seen it. Any fan who could successfully answer Ghostface’s question from the original Scream knows that the killer turns out to be Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), who is mad as hell that those camp counselors were making love while her young son Jason drowned. She’s an unhinged delight when she shows up and makes a villain for the ages with very minimal screentime.
The whodunit aspect of Friday the 13th isn’t groundbreaking, but at least it tries to have a bit of suspense and mystery to go along with the gore, which was groundbreaking at the time due to Tom Savini’s excellent make-up effects. The kills are great (Kevin Bacon getting a spear through his neck and Betsy Palmer’s beheading remain favorites) while Adrienne King’s Alice makes for a serviceable final girl that the audience can root for. Who would’ve thought that this little mystery would spawn so many films, but horror fans are damn happy it did.
3. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Questionable timeline aside, and no real rhyme or reason why Jason survived and why he wouldn’t let his mom know he was alive and well, Friday the 13th Part 2 is a truly fun sequel that did the necessary job to bring Jason Voorhees (Warrington Gillette/Steve Daskewisz) to the forefront and created the franchise’s best final girl in the process. Directed by Steve Miner from a screenplay by Ron Kurz, Friday the 13th Part 2, taking place five years after the first movie, follows an unknown stalker who is killing a group of camp counselors one by one at a training camp near Crystal Lake.
The movie attempts to follow a similar whodunit element that its predecessor utilizes, but given all the talk about Jason throughout the film, it’s easy to decipher that he’s going to be the one under the potato sack mask. Speaking of his look, even though the hockey mask is more iconic, the potato sack is definitely a bit scarier and does more to suggest a man who has been living in the woods for years, waiting to unleash fury on those who would disrupt his territory. The film goes a long way to drive home that Jason saw his mom beheaded, and that has led him to seek vengeance against anyone who dares to enter Crystal Lake or its surrounding areas. It’s a flimsy premise, but given the plots of the other films, it works better than it probably should. The movie’s style, tone, and pace are similar to those of the first movie, which works in a sense, but also does it a disservice because it follows too many familiar beats.
Despite this, the sequel does offer up some surprises with great kills (Mark’s wheelchair death is cruel, darkly funny, and one of the best of the series) and a final girl with some depth in Ginny Field (Amy Steel). She’s easily the best final girl of the franchise because Steel imbues her with intelligence (donning Jason’s mother’s sweater in the end to trick him) and tenacity as she’s not just a shrieking violet. As far as slasher sequels go, Friday the 13th Part 2 is as good a follow-up as one could expect from a franchise like this.
2. Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Depending on my mood, this film and the one in the number one spot could flip-flop, but tonight, the third movie gets the runner-up spot. The characters are fun, Jason begins his two-film run of being in full beast mode, and, sue me, I love the cheesy and gimmicky 3-D angle that made this film such a hit when it was initially released. Directed by Steve Miner from a screenplay by Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson, Friday the 13th Part III follows a woman named Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell) and her friends who take a trip to her homestead, Higgins Haven, where an injured Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) has taken refuge.
Soon, another killing spree begins, and, as it turns out, Chris was attacked by a deformed man two years prior, who was more than likely Jason Voorhees himself. Even though this isn’t a groundbreaking aspect, I always thought it was interesting and pretty cool that this is the only entry where none of the characters are aware of Jason Voorhees and the attacks, at least to them, are just random. It’s something that makes this installment stand out, and that’s necessary with a franchise that doesn’t often do much to surprise. The characters in the film are a lot of fun, with Shelly (Larry Zerner), Debbie (Tracie Savage), Andy (Jeffrey Rogers), Vera (Catherine Parks), Chuck (David Katims), and Chili (Rachel Howard) all getting to stand out as more than victims simply being added to the body count.
Kimmel is also a pretty solid final girl (and a brunette one to boot), while we even get a fun, albeit unnecessary, biker trio to be added to the carnage fodder. The real presence here, though, is Jason himself, who is relentless courtesy of Brooker’s portrayal, making him much more imposing than he was in the previous film. He also gets one of his best kills of the franchise with Andy’s handstand death (brutal but a signature of the series). Plus, this is the film where he dons his iconic hockey mask for the first time, so what’s not to like? It certainly makes a nice companion with the number one film on this list.
1. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
There is something no-holds-barred about Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter that rises it above the rest. Maybe it’s because they thought it really would be the Final Chapter and they were killing Jason for good, but we get some of the best characters of the franchise, another Jason in full beast mode, and not only a solid final girl, but a stand-out final boy as well. Directed by Joseph Zito from a screenplay by Barney Cohen, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter follows Jason Voorhees (Ted White) after he escapes a morgue following the events of the previous film and returns to Crystal Lake to kill once again, this time targeting the Jarvis family and a group of teenagers doing all the naughty things across the way.
There are a lot of characters in this film, likely to give Jason the optimal body count for his final installment, but they are the most interesting of the series. On the teenage side we have Crispin Glover’s Jimmy and Lawrence Monoson’s Teddy that stands out, although the whole group is a blast as a whole, while we get a family to root far with the introduction fo Tommy (Corey Feldman) and his sister Trish (Kimberly Beck), who is a close second to Amy Steel as the series’ best final girl. In addition to the would-be victims, Ted White amplifies what Brooker did in the first film by making Jason a pure force of nature, offering up probably the best single performance of the character across the franchise.
Tom Savini returned to the franchise for make-up effects after skipping out on the previous two films to be the one to kill Jason as his creator, and boy does he do some of his best work for Jason’s demise. Had this actually been the last movie, it would’ve been a great place to end, but even knowing more comes next, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter still stands tall as a relentlessly fun slasher movie that sees the franchise at its very best.
Happy Friday the 13th!
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