Happy Friday the 13th! Here’s All Friday the 13th Movies

During his 1980s heyday, Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees was one of the most iconic characters in film, and his lurking, silent malevolence and signature hockey goalie mask have kept him in the soul of horror since his introduction. Thanks to the increasingly strange nature of the sequels and the fact that Jason has been under the control of an eclectic hodgepodge of writers, directors, and performers (a total of eleven actors have portrayed Jason Voorhees’ character), the Friday the 13th storyline is very convoluted.

All that is just the surface take. If you’re a Friday the 13th newcomer, here’s the entire film history, ranked in order from greatest to not so great (but, even the lesser ones are worth a watch).

1. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

The fourth film in the series is its absolute peak. It has a super-strange cast, including Corey Feldman in his first film role, a breakdancing Crispin Glover (who always amps-up the weird factor), and lurching stuntman Ted White as Jason Voorhees. It contains a bunch of good stunts, some truly bizarre Freudian metaphor, and a string of inventive slayings (Glover’s end is particularly gut-wrenching). It also works as a good story in the series’ myth-building, and contains one of the series’ strangest side characters, the morgue attendant, Axel, who a nurse refers to as “The Super Bowl of self-abuse.” (Why?)

2. Friday the 13th Part 2

This first sequel contains the first introduction of adult Jason Voorhees, and set the framework for the character’s development for the rest of the franchise’s series development. Part 2 is a little rough, but has a pretty good cast of victims for Jason to be pitted against, including the returning bicycle and curser extraordinaire, Crazy Ralph. In addition, this is the movie where Jason just wears a burlap sack over his face — not as jarring as the hockey mask, but still pretty sweet.

3. Friday the 13th

The original still packs a wallop, and it’s mentionable just how well it holds up despite the fact that the audience knows how it will end. Though all the plot devices seem clichéd now, this movie set the stage for a decade’s worth of Grade-B, tolerably entertaining slasher flicks. What really can be seen nearly 35 years later is how the movie maintains so much tension even though none of the characters realize that anything is even wrong until during the last 15 minutes or so. That in itself is an impressive cinematic accomplishment. As an added bonus, the movie includes Kevin Bacon in the cast!

4. Freddy vs. Jason

Oh man, how I love Freddy vs. Jason. It’s more of an action movie than a horror flick, but seeing Jason square off against the icon of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series is deeply satisfying (and pretty kinetic to boot). The balance between the two titular characters is stellar, and it introduces a little bit more mythology without getting too bogged down by it. Mostly, it expresses Jason’s immortality in one scene better than Jason Goes To Hell did in 90 minutes. Also, an oft-forgotten detail: Kelly Rowland is in this, making it the best film to feature a former member of Destiny’s Child (take that, Dreamgirls!).

5. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Take Manhattan

I’ll admit that this I’m probably overrating this entry just a tad, as I can objectively acknowledge that this is a terribly-made movie: It looks cheap (even by the standards of Friday the 13th), the character motivations make no sense, the title is something of a lie (they spend most of the movie on a boat), and the ending is completely non-sensical. Still, it is wildly entertaining, mostly thanks to a cheeky sense of humor about the Jason character and this fantastic sequence.

6. Jason X

With Jason theoretically eliminated, the producers of the franchise sent the series into a post-apocalyptic future where a team of students is excavating what is left of Earth and comes across a cryogenically preserved Jason. This entry has a wicked sense of humor, mostly manifesting in jokes about the future (there’s a hardened war vetaran who talks about “the Microsoft conflict,” apparently hockey has been outlawed, and nobody knows what a bike is). There are so many peaks in this movie, from the bizarre S&M sequence, the self-aware death of the Sarge, the conversion from Jason to Uber-Jason (seriously, that’s what they called him in the credits), and the Holodeck-esque portion that sends Jason back to Crystal Lake to annihilate some topless ladies in sleeping bags. It’s the best.

7. Friday the 13th 3D

Notable for the introduction of the hockey mask, and the fact that Jason fights a biker gang at one point. But this movie is really all about Shelly Finkelstein, who set the template for the “annoying goofball outcast prankster” character that tended to show up every other movie or so. It should also be noted that the 3D effects in this movie are terrible. Look out for that yo-yo coming at you!

8. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Also known among fans as Carrie vs. Jason, this entry finds our slashing hero squaring off against a teen with telekinesis. The mind power stuff makes for some cool effects, and for the first time it actually seems like the person meant to defeat Jason actually has the ability to do so, which ratchets up the dramatic tension a bit and gets you invested in the telekinetic Tina Shepard (played by a game Lar Park Lincoln; between this and House II: The Second Story, she really should have been a bigger star). Also of interest: Tina’s mom is played by actress Susan Blu, who did voices for basically every ’80s animated TV series, and the true villain of the piece is the nefarious Dr. Crews, who is played by Terry Kiser (aka Bernie).

9. Friday the 13th (2009)

Of all the modern reboots of classic horror franchises, Friday the 13th actually fares the best. Like A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre before it, it’s hurt by the fact that everything looks a little too polished. But the violence is top-notch, and Derek Mears makes for a wonderfully menacing Jason.

10. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

As of this movie, Jason made the transition from a tough dude with a weird head to a supernaturally-powered undead zombie hero. Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman’s character from The Final Chapter) finds Jason’s grave and wants to make sure he is dead. But in doing so, he accidentally sends a bolt of lightning into him, Back to the Future–style, and resurrects our favorite killer. The movie settles into familiar territory after that, but those first few minutes are balls-out insane.

11. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

As noted above, it’s impossible to follow this thing, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Creighton Duke is a completely bizarre creation, and his various speeches about only a Voorhees being able to kill a Voorhees are the stuff of scenery-chewing legend. I mean, just watch this guy work.

12. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning

The only entry in the series that is genuinely skippable, which is a shame because it operates on a pretty interesting premise: The killer who is picking off the residents of a halfway house is actually an impostor posing as Jason, using his legend as a smoke screen. But it doesn’t explore the psychological ramifications of using a legend for your own means and features perhaps the dullest cast in the history of slasher flicks. Still, completists will want to sit through it, if only for the score, which is probably Harry Manfredini’s best work in the series.

Beware, horny camp counselors of the world.