Jason Voorhees is one of the most iconic slasher villains of all time, causing the Friday the 13th franchise to become a major staple in the horror genre. Throughout 12 films, the hockey-masked, machete-wielding, undead psychopath has sliced and diced through countless victims. He’s also been maimed himself and always manages to come back for more carnage.
Some Friday the 13th films are fantastic, while others are just schlock. Throughout the franchise, Jason has gone to space, battled a psychokinetic teen, hit the streets of Manhattan, and even went toe to toe with another notorious horror villain. While there hasn’t been a Friday the 13th film since 2009, Jason still reigns as one of the kings of the slasher subgenre. Although, a prequel series to the franchise is currently being developed.
In the spirit of spooky season, let’s take a deep dive into the entire Friday the 13th franchise, ranking the films from gory masterpieces to silly cash grabs.
12. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
One of the several sequels highlighted as the final chapter in the long-running Friday the 13th film series, Jason Goes to Hell is the most bizarre. Directed by Adam Marcus and released theatrically in 1993, the film is largely disappointing because Jason is only on screen for a small portion of the film. Instead, his soul possesses people and forces them to kill.
This film is extremely gory, but brings in some ridiculous plot points, including introducing long-lost Vorhees family members and a magical dagger. The film goes off the rails so far that it doesn’t even feel like a Friday the 13th movie, but it does feature some great body horror, including a man’s body completely melting after Jason’s soul leaves his body. Another memorable moment is the opening, where Jason is blown away by many SWAT team members.
11. Friday the 13th Part III
While Friday the 13th: Part III features some notable franchise firsts like the origin of Jason’s hockey mask, the film is largely a dud. Directed by Steve Miner and originally released in 3D in 1982, Friday the 13th Part III is cheesy and features some of the worst acting in the franchise’s history.
Some highlights of the film include a gruesome death in which a man is partly sliced through the middle while doing a handstand, as well as some fun sequences featuring Jason without a mask. For fans of the series, it’s still worth a watch, but the story is nonexistent, the kills are somewhat by-the-numbers, and the film as a whole is very derivative of the first Friday the 13th.
10. Jason X
From here on out, I love all the films in the franchise. 2001’s Jason X is extremely hokey, taking everybody’s favorite hockey-masked killer to space. After being cryogenically frozen, Jason wakes aboard a spacecraft in the future. The film is very entertaining but is a straight-up B-movie, and that shows.
In this film directed by James Isaac, the audience witnesses Jason decapitate a robot, whose head survives the film. The most memorable kill by far is when Jason dunks a woman’s head in liquid nitrogen before exploding it by bashing it onto a table. Jason X was originally produced in order to keep fans invested in Jason’s character before Jason vs. Freddy was made, and it’s a wild ride, but for anyone looking for quality cinema, this may not be for you.
9. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Originally pitched as Jason vs Carrie, this 1988 sequel directed by John Carl Buechler features Jason facing off against a teen girl with telekinesis. Final girl Tina, played by Lar Park Lincoln, is able to pick up objects and set things on fire with her mind. Seeing a character like this in a Friday the 13th film is unique, but this film is still one of the weaker installments in the franchise. This is also the first of four Friday the 13th films where Jason is played by Kane Hodder.
Because of issues with the MPAA, The New Blood is one of the least gory films in the franchise, which is disappointing. The story is also fairly derivative of the other films (other than the addition of Tina’s character), with vapid young people meeting their demise at the hands of Jason. While less violent, The New Blood features one of the franchise’s most memorable kills when Jason smashes a woman in a sleeping bag into a tree.
8. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
The third and final film in the franchise to feature the character of Tommy Jarvis, Jason Lives establishes Jason as a supernatural being, being pretty much unstoppable. This 1986 film from director Tom McLoughlin opens with Jason being resurrected while rotting in a coffin. He looks more zombie-like in this film, turning Jason into a myth rather than a murderous man.
Another notable thing about this entry is that it is the first to actually feature children attending Camp Crystal Lake. One of the highlights of this flick is the murder of several paintballers, which includes a triple decapitation. While this film attempts to be a bit different from previous installments, Jason Lives is hindered by gore censored by the MPAA and a strange attempt at action tropes, as well as some more comedic elements that don’t fully work.
7. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Some people may think this ridiculous installment is way too high on this list, but its inane filmmaking proves to be relentlessly entertaining. The film may be titled Jason Takes Manhattan, but only the opening credits and the third act of this film actually take place in NYC. For about the first hour of this 1989 movie directed by Rob Hedden, Jason is committing his heinous murders on a boat on its way to New York.
This movie is possibly the silliest in the franchise, featuring the ghost of child Jason and some random musical sequences. Perhaps the best kill is when Jason finally gets to Manhattan, and punches a man’s head clean off with his fist. While this movie is schlocky, it is still one of the battiest and most memorable Friday the 13th films.
6. Freddy vs. Jason
Combining both the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises, Freddy vs. Jason is a horror mashup for the ages. This 2003 film, directed by Ronny Yu, is cheesy and full of choppy editing, but is strangely charming and brutal. The film showcases horror icons Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees battling out, with a lot of the screen time of this film featuring the killers fighting each other ruthlessly.
In addition to the exciting combination of both Freddy and Jason on screen, this film has a very nostalgic 2000s feel that hits hard in the present day. Some highlights include a massacre at a rave and Jason crushing a man inside of a bed after folding it with his immense strength.
5. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Ok, hear me out. A New Beginning is panned by many Friday the 13th fans because Jason is not the killer. While Jason was also not the killer in the original film, doing this surprise again in a later film in the franchise proved to be a decision that did not make fans happy. Nevertheless, this flick features one of the highest death tolls in the entire franchise and has an intriguing sense of sleaze that the other films don’t have.
In this 1985 film directed by Danny Steinmann, a grown-up Tommy Jarvis is sent to a halfway house for troubled teens. The movie immediately sets itself apart from the pack when a man named Vic murders a teen from the halfway house with an axe. After Vic is arrested, the teens get picked off one by one, seemingly by Jason, but the end reveals that Jason actually died in The Final Chapter (although he is resurrected in Jason Lives). While some found this entry disappointing as a Friday the 13th film, it works as a grisly 80s slasher with many memorable moments, including a unique death involving a belt and a stick.
4. Friday the 13th (2009)
Arguably one of the best horror remakes of recent memory, 2009’s Friday the 13th delivers fantastically gory kills and cleverly combines several films from the franchise. The opening of Marcus Nispel’s remake features the beheading of Pamela Voorhees before a twenty-minute sequence of stoners being murdered.
The film also ties in a subplot explored in 1984’s The Final Chapter in which a man comes to Camp Crystal Lake looking for his sister. The Friday the 13th reboot features a gritty, late 2000s feel that doesn’t take it easy on the brutality, as well as plenty of debauchery to go around. This Michael Bay-produced Friday the 13th film feels more like a fun homage to the series rather than a reimagining, which works, since the film showcases plenty of machete kills by Jason.
3. Friday the 13th (1980)
The film that started it all, Friday the 13th from 1980 is a classic slasher, but surprisingly not as memorably gory as some of its successors. Nevertheless, Friday the 13th is an influential horror flick with decent performances and a genuinely frightening ending sequence, where it is revealed that the killer is Pamela Voorhees, who lost her mind after young Jason drowned at Camp Crystal Lake.
Young Jason never actually kills any of the camp counselors in this film directed by Sean S. Cunningham, but is seen in the final scene in a dreamlike sequence where his decomposed body pops out of the water. Instead, Pamela Voorhees, played by Betsy Palmer, serves as the main villain. While Jason may be the staple of this franchise, his mother is just as maniacally gruesome as he is, with Palmer delivering a truly fantastic performance. Some unforgettable moments in the original film include a character played by Kevin Bacon being stabbed through the throat while he lays in bed and the decapitation of Pamela.
2. Friday the 13th Part 2
The first film in the franchise to feature Jason as the main killer, Friday the 13th: Part 2 is one of the best movies in the series because it knows how to be a fun slasher. Part 2 is a film that not only helped create the Friday the 13th formula, but the overall slasher formula as well.
Directed by Steve Miner and released in 1981, Part 2 follows a fairly simplistic plot, with new camp counselors showing up at Camp Crystal Lake, only to fall victim to a now fully-grown Jason. This film introduces Jason’s machete and features one of the highest body counts. The end of Part 2 is one of the most clever in the franchise, with final girl Ginny, played by Amy Steele, pretending to be Jason’s mother by using psychology. One negative aspect of this film to me is the death of the first film’s final girl, Alice Hardy, because it would have been fun to have Adrienne King reprise the role several more times.
1. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (which obviously wasn’t the final chapter) feels like the film to show a person who has never watched a Jason flick before. The fourth film in the franchise is a perfect 80s slasher, featuring drunken teens who die gruesome deaths the moment they get frisky. The film also manages to shake the series up by adding Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis, a young boy who may be Jason’s match. Tommy may appear in the next two installments, but this is the only time he’s played by Feldman, except for in a brief opening scene in A New Beginning.
Directed by Joseph Zito, The Final Chapter is entertaining from start to finish and features some great kills, including a young Crispin Glover getting a hatchet to the face. The opening scene set at a hospital is iconic as well. Another highlight is Glover’s dancing, which is impossible to unsee. While Part 2 helped establish the layout for the Friday the 13th film, The Final Chapter manages to have the most fun while still being a grisly slasher.