With Halloween quickly approaching, I decided it was only right to watch some scary movies for the spooky season. I watched all 12 films in the Friday the 13th franchise for the first time to get into the feelings. There are many highs and lows throughout the movies, but there is no question that Jason Voorhees is a horror icon.
12. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
The ninth film gets the last spot in my rankings. This was written and directed by 23-year-old Adam Macrus, and the first time Paramount was not a part of the series. The movie opens with Jason being attacked by FBI agents and then blown up. However, Jason’s spirit is still alive in a worm-like form that possesses other people so he can continue his killing spree. The movie also reveals that Jason has a half-sister named Diana Kimble. The only way to kill his spirit is with the Voorhees Dagger, which the main characters eventually find. They stab Jason in the heart, and he is dragged down into hell by demons. The final part of the movie is that Jason’s hockey mask is lying in the sand and Freddy Krueger’s claws grab the mask, sending it to hell.
My main problems with the movie are that it barely features the real Jason, the characters are forgettable, and the spirit worm is uninteresting. When you think of Friday the 13th, you think of Jason killing people at Camp Crystal Lake. Nobody wants to see random people being possessed to kill in Ohio. The best part of the movie was the Freddy Krueger appearance, although it took a decade for the crossover to finally happen. I do give credit to Marcus and the crew for thinking outside of the box and not doing a similar film for the ninth time; however, the final idea was not the best.
11. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
The fifth film in this franchise gets the next spot, and it is most known for not having Jason Voorhees in it. In the previous film, Tommy Jarvis killed Jason with his own machete, and now someone is impersonating Jason, killing people at Pinehurst Halfway House. This is where Jarvis is staying, as he has gone crazy since killing Jason. The movie makes it seem Jarvis is the killer all this time because he is never there when the fake Jason strikes. However, Jarvis kills the imposter, and it is revealed to be Roy Burns. He was a paramedic who wanted revenge after his son died at the Pinehurst Halfway House.
For me, this film was just boring. Besides Jarvis, the people were just your average horror movie characters. They didn’t bring any value or impact to the story. The reveal of Bruns as Jason was just a letdown. It would have been so much cooler to see Jarvis as Jason, even though it might have been obvious. This would have been a better storyline and built on Jarvis’ character. We get a hint of this at the end of the movie with this idea. He picks up the hockey mask and looks to kill. However, in the next movie, he is his normal self and not pretending to be Jason. I feel like this movie is useless and provides a meaningless ending.
10. Jason X (2001)
In the 10th film, Jason Voorhees finds his way into space. In 2010, Jason and the main character Rowan were frozen and placed in cryogenic stasis. The movie fast forwards to the year 2455. Their bodies are found by people from the future, and they are brought aboard a futuristic space shuttle. They are unfrozen, and Jason goes on a killing spree on the ship. He is finally stopped when an android named Key-Em uses every weapon imaginable to kill him. The remaining crew can pick up a signal from a ship and ask for a rescue mission. Meanwhile, Jason’s dead body is lying on a nanite-equipped medical station, so he is resurrected as a cyborg. He makes one final attack, but the ship blows up right before the crew escapes.
This movie has to be the most random one out of all of them. It has nothing to do with any of the previous films. It was a creative idea, but it probably didn’t need to be made. The acting in this movie is very cringy alongside the early 2000s CGI. I would classify this film as something so bad that it is good. There are a few cool futuristic moments, but nothing too special. It isn’t really scary, but rather something that I laugh at.
9. Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
The third film is when Jason gets his iconic hockey mask. The story follows Chris Higgins and her friends as they go to Camp Crystal Lake for a summer trip. There is also a side plot with a local biker gang, as a few of her friends went to town and knocked over their bikes. The bikers find out where they are staying and plan to get revenge. However, Jason appears and takes them out one by one. Then Jason goes after Higgins’ friends. One of them was wearing a hockey mask to scare others, but Jason kills him and takes the mask. Higgins is all alone and has to face Jason. She strikes him with an ax to the head, and she goes into a canoe on the lake to run away. She wakes up and sees Jason without a mask running at her. She looks away and then back to see that Jason is gone. Out of nowhere, the dead body of Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mom, grabs her and drags her into the lake. She wakes up and realizes it was a dream.
This wasn’t a bad movie, but I didn’t like the fact that they reused many elements of the first two films. A group of college students goes to Camp Crystal Lake and is murdered one by one. I also didn’t like the ending. It is pretty much a copy of the first one. Instead of young Jason dragging down the final girl, it is Pamela Voorhees. It just felt lazy and didn’t interest me. The characters were better but I didn’t like the sideplot with the bikers. It didn’t match the vibe of the film and wasn’t needed. I did enjoy Richard Brooker acting as Jason and the final battle scene with him and Higgins.
8. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Despite the title, the film starts on a boat. Jason is resurrected and sneaks on the boat holding high school seniors heading towards New York City for a trip. The story follows Rennie Wickham, who is one of the seniors and is also afraid of water. Her teacher tries to convince her not to come, but she still boards. Jason starts his rampage and kills the passengers. Wickham, her teacher, and a few others are able to escape on a life raft. They paddle all night but finally end up in Manhattan. Unfortunately for them, Jason also arrives moments later. They run around the city and end up in the sewers. Wickham pours toxic waste on Jason, and he is washed away by water. Wickham is safe and defeats Jason.
This film usually gets a bad wrap, but I quite enjoy it. I understand that most of the movie takes place on the boat, and they aren’t in Manhattan that long, but everything else is entertaining. If they changed the title, I can see more people liking it as it isn’t as misleading. They did this with Jason Goes to Hell, as he is only sent to hell in the final minutes. I like it when one of the characters tries to box Jason, and when he is standing in the middle of Times Square. This wasn’t an amazing movie, but it was fun, and it was cool to see Jason outside of Camp Crystal Lake for the first time.
7. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
In the seventh film, the main character has superpowers. Tina has telekinetic abilities and can move, destroy and throw anything. With this ability, she brings back Jason from the lake. Right next door to her house is a group of teens celebrating a friend’s birthday. She gets close to the neighbor Nick and invites her to the celebration. Jason crashes the party and starts a killing spree. Tina and Nick escape, but soon Jason catches up. Tina uses her power to stop Jason from any more mayhem. She drags him down to the bottom of the lake with her powers.
In the later films, it is very obvious that the franchise was willing to do any storyline. I couldn’t tell you why there is a psychokinetic and why Jason is trying to kill. After viewing 12 of these movies, I learned not to ask questions and just watch. Even though it is weird, I still liked it. Jason has faced his most unique match-up so far in the series, and it was entertaining. This is also the first time we saw Kane Hodder play Jason. Many people consider him the best Jason, and he has played him in four movies. Also, the design of Jason is one of the best.
6. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Two horror icons, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, collide in one movie. Nobody in Springwood is fearful of Freddy anymore, so he cannot invade anybody’s dreams. So he finds Jason and pretends to be his mother. He commands him to go to Springwood and start killing. This will make the people fearful and believe Freddy is back after four years of absence. His plan works in the beginning, but Jason starts to become the one people are afraid of. So Freddy and Jason have a battle in the dream world, along with the real world, with Jason coming out on top.
This movie may have been a big cash grab, but it does tell a good story. The fight scenes with the two are amazing and nothing any horror fan has ever seen. Of course, they were the main focus, but the other characters were well written. The storyline of sending people to a mental hospital to stop dreaming was an interesting concept. The only parts I’m not a fan of are really all the behind-the-scenes decisions. This movie has been in talks for years, and so many scripts have been made for it. I believe they picked a safe script and could have more to it. It also hurts to know that there were rumored cameos from other horror legends like Pinhead from Hellraiser and Ash from Evil Dead. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get the rights to them.
5. Friday the 13th (1980)
The original gets the fifth spot in my rankings. On Friday, June 13, 1979, Camp Crystal Lake reopened after years of being shut down. The townsfolk warn the counselors of a series of murders and the story of a young boy drowning. They don’t listen and start preparing for summer camp. Throughout the film, they are killed off one by one by a murderer the audience cannot see. Soon, there is only one person left, named Alice, and a car pulls up. It is a woman named Pamela Voorhees, and she tells a story about how her son was bullied at the camp. The other kids pushed him into the lake and drowned. The counselors on duty weren’t paying attention and never even noticed. Pamela attacks Alice to get revenge for her son. Alice picks up a machete and chops Pamela’s head off.
This movie is a classic, but it isn’t the best. I give a lot of credit to this movie as it paved the path for 11 more movies and started a horror icon. Jason does make an appearance at the end when he has the famous jumpscare kill on Alice in the boat. However, it was only a dream, so he wasn’t in it really and wasn’t the mysterious killer. It wasn’t your average Jason movie where he is manic and starts taking out people. Some people really like that, and some people prefer the other movies. I would say I’m somewhere in the middle.
4. Friday the 13th (2009)
This is the remake of the original film and the latest movie in the franchise. It starts with a group setting up camp in a forest for the night. They talk about the story of Jason, and as expected, Jason appears and kills everyone. Then it fast forwards to six weeks later, and a brother of one of the dead family members, named Clay, is looking for his sister. He goes around the area and comes in contact with a different group that is going up in that area for a trip. Jason discovers them and starts to take them out. Clay discovers that his sister is still alive and rescues her. Both of them outsmart Jason, by the sister pretending to be Jason’s mother, and she stabs him in the chest with the machete.
I really liked how the remakes take the story of the first three original films and make it into one. We get a recap of Pamela dying, Jason running around in a burlap sack, and discovering his iconic hockey mask. They also made Jason more violent and athletic. Normally, he is a slow-moving killer, but now he is running and putting in extra effort. I also enjoyed the addition of underground tunnels to the story. No other film in the franchise did this, and it is an interesting touch.
3. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
The sequel to the original earns the third spot. Camp Crystal Lake reopens five years after the events of the first film. The new counselors sit around the campfire and retell the same story I mentioned a million times so far. They point out that Jason is still out there avenging the death of his mom. When Jason comes, we don’t see his body until later. All the audience can see is his hand holding a weapon when he kills. Near the end, counselors Paul and Ginny are the last ones left. Jason can finally be seen, and he is wearing a burlap sack with one eye hole cut out. Ginny runs into a shack and finds Pamela Voorhees’ decaying head with dead bodies. Jason breaks in, but Ginny wears Pamela’s sweater and tries to trick Jason. Paul attacks Jason, and Ginny “kills” Jason with the machete.
This was the introduction of the real Jason, so it had to be ranked highly. I know Jason doesn’t have his hockey mask, but I would argue the bag is scarier than the mask. I really like the look and suits him better with the environment he is in. People may hate it because of how iconic the hockey mask is and how the bag only has one eye hole, but both work for me. Ginny, in my opinion, is the best “final girl” in the franchise and not dumb like most horror movie characters. She gives Jason a good fight and outsmarts him in the end.
2. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
In the sixth film, Tommy Jarvis is released from the hospital and returns to Camp Crystal Lake, which is now called Forest Green. Still haunted by flashbacks, he digs up Jason’s grave and strikes him with a metal fence post. Two lightning bolts strike the post, and Jason is brought back to life. Jason is loose and ready to kill. Jarvis confronts local police, but they call him insane and lock him up. The camp opens up again, and Jason looks to strike. Jarvis escapes and confronts him. He sails out to the middle of the Lake, and Jason follows. He wraps a chain around Jason, which is connected to a heavy rock. He pushes it off, and Jason sinks to the bottom of the lake and is unable to escape.
This is a great way to recover from part five, which didn’t have Jason at all. This is my favorite design of Jason, and C. J. Graham did a fantastic job acting. I really liked this one because it did more than just focus on killing. The story I thought was interesting and entertaining. It also continues Tommy Jarvis’ story. Some of the movies are just one-and-done, but I like how there are three films centered around Jarvis. I also thought the ending was pretty clever and a good way to kill off the character (for now).
1. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
My number one pick had to be the fourth film in the franchise. It opens up with the police taking away the “dead” body of Jason after the events of Part 3. They take him to the morgue, but he awakens and is on the loose. We then cut to a group of teens moving to a house that is near Crystal Lake. Their neighbors are a 12-year-old Tommy Jarvis, his sister Trish and his mother. Jason makes his way to the area and starts to kill the teens. He then targets the Jarvises but Tommy comes up with a plan to dress up as young Jason. This distracts Jason, and Trish strikes him. It doesn’t finish him off, so Tommy picks up the machete and kills him.
The thing I like the most is that we aren’t following a teenager or young adult in the movie. We are seeing this world from the view of a 12-year-old boy. His family members are also big characters, something we haven’t really seen yet. This is the start of the Tommy Jarvis character, and he has an amazing backstory. Regarding acting, Corey Feldman did great as a child actor, and Ted White is my second favorite Jason actor. Even though this wasn’t close to being the final chapter in the franchise. It still is the best and the final one in my heart.
Contact the writer: [email protected]
