We’ve all seen Jason Voorhees and his relatives stalking through the woods slaughtering teens for the unforgivable sin of having sex – and we’ve all loved it! Jason is the preeminent horror villain and for good reason.
Fitfully working its way through 12 movies, with three different “final” episodes as well as a franchise reboot, Friday the 13th has nonetheless managed to capture two generations of horror fans and Hollywood actors. Appearing in a Jason movie is often considered a badge of honor by lesser-known actors. As Melanie Kinnaman, who played Pam Roberts in Part V, once said, “I really feel the Friday the 13th films are among the better examples of the horror genre. I felt that even doing Part V made me part of a classic film series.”
Yes, Friday the 13th is a cultural phenomenon. No movie franchise epitomizes the slasher flick more than Friday the 13th (which makes sense since it was the original Friday the 13th and Halloween films that breathed life into the low-budget slasher flick genre). Nobody can look at a hockey mask without thinking of Jason. And of course, everyone can immediately identify the unforgettable “ki-ki-ki…ma-ma-ma” soundtrack. But with such movie success comes the inevitable bad sequels and eventually the moment where the franchise jumps the shark.
So here are my rankings of the original 11 Friday the 13th films. Please note that the 2011 short film Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash is not included here (after all, it’s not a full-length movie). I am also not including the 2009 reboot included in this article. I hope I can write a similar article 10 years from now listing the worst-to-best films in the reboot line of movies.
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11 Comments
I find the later films, 6-10 the best ones as they are different where as the first 4 are the same and are very boring.
Oh, Freddy vs Jason should be no.1, that is the best one
I have not seen many of the movies on this list, but i do have to agree that Friday the 13th is one of the best horror movies ever made. I watched it as a kid and have re watched over the years a number of times… Mrs Vorhees still scares me! I stopped watching after part III which I hated. Made me think…. Maybe I should give the rest a try.
Not too shabby, but with a couple obvious exceptions. Jason X is FAR better than you give it credit for, and should, in my mind be in the #2 or 3 position depending on your arguements about II being the best, simply because it’s the first real Jason ‘killing-machine’ instalmment.
I disagree about the final chapter being so low. After all with Tom Savini returning to work on it I really thought this was the Prototype Jason and the one that worked best. He was obviously a bit immortal at this point after surviving an axe to the head, but he would still actually RUN after victims, which held some authenticity to it, something not seen again in the series. I myself always felt 2,4,3 and 1 were the best ones, in that order.
Thanks for the thoughts. You’re obviously a fan and have thought through the movies like I have.
That being said, here’s where all that pesky subjectivity comes in. I don’t feel Jason running after victims was the way to go. Much like in Halloween (which came first, after all) the scariness of the slasher really comes out when he’s in no hurry to catch you, but still does. I know that’s not how it would happen in the real world, but it’s what adds to the creepiness of the bad guy.
As for Jason’s immortality, you can see he is hard to kill in #4, but not immortal (primarily because he died at the end of it). Plenty of people have survived head injuries with bullets, nail guns, and even hatchets. I don’t think he was truly immortal until he got up out of his grave in #6 and shotgun blasts no longer killed him.
I think that the number one shouldn’t be the worst in my book the remake was really bad i couldn’t stand it at all
I agree, it was awful. If I was writing this article to include the reboot, it would have ranked as the worst.
I’ve never seen Twilight, but thanks for being a kind and helpful person with deep insight into the Friday the 13th franchise.
I agree with most of your suppositions, however, I would put Friday the 13th part 4 at the top. Why do you dislike it so much? Plus, you have to give part 5 some credit as an historical representation of the ’80s. It is also the movie my friends love to drink to on Friday the 13th every year…goddamn “ooh baby”…
I really like this list. I personally never had an issue with Tommy, so Parts IV and VI are both two of my favorites, possibly even above the original. Strange, I know.
Still, your bottom three I totally agree with. Jason X and Freddy vs Jason I like, though.
Sup I undestand this was written last year, but it is never too late to comment I guess haha. I just wanted to answer the question you did about Roy, why didn’t he just kill that dude. Well first of it all, Victor was already jailed… I guess it’d be very difficult to introduce a weapon in the prison or wherever he was being held in. Then you’d have to make contact with the inmate which is quite hard also. And second -and most important-, Roy was shocked, like he was driven insane or something like that; remember mrs. Voorhees did the same thing: blame and kill everybody because of the dead of her son.