Every Friday The 13th Film Ranked From Worst To Best

As hard as it is to believe that the sixth instalment in any series could be the best, this is most definitely the case with Friday the 13th. Writer-director Tom McLoughlin's 1986 entry upped the fun factor in a huge way, taking the franchise to heights it hadn't reached before, and hasn't again since.

It's especially curious that Jason Lives should be the pinnacle of Friday the 13th, as it's conspicuously low on two of the franchise's key selling points, gore and nudity: even with deaths aplenty there isn't that much blood on show, and while there's one comedic sex scene, this is the only Friday that doesn't showcase bare breasts. And yet it doesn't leave fans feeling short-changed, because it gets the tone so right.

After earlier films hinted at a ghost story element (had Jason literally returned from the dead, or was he just a very tough hombre?), this one throws ambiguity out the window, confirming unequivocally that Jason is a supernatural being after Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews, surely the best actor to play the role) digs up his corpse, which is promptly revived by lightning Frankenstein-style.

Beyond that, Jason Lives works by adhering to the simple approach of its predecessors, with a more popcorny feel that suits the material down to the ground. While some horror properties are about getting under the skin, Friday the 13th has always been first and foremost about showing the audience a good time, and no entry does that better than Jason Lives.