Friday The 13th Series: Jason's 10 Best Kills

Just as another Friday the 13th shows up on the calendar, the 1980 horror classic Friday the 13th is also celebrating its 36th birthday – although, in fact, this fell on May 9th. I know, I can’t quite come to terms with the idea of the original Friday the 13th not opening on a Friday the 13th, but what can you do?

Another thing it’s hard for fans of the slasher series to come to terms with is the fact that it’s now been more than seven years since hockey-masked maniac Jason Voorhees last hacked up the screen, in the divisive 2009 reboot.

A combination of legal red tape and creative issues kept the franchise trapped in limbo all this time, and unsurprisingly the rumour mill has run riot: would it be found footage? Would it be set in the 80s? Would it get made at all?

It’s so frustrating, because on paper, Friday the 13th isn’t exactly rocket science. A bunch of horny, bad-mannered, beer-swilling college kids go to Camp Crystal Lake to drink and do the dirty; Jason kills them all. End of story. It worked for almost all the 12 existing Friday the 13th movies, so why shouldn’t it work again?

But it’s not all pure formula. These movies marked up such a body count, they’ve learned to get very creative about it; subsequently, the best death scenes from Friday the 13th rank among the greatest from almost the past four decades of horror cinema.

Picture Jason Voorhees, and generally the two main things that come to mind are his hockey mask and his machete. Well, Jason hadn’t yet adopted what became his trademark visage when he made his first proper appearance in Friday the 13th Part 2 (remember Drew Barrymore’s mistake; it was his mother in the first one), but he did make some good use of his signature weapon.

In terms of rhythm, the death of Mark (Tom McBride) follows much the same beats as that of Marcie in the original Friday the 13th, with a swift blow to the face, and a lingering shot of the blade still in place as the victim falls dead. What makes Mark’s all the more spectacular is that it takes place while he’s in his wheelchair at the top of a staircase which would give the one from The Exorcist a run for its money – and then goes hurtling backwards down those stairs with the machete still wedged in there.

This is also a good one for demonstrating how ruthless and indiscriminate Jason is. We might think that Mark’s disability would give me a free pass from the blade of a killer seemingly fixated on slaughtering sinners – but when all’s said and done, Jason doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve done, he’s going to kill you regardless.