Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th franchise is one of the most beloved horror mainstays, partially due to its iconic hockey mask clad slasher, Jason Voorhees. While somewhat difficult to rank the franchise, as many of the installment share the same merits and flaws, it’s certainly not impossible as there are some films that clearly rise to the top within the series and others that sink to the depths of Crystal Lake.
Certainly, the franchise has endured, with its popularity never wavering despite the fact that other franchises that once went toe-to-toe with it for top billing have gotten more recent updates, such as Halloween. Similarly, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has a new film in the works, and Wes Craven’s estate has recently started accepting pitches for another Nightmare on Elm Street film, even though it got a remake as recently as 2010. Friday the 13th may not have gotten a new installment since 2009, but part of that is due to legal troubles that have been plaguing the franchise between Cunningham and the film’s writer, Victor Miller.
Even so, with the popularity of Friday the 13th: The Game and him being immortalized in countless types of memorabilia, Jason Voorhees will live forever even if he never gets to slash onto the big screen again, which seems unlikely. However, there are twelve movies (including a spin-off) that fans of the franchise can enjoy while they wait; here are all of the Friday the 13th movies ranked, worst to best.
12. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
Some fans of the franchise think A New Beginning is underrated, but it’s disliked by many fans of the franchise for good reason: there’s no Jason. While this worked before, in the first installment where his mother, Pamela, took to slaughtering counselors at Crystal Lake, this version just doesn’t make sense. The killer - a paramedic who was seeking vengeance for his murdered son - adopts the mask in a parallel to Pamela’s original motivations, was a hollow plot twist that needed more heft in order to be a success. While the film brings back fan-favorite Tommy Jarvis, his inclusion isn’t enough to save an ultimately uninspired film that tries to copy the franchise while simultaneously trying to shout its “originality” from the rooftops.
11. Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Even Kane Hodder, who is arguably the best actor to play Jason Voorhees, couldn’t save Jason Goes To Hell. This film, which tried to give a satisfying conclusion to Jason’s story, served as a strange set-up for Freddy vs. Jason that completely went off the beaten path. In Jason Goes To Hell, the killer’s family life is unraveled a bit with the introduction of Jason’s half-sister, Diana Kimble (Erin Gray), and brings up a plot point that Jason can only be killed with someone who shares his bloodline. It’s almost a page out of Halloween, which Sean S. Cunningham has blatantly ripped off in the past. Jason is tracked down by FBI agents and creates a Hellbaby, which coincides (sort of) with him being a zombie. All in all, it’s sloppy and embraces utter madness, but still strangely entertaining.
10. Friday the 13th (2009)
The 2009 remake of Friday the 13th isn’t the worst thing to happen to the franchise, but it’s nowhere near the best, either. The movie does retcon Jason being a supernatural being and returns him to his previous form: a mortal killing machine. However, the biggest flaw with the remake is its characterization of Jason, who takes hostages and acts like a highly-intelligent hunter, which is not really the case, given his backstory, which concluded Jason has developmental delays. The formula was there, as were the slasher tropes, but really this version of Jason just felt uninspired and nowhere near familiar enough for the installment, on the whole, to rank highly when compared to the others.
9. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
While The New Blood was the installment that introduced fans to Kane Hodder as Jason and has one of the most memorable kills (the sleeping bag kill) in franchise history, the rest of the film is kind of forgettable. Jason’s primary foil in the film is a telekinetic young woman, which is right out of Stephen King’s Carrie, named Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln), and is a strange inclusion to the world on the whole. In a way, Tina’s existence suggests there are people out there with unique abilities, and that’s a strange avenue for a slasher franchise to take, even temporarily. Despite an epic final battle, The New Blood was a stale entry that never really got off the ground and, other than a few key sequences, is background noise at best.
8. Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
Jason Lives is another, somewhat forgettable entry that embraces the franchise’s absurdity to the max and completely stops trying to be a horror franchise, shifting gears to focus on Jason and imaginative kills instead. This is also the beginning of what many fans refer to as “zombie Jason”, as Tommy Jarvis manages to resurrect his foe from the dead by inadvertently channeling a bolt of lightning through a metal fence post while he’s trying to kill Jason once and for all. It does have merits for giving fans another standoff between Tommy and Jason, which was an aspect many fans enjoyed as it brought a level of Laurie Strode vs. Michael Myers hero/villain subtext to the films, but Friday the 13th doesn’t need any of that to be successful, and that’s part of the franchise’s beauty.
7. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
The franchise’s eighth installment, which is mostly known to fans as Jason Takes Manhattan, is underrated because of how utterly self-aware it is. It’s a horror comedy, at worst, and while that’s beyond the pale for some fans who want their horror to be scary, it could be argued that Friday the 13th stopped meaning to scare audiences after part four. Jason Takes Manhattan is not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s entertaining, funny, ridiculous, and has some of the most unique kills in the franchise, which is really where the films earn their weight in gold. It can be argued that this film should have been the logical end of Friday the 13th, but Jason prevails.
6. Jason X (2001)
Some franchises have suffered horribly for blasting off into space, but not Friday the 13th. Jason X is another of the series goofier installments, but it introduced fans to Uber Jason, which was a gift all its own. If considering unique, experimental kills that show the true brutality of Jason, look no further than this installment, as Jason trades his machete for kills such as smashing a woman’s face on a table after dousing her in liquid nitrogen. Kane Hodder returns for his final appearance as Jason in this movie, which means it holds a special place to some fans who are fond of the actor as well.
5. Freddy Vs. Jason (2003)
The highly-anticipated grudge match between Freddy Krueger from Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street and Jason Voorhees came to fruition in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason, and it mostly delivered. The story was a little thin in places, and the battle between Jason and Freddy could have been longer, and had a resolution that wasn’t really just a cleverly shot stalemate, but the best of both franchises made an appearance in this film. Even though Kane Hodder didn’t end up playing Jason, as many fans wanted him to, given his long-term friendship with Robert Englund (Freddy), Ken Kirzinger brought strength and endurance to the role and did a decent job as Jason. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was fun, and the Friday the 13th franchise is at its best when it’s fun.
4. Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Though it might be hard to look past some of the aspects of the film that were obviously meant to be in 3D, as this was the trend of the times, Part 3 is actually a very rewarding film in the franchise, on the whole. The kills are incredible - some of the franchise’s very best - the story is clean and sensible, Jason is exactly what fans expect, it’s still a little scary, and it sees Jason don the hockey mask for the very first time. It also has a clear ending, which could be partially because the producers of the franchise considered ending Friday the 13th after this part, which would have been tragic, but might have made sense given the direction it took afterwards with some of the biggest lows overall.
3. Friday the 13th Part II (1981)
One of the best facets about Part Two is that it takes no prisoners and leaves nothing left behind. It’s quick and dirty, and that’s part of why it’s so great. The kills are brutal, Jason is in top form, it follows the original part so nicely that they can be watched seamlessly back-to-back in marathons. Simply put, it fits, and does everything that is meant to be seen as a highlight of the Friday the 13th franchise very well. Even so, it’s a sequel, and those typically suffer a bit when compared directly to their predecessor, and this one suffers from that as well.
2. Friday the 13th (1980)
While some of the larger, more enduring horror franchises see their first installment commonly on the top of ranked lists no matter how many movies come afterward, Friday the 13th’s original entry misses the mark just by a hair. It has its merits (which are solid), the franchise wouldn’t exist if it had failed, and there are enough interesting tidbits about the making of the film to keep any fan interested in so much more than the movie itself. It was so hated by critics after releasing that Gene Siskel tried to sink it and encouraged people to write Betsy Palmer (Pamela) hate mail for making this movie. However, Jason’s mother deserves respect, and fans came out to see the 1980 original in droves, and thank goodness they did.
1. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
If ever there was such a thing as a perfect Friday the 13th movie, it would be The Final Chapter. As much as the other installments are worthy of existing, if the franchise would have chosen to end here, it wouldn’t have been worse for it. In many ways, it would have ended on a distinct high. Cory Feldman plays the role of Tommy Jarvis expertly for such a young actor - for anyone, really - and gives his all against a very terrifying, formidable Jason Voorhees. The practical effects in this film are a true testament to Tom Savini’s immense talent, and are some of the best of the era. The finale of the film is one of the most intense sequences in slasher movie history, endures throughout the ages, and still holds up as a great movie even almost four decades later. The Final Chapter is truly the best of the best.
Next: Friday the 13th Controversy: Did They Kill A Real Snake?
