Friday the 13th Films Ranked from Worst to Best
Friday the 13th is a horror franchise that has captured the zeitgeist for over 35 years. It encompasses 11 films, one spin-off and countless attempts to recreate its magic. While the franchise has certainly had ebbs and flows, it’s never not entertaining. With unique and disturbing deaths to get your heart rate up, and humor and sex to keep you entertained, Friday the 13th has something for everyone. So here is CULTURE’s official countdown of Friday the 13th, from worst to best.
****Obviously there are spoilers below****
Jason X
The one in space
Number of Kills: 23 (tied for most in franchise)
Best Kill: Adrienne has her face frozen in liquid nitrogen and smashed.
Jason X seems to be a fan film made with a studio budget. To say the premise is out there for a Friday the 13th film is really saying something. And despite the whacky premise, the film is almost devoid of fun and mischief. It also features the largest body count of any film in the franchise, but most of them are uninspired and seem to just be there to bloat the body count.
Friday the 13th (2009)
The one that tried to reboot the franchise
Number of Kills: 14
Best Kill: Amanda is tied up in her sleeping bag and hung from a tree above a fire.
They finally decided to reboot the franchise after 10 Jason films, and instead of taking the opportunity to breathe new life into the franchise, or really solidify the mythology of Jason, they decided to basically make the same kind of film that forced the reboot in the first place. The deaths are mostly uncreative, and the film spends too much time trying to explain why Jason is Jason through exposition, instead of showing us.
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
The one with the fake Jason
Number of Kills: 21
Best Kill: Eddie has his head crushed with a leather strap against a tree post-coitus.
For 90 percent of the film, A New Beginning is pretty solid. It expands the mythology of Tommy, who “killed” Jason in the previous film, and serves as a great way to begin a new trilogy. It also toes the line between sex and violence better than almost any other entry in the franchise. Then the film goes full-Shyamalan, and adds an unnecessary twist with the intention of being shocking. What we get is a film that diminishes the legacy of Jason Voorhees, and began the trend of gimmicky films in the franchise.
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
The one that really let us down
Number of Kills: 19
Best Kill: Boxing champ Julius decides to box with Jason and has his head knocked off by a Jason punch.
How is this not the best Jason move of all time? You’re taking the most iconic serial killer and putting him in the most populated city in the world. The premise is idiot proof. But unfortunately the filmmakers decided to have a large portion of the film take place on the way to New York City. This leads to a generic slasher film that admittedly picks up significantly once they arrive at the titular location.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
The one with the telepath
Number of Kills: 16
Best Kill: Judy is slammed against a tree while inside her sleeping bag.
It seems silly to complain about a telepathic protagonist in a franchise that features an unstoppable undead killing machine that has come back from the dead a number of times, but it just seems odd to me. The characters are paper thin, and a lot of the deaths lack creativity or thought. While some of the entries above this one are worse films, a lot of the middle ones on the list seem to be lazy and just going through the motion.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
The one that that’s batshit crazy
Number of Kills: 23 (tied for the most)
Best Kill: The film opens with the FBI blowing Jason up in a gory display of blood and guts.
Jason Goes to Hell is the most absurd and over the top entry into the franchise, and the film makers are more than happy to revel in it. The film starts with Jason being blown up by the FBI. Not content to not be in the film, Jason spends the rest of the film possessing individuals and making them do unspeakable things before they are killed and he has to jump into another body. I told you this film was nuts. The film also features a number of memorable deaths that bring both originality and creativity to the hockey mask wearing lunatic who kills people genre. It’s pretty niche.
Freddy vs. Jason
The one where Jason is kind of the good guy . . . oh and where he fights Freddy
Number of Kills: 20
Best Kill: Trey is stabbed repeatedly by a machete and then folded in half in the bed.
People had been clamoring for this battle for years, and when Freddy’s iconic bladed glove grabbed Jason’s equally iconic hockey mask at the end of Jason Goes to Hell, fans were primed for the match. The film itself is a fun paring of Nightmare on Elm Street’s humor and Friday the 13th’s brutal deaths. The film has to set the record for most fake blood produced for a film because when someone gets stabbed or loses a limb, they lose about 4 gallons of blood. Plus we get to see Jason in a pseudo-good guy role, I mean he’s still a killer, but he’s not Freddy bad. Plus he “helps” the teens defeat the gloved maniac, but of course we all know how that ends (wink).
Friday the 13th Part II
The one that brought us Jason
Number of Kills: 9 (lowest in the franchise)
Best Kill: Wheelchair-bound Mark gets a machete to the face and then rolls down a lot of stairs.
Honorable Mention: Jeff and Sandra are impaled with a spear after doing it.
Before he was a machete-wielding maniac in a hockey mask, Jason wore overalls and a cloth sack with an eyehole (just one). While the body count is small, and the deaths more straightforward, the film’s narrative is tight and entertaining. It is not bogged down with the minutia that will trouble later films, but rather a film about a boy trying to avenge his mother, and then kill a bunch of other people.
Friday the 13th
The one that started it all
Number of Kills: 10
Best Kill: Kevin Bacon’s Jack gets stabbed through the throat with an arrow from under his bed.
This is the film that sparked the franchise, and one of the movies that revitalized the horror genre. The original is a tightly woven film with a looming sense of dread, where no one is safe. The only thing stopping this film from ranking higher is the low production design and minimalist look. The film has inspired numerous copycats, and along with John Carpenter’s Halloween showed that the horror genre can be financially successful.
Friday the 13th Part III
The one where Jason gets his hockey mask . .. in 3D
Number of Kills: 12
Best Kill: While walking on his hands, Andy is bisected, nuts first.
While the original got the ball rolling and Part 2 established the killer and the brand, Part 3 is where it all meshed for the franchise. An increase in budget and production value, as well as being in 3D, made this feel like a legitimate film, and not something to be viewed solely by a niche audience. It established the iconic hockey mask which is arguably one of the most recognized items in cinematic history. It’s a great ride from start to finish.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
The last really good one
Number of Kills: 18
Best Kill: After attacking Jason, Sheriff Garris is bent backwards and broken in half.
Jason Lives is arguably the most entertaining film in the series, with the widest appeal. It features a number of great jokes juxtaposed against the unstoppable killing force of Jason. It also features the best mix of generic and creative deaths in the franchise. The film masterfully course-corrected from A New Beginning, and is the archetype for the modern day horror-comedy. It also establishes Jason as an undead supernatural creature who has been raised from the dead, a troupe that will continue throughout the series.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
The one with a lie in the title
Number of Kills: 14
Best Kill: While watching girls exercise on TV, Axel has his throat slit with a hacksaw and twisted backwards.
While some of the films on the list nailed the comedy, and other nailed the horror and others nailed the narrative structure, The Final Chapter sticks the landing on all accounts. The film introduces us to Tommy (Corey Feldman), who will feature prominently in the next three films, although Feldman will not reprise the role after this outing. Tommy and Jason have an intriguing dichotomy as Tommy is a kid, and Jason is a character who was tormented when he was a child. If your friends only wanted to watch one Friday the 13th, this is the easiest entry point to get them interested in the franchise.
That’s our list, if you’ve got a better one; let us know in the comments below.
