One of the unholy trinity of slasher characters (with Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers), Jason Voorhees has stalked our screens since the 1980s. Featured on lunch boxes, action figures, and even making an appearance in Mortal Kombat X, the hockey mask-clad psychopath, with his trademark “ch ch ch ah ah ah,” is iconic, not just for his look, but also the insane variety and number of kills he’s made as he trod a bloody path through 12 Friday the 13th movies. So, sit near the fire and grab some marshmallows – and whatever you do, don’t drink, do drugs, or have pre-marital sex – or else Jason may pay you a visit.
Friday the 13th (1980)
Plot: A series of murders takes place at Camp Crystal Lake several years after a deformed camper named Jason Voorhees (Ari Lehman) drowned.
Review: The first of the series didn’t even feature Jason as a killer – nope, that was his mom, Pamela Vorhees. I met Betsy Palmer at a Fangoria convention in the early aughts, and there wasn’t a lovelier lady you could hope to meet; her character in the first Friday is a straight-up lunatic, though. Not just for the multiple murders she commits (my favourite is Kevin Bacon, who gets an arrow through his throat from under a bunk bed), but the way she imitates her dead son, using his voice to spur on her murderous urges.
Alice (Adrienne King) is a decent final girl, and the first film featured camp counsellors who weren’t that annoying, which helps as this movie is really a slow burn. Props to Tom Savini for his grotesque Jason makeup, as well as the ghoulish remnants of Pamela’s kills. Props also to Sean S. Cunningham, the director, for a remarkably well-shot film, utilizing POV and a terrific location to heighten the carnage and tension. If you haven’t seen this movie, you may find the end a real “chair jumper.” Overall, this movie is a classic for a very good reason.
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Plot: Five years after the horror at Camp Crystal Lake, another series of murders takes place at Packanack Lodge, a series of cabins close to Camp Crystal Lake
Review: As the first film in the series to feature Jason Voorhees as the antagonist, Friday the 13th Part 2 lacks the elaborate deaths and gore of the original movie. The campers are the usual horny fodder for Jason’s blade, with the notable exception of Ginny (Amy Steel) and Paul Holt (John Furey). Holt takes on Jason not once but twice and walks away unscathed, which is remarkable in itself, but Ginny is the movie’s true hero. Not only does she take on the burlap-wearing psychopath, but she tries one of the most inventive (if not preposterous) ways to beat Jason, posing as his dead mother.
Those two characters are enough to make me recommend this movie, but also, like the first film, this movie features excellent atmosphere and cinematography. The setting, again, is creepy and atmospheric, and the set design is first-class. You feel isolated out in the woods, with no hope of escape. Ginny’s run from Jason is well-choreographed and intense, and I love the scene at the end where she waits for Jason with a determined look and a pitchfork in hand. Part 2 is a worthy sequel to the original film in all facets, except the kills, which, other than Mark’s death, aren’t that impressive or occur off-camera, thanks to pressure from the MPAA.
Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Plot: Jason (Richard Brooker) stalks a new group of young people at Higgins Haven, located on Crystal Lake, obtaining his iconic hockey mask.
Review: A big reason to see this movie would have been the format – I heard the 3D was outstanding in the original prints of the series. Alas, I don’t have a 3D player, so 2D it was. This installment of the series introduces us to new elements: the most memorable non-final girl character in Shelly, Richard Brooker’s portrayal of Jason, which brings a new dimension to the role (Jason actually loses his shit in the barn), Jason’s new look, and the unfortunate ending for the final girl, Chris (who ends up cackling madly as she’s driven away, most assuredly to the nearest insane asylum). Those who think this movie was only about the 3D are incorrect; there’s some innovative stuff at work here.
However, the movie struggles with pacing. It takes Jason an hour to get the hockey mask. When he does, the murders are so fast, you can’t catch your breath (and the innovation in the murders was back), but there are pockets in that first hour that are a little slow, such as Chris’s memories of Jason’s previous attack on her. That holds this entry back from being a great one instead of just a good one. Also, unfortunately, Dana Kimmell’s Chris had to follow Amy Steel’s excellent Ginny and came out as less memorable, even though she does fight Jason pretty hard.
However, I still enjoyed this film, particularly with Larry Zerner’s endearingly entertaining turn as Shelly and the always interesting ways they tried to mount shots to take advantage of the 3D, which were high points for me. Special shout-out to Harry Manfredini’s bizarre disco score that seemed to fit the hijinks on the screen.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Plot: Jason (Ted White) meets his match in young Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) after the hockey-masked killer murders his mother, as well as a house full of horny young people.
Review: Friday the 13th, Part 4 (or “The Final Chapter” because, you know, we all bought that Jason wouldn’t come back) is undoubtedly one of the better entries in the series. Not only does it feature a very young and bald Corey Feldman going all wild on Jason with a machete, but it also has a ton of great deaths, including Jason’s best end to date (thank you, Mr. Savini, for returning) and, most importantly, Crispin Glover dancing. Seriously, the guy dances like he’s in the middle of being electrocuted. He also calls himself a “dead fuck” like a hundred times in the movie (and ends up being prophetically accurate in the end).
I remember the first time I saw this movie; I found the young people annoying, especially Ted, who I recall getting high and laughing at terrible snuff films. Age has made me kinder, though, and I found him and his computer somewhat endearing. Plus, he doesn’t get the girl; Crispen’s “dead fuck” character does, which seems poetic. The other characters are alright; I liked that the brother of one of the characters, killed in Part 2, comes back for revenge on Jason, and Kimberley Beck seems like a decent final girl. Also, probably Harry Manfredini’s best score to date, he seemed inspired by the chaos on screen and laid down a great track for all the mayhem and blood-letting. Of the first four films, this one is probably, overall, the best one.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
Plot: Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) arrives at Pinehurst Halfway House as a series of grisly murders begin to occur.
Review: This is not really a Friday the 13th movie – it’s a Tommy Jarvis movie. As a Tommy Jarvis movie, it’s not bad; as a Friday the 13th movie, it sucks. Why? Well, first of all, it’s not Jason Voorhees – it’s some crazed paramedic named Roy who’s given some nonsense reason why he’s killing people. Something about his son was killed, and he snapped (even though he had nothing to do with that kid, who was an orphan…despite having a photo of the kid fully grown in his wallet???? Huh?????). Then there’s the fact that the movie plays like a whodunit. That approach is fine for the first film in the series, as the characters haven’t been established, but for the fifth one? Nope. You would have wanted Jason Voorhees, but the movie doesn’t deliver him.
The movie isn’t a total loss, though. There are some cool deaths (the flare-in-the-mouth and hedge clippers-in-the-eyes ones are the best). There’s a nice amount of female nudity, probably more than any other Friday the 13th film to that point. The cast is pretty good and elicits some genuine laughs (the hillbilly neighbors and Joey come to mind). This movie also features one of my favorite movies in any of the films in the series, when Tommy gets pissed at an annoying guy poking him and backflips him through a table. The big negative is that Jason is not shown much in the movie, and when you do, he’s got the wrong mask (blue triangles instead of red ones), and he turns out not to be the real Jason. For that reason alone, this is one of the weaker entries in the series.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Plot: Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) accidentally resurrects Jason (C.J. Graham), who goes on another killing spree at the renamed Camp Forrest Green.
Review: Friday the 13th, Part VI is the quintessential Friday the 13th movie. It has everything that most people associate with the series: an unstoppable Jason, brutal kills, hapless law enforcement officers, some wacky characters, and a strong female lead. In this case, we have one of the strongest female leads in the first six movies in Megan, the feisty, scrappy final girl played by Jennifer Cooke. Unlike some of the other final girls in the series, Megan doesn’t run from danger; she runs towards it head-on. She’s a perfect foil for Thom Mathews’ frantic, frightened Tommy Jarvis.
The Jason depicted in this entry is the first of the overtly supernatural hockey-masked Jasons. He is played with grim intensity by C.J. Graham (with Dan Bradley playing Jason during the paintball scenes). I found David Kagen’s Sheriff character annoying, and he was one of the rare kills where I felt like one of Jason’s victims got exactly what they deserved. Props to whoever came up with Jason stalking corporate stiffs during a paintball war games competition, as that was the best part of the movie. This is a definite crowd-pleaser in the series’ library of films and combines all of the elements that make an exceptional Friday the 13th film.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Plot: A powerful telekinetic (Lar Park Lincoln) accidentally frees Jason (Kane Hodder) from his watery grave at Crystal Lake, which sends him on another killing spree.
Review: By this point in the series, it feels like the studio for the Friday the 13th franchise was asking itself, “What can we do that we haven’t done before?” The answer? Have Jason take on a telekinetic! Tina Shepard is one of the best final girls in the franchise, showing she can go toe-to-toe with Jason and yet have a nice emotional character arc. This was Kane Hodder’s first foray as Jason, and he fits the role perfectly, giving Jason emotional nuance that was usually missing in other portrayals of the masked maniac. Jason looks pissed when he’s unmasked, providing some motivation for Jason that I haven’t seen since Richard Brooker was in the role. Terry Kiser is amazingly slimy as Tina’s therapist. The character work in this entry is some of the best in the franchise.
That doesn’t mean the movie isn’t without warts. The father’s makeup at the end is terrible, especially considering his long time being dead in the lake. I don’t understand what the hell the skinny-dipping girl was doing after seeing her boyfriend killed; she just treads water, thrashing and screaming. It was almost like she was holding a sign, saying, “Please kill me, Jason!” The so-called mean girl was more of a nuisance than someone I wanted to see get her comeuppance. However, the fights between Tina and Jason are top-notch (props to Kane for the longest sustained burn in movies to that point), Harry Manfredini’s & Fred Molin’s excellent score and the film has excellent kills to get you through to the final confrontation. Plus, this has the sleeping bag kill! Iconic! A solid entry in the franchise.
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Plot: Jason (Kane Hodder) ends up on the island of Manhattan after climbing aboard a cruise liner full of the last graduating class of Lakeview High.
Review: The eighth entry of the series is a definite mixed bag. On the one hand, you have the same satisfying kills that you expect from a Friday the 13th movie. The leads are likable. You have the perfectly smarmy foil in Peter Mark Richman as the Rennie’s overbearing uncle. The music is excellent. There are some great moments in Manhattan: Jason seeing the billboard with the hockey mask; Jason lifting his mask to scare off some punks after booting their boombox; My favourite scene in the whole thing, Ken Kirzinger (who plays Jason in Jason vs. Freddy) coming to confront Jason, only for Jason to hurl him against a mirror. Literally, I was laughing for over a minute on that one.
On the other hand, there are some definite misses. Jason doesn’t reach New York City until 64 minutes into the 100-minute runtime (Yes, I checked). It’s cool to see him hanging out on the ship, doing his thing, but this was advertised as Jason takes Manhattan…not Jason takes a boat. Also, the weird dream shit with Rennie seeing young Jason drowning, which happens throughout, doesn’t work. By this point, we are so far removed from the tragic origins of the character, it doesn’t resonate. The ending, too…yeesh…toxic waste turns Jason back to a child? What? I also didn’t like the makeup on either young Jason (it was wildly inconsistent) or adult Jason (it looked cheap, especially considering the awesome makeup he had in Part VII). Because of these negatives, I consider this one of the series’ weaker films.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Plot: After Jason (Kane Hodder) is killed, his essence jumps into several people as he looks to be reborn in one of his relatives.
Review: After New Line took over the series, they seemed to want to do their own thing. Parts 1 to 8 of the franchise continued from one another. Last time out, we left Jason as a young child in a Manhattan sewer. Now, he’s just walking around at Crystal Lake and gets blown up. That should tell you that the filmmakers had no intention of making a Friday the 13th movie. They couldn’t even get the rights to the title!
The movie suffers from a lack of Jason. Yes, they’re saying he’s existing in other characters (think of The Hidden), but it’s not the same. Also, what’s this bullshit about Jason having living relatives, including a sister? The fuck? Where the hell did that come from? A Voorhees can only kill a Voorhees? His niece can turn daggers into magical daggers when at the old homestead? Jason turns into a demon and runs up his dead sister’s…ahem…private parts to get reborn? I think the filmmakers must have been on some seriously bad drugs when they conceived this; one thing is certain: they had no intention of pleasing the fans.
It’s not all bad. Steven Williams is memorable as Creighton Duke, and John D. LeMay is serviceable as the lead good guy. There are some good kills (the best one is the girl being split in half in the tent). It’s cool seeing the Necronomicon and Freddy’s glove at the end. …That’s about it. This movie is a disastrous mess of nonsense with glimpses of a better film, but it’s not enough. I’m not saying they should have done the same old, same old – I’m OK with recreating stuff. It’s just, don’t deviate so far and for such unintelligible purposes that it no longer resembles what it should.
Jason X (2001)
Plot: After being cryogenically frozen for over 400 years, Jason (Kate Hodder) awakens on a spaceship to cause chaos and take more lives.
Review: Let me take this opportunity to shout out the great Kane Hodder for four excellent performances as Jason Voorhees. There were other Jasons who gave outstanding performances (Richard Brooker, C.J. Graham), but Kane is the king, as far as I’m concerned. He has the most distinctive Jason, and I doubt anyone will ever embody the role like he did. Thank you, Mr. Hodder, for bringing so much to the iconic role. This was his last time in the hockey mask, at least on film, and he delivers another perfect performance.
Now, on to the movie. What can I say? It’s a cliché that your series is winding down when you end up in space. This outing, though, is just fun. Seeing Uber Jason, watching him take on an ass-kicking android, throw a spear through David Cronenberg…fun. You can look at this movie as an “Elseworlds” entry in the franchise, to which I say, all of the films after Manhattan are “Elseworlds” movies. After part 8, I look at each one as an individual film, and for Jason X, I found it entertaining and thrilling. My favourite scene is when Jason’s in the hologram and the two fake campers taunt him with booze, pot, and premarital sex, only for Jason to beat one with the other while both are in sleeping bags. I have no complaints about this movie; it looks great, the music is fantastic, and you get to see Jason as a cyborg. What more could you want?
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Plot: Freddy (Robert Englund) resurrects Jason (Ken Kirzinger) from Hell to kill teenagers on Elm Street so that they will feel fear and thus remember he exists, allowing him to come back.
Review: Re-watching Freddy vs. Jason again, I remember the massive hype around the movie; after all, this was a dream match for horror fans. Several ludicrous scenarios involved the two horror icons facing off, including one insane idea to have them in a boxing ring, duking it out like Frazier vs. Ali. Thankfully, none of those came to pass, though in a trainwreck sort of way, I almost wish I had seen the boxing match come to fruition. What we got made the most sense, with Freddy using Jason as a pawn to power him up to wreak havoc on the unwitting residents of Elm Street, once again.
That made the movie imbalanced, as this feels like more of a Nightmare on Elm Street movie that Jason is guest starring in than a cohesive mesh of the two franchises. What hurts the film more, though, is its unlikable characters. Other than Lori, Will, Mark, Stubbs and Linderman, the characters in this movie suck. Kia is the worst, being a flat-out bitch for no reason. Gibb and her loser boyfriend have sex at their friend’s house (rude!). Some dude at the rave tries to have sex with Gibb while she’s unconscious. While I didn’t feel this way with most of the Friday the 13th movies, I couldn’t wait for the characters to be killed in this one. Thankfully, this movie is saved by the faceoffs between Freddy and Jason, which are as epic and spectacular as you would want.
Friday the 13th (2009)
Plot: Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) searches Crystal Lake for his missing sister, Whitney (Amanda Righetti), who is hostage to deformed, hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears).
Review: When in doubt, reboot, right? I mean, New Line had blown Jason up, sent him to space, and sent him against Freddy Krueger, so this was the last checkbox, wasn’t it? The thing is, reboots generally suck, and this one doesn’t buck the rule. It’s weird. Why is Jason laying bear traps? Why is Chelsea just treading water and watching a speedboat smack her in the head? Why does Jenna haul off and spend the entire day with Clay when she knows her douchebag boyfriend, Trent, doesn’t like him? If she’s that sensitive, what is she even doing with a douchebag like Clay? What exactly is Jason’s plan with chaining up Whitney? Will he put a sweater on her and kneel, hoping she talks to him as his mother? The brain spins with this movie.
If the story doesn’t make your head spin, then the shaky-cam will. There are some genuinely unpleasant moments due to the cameraman shooting this movie, apparently during an earthquake, that dilute some of the action, especially in the first half-hour of the film. It’s also too dark at times and hard to see what’s going on. There are some decent kills, and I appreciate Derek Mears’ enthusiasm with the role. Also, kudos to Jared Padalecki for having the square-jawed hero part down pat. There’s just too much wrong with this entry, though, and even without the rights issues, it isn’t surprising this is the last Friday movie we got.
In Conclusion
What started as an admitted “rip-off” of Halloween became a legendary horror series with an iconic central character. Sometimes, you don’t need this brilliant idea to make a lasting impression; all you need is desire and some level of skill. While the Friday the 13th series wobbled a bit when it went to New Line, the first eight entries felt cohesive and were solid, with a few outliers. My movie order (from best to worst) is below for those interested. I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at the Friday the 13th series!
- Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter
- Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
- Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
- Friday the 13th Part 3
- Friday the 13th (Original)
- Friday the 13th Part 2
- Jason X
- Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
- Freddy vs. Jason
- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
- Friday the 13th (Reboot)
- Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday