EJ Moreno ranks every Friday the 13th from worst to best…
It’s Friday the 13th, and so the perfect time to cuddle up with one of the most iconic franchises.
For 44 years, Jason Voorhees has ruled as a slasher king, going beyond horror and becoming a key part of Hollywood pop culture. With 12 films spanning decades and sub-genres, the Friday The 13th films aren’t perfect but often feel like a cozy blanket for longtime fans.
Grab your hockey mask, and prepare for summer camp because we rank every Friday The 13th movie!
12. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
As we’ll come to see, changing the formula is what keeps Friday The 13th fresh. But it takes more than a cool title for this to work, and Jason Takes Manhattan doesn’t live up to its potential.
It’s often been a point of criticism, but Jason barely spends time in New York, letting this supposed “taking” of Manhattan feel more like a cameo appearance. What really hinders this is the reductive nature of the story; after a handful of entries that felt refreshing, this fell back to old habits. It’s just the first two entries with a vague nautical theme.
“Jason on a Boat” works as a premise, but not in a film with more exciting things it could be doing with its time. Instead, we get a reasonably stylish-looking film filled with the most vapid characters and some mid-tier kills.
11. Friday the 13th Part 2
You can literally intercut moments from the first and second Friday The 13th movies, and you’d never be able to tell the difference. Part 2 is copy and paste but with a new final boss.
The intro to the film promises something more thrilling, but by the time the second act ends, you will feel this is all too familiar. Friday the 13th Part 2 was cooked up fairly quickly after the first movie’s success, and you can feel the rushed “let’s just do what worked the first time.” We get vastly more exciting kills, one of the keys to helping these rank.
We get a pretty solid final girl; Alice Hardy deserves her followers and holds her own against the iconic Friday final girl played by Adrienne King. Still, there’s the point: you should watch the first one instead.
10. Friday the 13th Part III
The first two sequels to Friday The 13th suffer from the same issue: it repeats too much of the first film without the charm or Betsy Palmer. Part III then runs into the gimmicky nature of 3D, sending it to the pits.
Friday the 13th Part III has some interesting supporting characters, something we’ll see is vital to a good ranking, but none of them are memorable, and none of the B-plots feel satisfying. And while Jason Voorhees dons the iconic hockey mask for the first time, he still hasn’t hit his full slasher potential.
We are stepping in the right direction, and by the fourth installment, we’ll be cooking. This suffers from middle child syndrome, neither great nor bad enough to make an impression.
9. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
This film has it if you are looking for the strangest collection of Friday The 13th side characters. You’ll enjoy the time you spend with the characters who aren’t Jason… oh wait, there’s no Jason in A New Beginning.
A New Beginning, the fifth installment, tries to change things up too much, introducing a character inspired by Jason Voorhees but in a much different hockey mask. Things are held together in continuity with Tommy Jarvis returning, but he isn’t enough to make this feel like something worthwhile.
It’s not a bottom-tier entry for me, mainly because the story keeps you going even if we aren’t with our traditional masked killer. Good characters and kills will always trump repetition.
8. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
Another round of “well, at least you tried something new.” Jason Goes to Hell sends the character to the afterlife but somehow provides more thrilling Jason moments than our last entry.
We get another round of great supporting characters and add far more to the Voorhees lore than you’d expect. It only took nine movies, but at least someone tried to pad out the wonky world we’ve been living in and even slipped in an Evil Dead reference. There are also some gnarly kills, even if they all come from the odd Jason demon slug.
Far from The Final Friday we’d ever see, it does feel like a fitting end to a specific era for the character. From this movie on, we’d never really get a proper old-school Friday movie.
7. Jason X
Possibly one of the more controversial rankings here, but Jason X fills the need for switching up the formula, especially by the time of release in 2001. Sadly, it feels far too much like a product of its time.
The effects are dated, the characters speak like they are straight out of a Joss Whedon production, and the plot feels a bit too like Battlestar Galactica. Those things aside, we get such a great rendition of Jason; Kane Hodder dials in all his best moves and moments, including a better sleeping bag kill and the iconic frozen face kill.
If you can look past how much it reeks of the early 00s (and it does), you’ll see Jason X has a charm and camp quality that carries it above some of the other atypical films.
6. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
For the first time in the franchise, Jason Voorhees meets a foe who can match him in the supernatural department. While it wouldn’t be the last, it makes The New Blood feel much more intriguing.
Jason vs. Carrie is essentially what this film is, even down to the family trauma. Lar Park Lincoln as Tina ranks among the best final girls in the franchise simply because of how much she fights back. She takes the mold made by Alice Hardy before her and gives Jason a real run for his money during the final battle.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is the last film that fits the mold of “at least it did something else” for a reason, simply because it switched up things in just the right, strange way.
5. Freddy vs. Jason
Decades in the making, you’d expect this film to be an easy fit for the top spot. And it’s hard to deny how awesomely nu-metal and 00s all of it feels, but that’s the thing…it feels too little too late.
The final battle in Freddy vs. Jason lives up to the hype, with both characters finally getting to lay into each other like only titans of horror could. But the road to get there is rocky, filled with unlikable characters and bizarre filmmaking choices. To that, though, there are moments when both characters get time to do their classic thing.
Having Kane Hodder back to face Robert Englund could’ve given it sympathy points, but since the film lacks some key things, it just misses the top spots. With all that, it’s still wild that this even exists.
4. Friday the 13th (1980)
A classic is hard to outdo, and I’ll surely anger some with my placement of the remake over this original film, but it’s honestly hard to call 1980’s Friday The 13th a thrilling watch.
It is blasphemous to some, but the original film has a slow, meditative style, only spruced up with an occasional effective kill. In my eyes, no Friday The 13th movie is terrible, and this one really sets the standards for what we’ve come to love as fans. But just because it came first doesn’t make it better in any way. Sometimes, you must set the mold that’s later broken.
The wild final act keeps the film so high, which gives us a seriously amazing turn from Betsy Palmer and one of the best jump scare endings in movie history. This truly changed the game.
3. Friday the 13th (2009)
Platinum Dunes is a name that often sends shudders down the spines of horror fans, and I can say that not all of their remakes worked. But something about this one just got it perfectly right.
2009’s Friday The 13th condenses the first three films in the franchise into one singular entry, with far less Mrs. Voorhess than you’d want, but does offer one of the best takes on Jason. You win some, you lose some, and we win here with such a brutal and effective hockey mask baddie than we’ve ever seen. It’s wild how chilling he feels throughout the film.
Also, the film earns some major points for the real late running cold open, a move that shook first-time viewers and showed how much this wanted to shake up what we knew.
2. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Just because a remake places above the original, that doesn’t mean some of the original sequels didn’t nail what we’d love from Jason, and The Final Chapter is slasher sequel perfection.
Even if it wasn’t perfect, the first three films really built up the Jason Voorhees character and gave us something to sink our teeth into when he comes up with a family that won’t back down to his murderous ways. For the first time, the characters feel like more than just piles of meatbags, and they give us a reason to be invested in this alleged final entry.
We also meet Tommy Jarvis in this film, a staple for at least three of these films. It’s wild to think he was also originated by the iconic 80s actor Corey Feldman. While some feel painfully 00s, this one feels delightfully 80s.
1. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
In many ways, it feels like The Final Chapter nailed the formula of what we need from a Friday The 13th, but Jason Lives is where the franchise found its footing. You can’t get better than this wacky and violent romp.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives brings a little of what we’ve loved from every installment before it but adds a much-needed level of self-aware humor that keeps it light on its feet. The kills are still there, and Jason feels refueled after an extended slumber, but the tone feels like a precursor to meta horror we’d all love, like Scream.
If you don’t like the more brutal stylings of the remake or the classic approach of the fourth film, Jason Lives is the perfect Friday The 13th fit for you and the best entry in the entire franchise.
How would you rank the Friday the 13th franchise? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth and be sure to sign up for our FREE Patreon for more from FM…
