‘Friday the 13th’: Ranking All the Jason Voorhees Films

This barely coherent ninth entry in the slasher saga dispenses with virtually everything that made the Friday the 13th films so popular in the first place. Rather than follow Jason Voorhees as he hacks his way through an assortment of horny campers and Crystal Lake locals, the film invents a convoluted supernatural mythology involving demonic possession and magical daggers. The result is a disappointing mishmash that’s closer in spirit to body-swapping horror films like “The Hidden,” “Fallen,” and “Shocker” than it is to traditional slasher fare. Character actor Steven Williams gives one hell of a performance as a metaphysical bounty hunter named Creighton Duke, however. He’s easily the film’s MVP.

Revived from his underwater grave courtesy of a blast of psychic energy delivered by a bargain-basement Carrie White, the unstoppable Jason Voorhees once again lays waste to an array of unlucky young adults who’ve arrived at Crystal Lake for a birthday party. Unfortunately, the victims this time around are perhaps the most clichéd and annoying in the entire franchise; and that’s saying something. Even worse, the MPAA forced the producers to cut almost all of the gore from the movie, leaving fans with little more than a shell of a Friday the 13th film. The lone bright spot is Jason’s impressively grotesque face, designed and created by the film’s director, John Carl Buechler.

Watching a country boy like Jason Voorhees terrorize New York City subway riders and Times Square pedestrians as he stalks his prey across the Big Apple is a genuine treat. But sadly, due to budgetary issues, it takes him almost the entire movie to actually get there. Instead, the hulking maniac spends an interminable amount of screen time bumping off a slew of dull high school seniors on a poorly lit cruise ship bound for New York. And that’s a shame, because when Jason finally arrives in the City That Never Sleeps, the film indeed manages to wake itself up. It’s just too little, too late, by that point. Adding insult to injury, the climax involving toxic waste is beyond laughable, even by Friday the 13th standards.

The first 20 minutes of this stylish reboot manage to do something that seemed almost impossible by this point in the franchise’s history: make it scary again. Actor/stuntman Derek Mears imbues Jason with a fearsome physicality, and the gory kill scenes – utilizing a machete, a bear trap, and a sleeping bag suspended over a blazing campfire – are supremely savage. Things become progressively less interesting, however, as the film drags on. The summer house setting where most of the later action takes place is a snooze, and the introduction of an underground tunnel system beneath Crystal Lake does nothing but recall better films, like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2” and “House of 1000 Corpses.” Even the moment where Jason discovers his hockey mask falls strangely flat here.

Hong Kong film director Ronny Yu brings a wild kinetic energy to this long-in-the-works grudge match between two ‘80s slasher icons. Featuring some of the most elaborately staged battles in the history of both series, “Freddy Vs. Jason” is a purposefully over-the-top combination of horror, action, and comedy, and benefits immeasurably from screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon’s playful script. Unlike the bait-and-switch tactic that fans suffered when Jason spent barely a third of Part VIII in Manhattan, this film actually delivers on the promise of its title. Krueger and Voorhees duke it out in a variety of locations, leaving mounds of entrails and viscera in their wake

As anyone who’s seen “Leprechaun 4: In Space” or “Hellraiser: Bloodline” can attest, when horror series run out of ideas, they launch their villains into orbit. Unlike those two duds, however, the tenth installment of the Friday the 13th franchise managed to put the sci-fi relocation to great use, thanks in large part to Todd Farmer’s intentionally hilarious script. Best enjoyed with a large audience, “Jason X” sets the relentless Mr. Voorhees loose on a spaceship in the year 2455, and gives him a likeable crew of futuristic soldiers and students to slaughter. Highlights include a cameo by director David Cronenberg, a shattering death-by-liquid-nitrogen scene, and a holographic simulation of Crystal Lake that comically frustrates its most infamous resident.

Theatrically released in 3-D, this entertaining third outing is more or less a retread of the first two films, but with a few notable changes. For one thing, Jason finally earns his iconic hockey mask, courtesy of doomed practical joker Shelly Finkelstein (memorably played by fan favorite Larry Zerner). For another, he bulks up substantially and becomes the physically imposing goliath that audiences would come to know and love. The creative kill scenes feature a wide assortment of pointy implements, including a knitting needle through the head, a pitchfork in the throat, a fireplace poker in the stomach, and a speargun through the eyeball. Topping them all, however, is the wince-inducing moment where Jason splits a hand-standing dude in half with a machete through the groin.

Writer/director Tom McLoughlin delivers a wonderfully witty combo of slasher violence and gruesome humor in this surprisingly successful sixth entry. Like a modern update of a 1940s Universal Studios’ Frankenstein movie, the film opens with Jason’s maggot-ridden corpse being reanimated by a bolt of lightning. From there, McLoughlin charges forward, tossing victim after victim at the zombified Jason until the screen is awash in blood and dismembered body parts. By far the best looking film in the series to that point, “Jason Lives” even manages to work a clever visual reference to the James Bond franchise into its amusing opening credits sequence. The catchy Alice Cooper theme song heard at the end of the movie is a nice touch, as well.

The most divisive film in the series, this hugely fun fifth installment finds a deranged Jason copycat murdering a colorful group of teens at a rural halfway house for troubled youth. Combining extremely broad comedy, grisly gore effects, copious amounts of nudity, and an overall sleazy vibe to great effect, “A New Beginning” is a highly rewatchable Friday the 13th film that honors the spirit of the four movies that came before it, while charting its own unique path at the same time. Best of all, here we get two Jasons for the price of one; a refreshingly human copycat version, and a ghostly iteration who haunts the dreams of recurring character Tommy Jarvis.

At the time of its release, this low-budget slasher pic was universally derided by critics as a crass and exploitative example of commercial horror at its worst. But 40 years later, its strengths are impossible to ignore. From the quietly menacing prologue set in 1958, to the explosive final jump scare that galvanized a generation of genre fans, “Friday the 13th” remains a near-perfect exercise in audience manipulation. In terms of casting, the film’s mixture of new faces (like Adrienne King, Robbi Morgan, and future superstar Kevin Bacon) and old (Walt Gorney as Crazy Ralph and Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees) gave it a sizeable advantage over the plethora of holiday-themed splatter movies that arrived in its wake. Factor in composer Harry Manfredini’s indelible score and it’s easy to see why this “Halloween” knock-off became a classic in its own right.

Three years after helming the chilling slasher movie “The Prowler,” filmmaker Joseph Zito directed this frightening fourth entry in the Jason saga, which finds the brutal behemoth butchering a bevy of unsuspecting victims, including quirky Crispin Glover in one of his first theatrical roles. Legendary makeup wizard Tom Savini – who provided the gore for the original “Friday the 13th” – created the shockingly realistic violence in this installment, and his work remains disturbingly impressive more than three decades later. But it’s the casting of a young Corey Feldman as Jason’s arch nemesis, Tommy Jarvis, that truly makes this entry something special.

Containing several of the most famous kill scenes in the entire series – including an icepick in the temple, barbed wire strangulation, a double-impaling, and a surprise machete in the face of a victim in a wheelchair – this second Friday the 13th film perfected the “Ten Little Indians” structure that made the original such a hit. With uncanny precision, director Steve Miner crafts some exceedingly suspenseful sequences throughout the movie, and pays each of them off with an expertly timed jump scare. As the requisite Final Girl who outwits the sack-headed Jason, actress Amy Steel gives a loveable performance that elevates her to the top ranks of horror movie heroines.