Misc
Ranking the Friday the 13th Franchise from Worst to Best
This month marks the 45th anniversary of 1980’s Friday the 13th, perhaps the most important movies in the history of cinema. Without it, the slasher genre simply wouldn’t exist. Halloween built the dynamite, based off designs from Psycho, Texas Chain Saw, and Black Christmas, but Friday the 13th lit the fuse. I have many things to thank that movie for, but another one of the most important is the fact that, while I love it, it is not a stone-cold masterpiece. This makes anyone’s rankings of the franchise (and especially the movie that earns the #1 spot) much more malleable and personal. In a ranking of the Halloween franchise, for instance, basically everyone is obligated to put the John Carpenter original up top, even if they kinda don’t want to. But here, anything goes, and that results in much more interesting and idiosyncratic lists, from top to bottom. In that spirit, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and embrace my truth. Brace yourselves.
Today marks the 45th anniversary of 1980’s Friday the 13th, perhaps the most important movies in the history of cinema. Without it, the slasher genre simply wouldn’t exist. Halloween built the dynamite, based off designs from Psycho, Texas Chain Saw, and Black Christmas, but Friday the 13th lit the fuse.
I have many things to thank that movie for, but another one of the most important is the fact that, while I love it, it is not a stone-cold masterpiece. This makes anyone’s rankings of the franchise (and especially the movie that earns the #1 spot) much more malleable and personal. In a ranking of the Halloween franchise, for instance, basically everyone is obligated to put the John Carpenter original up top, even if they kinda don’t want to. But here, anything goes, and that results in much more interesting and idiosyncratic lists, from top to bottom. In that spirit, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and embrace my truth.
Brace yourselves.
A Ranking of The Friday the 13th Franchise
#12 Jason X (2002)
Yes, it has the liquid nitrogen kill. Yes, it has the VR Crystal Lake scene. But two scenes do not a movie make. The ambition of Jason X far exceeds its budget, and the pacing is all wonky. Thus we are forced to spend time watching altogether too many characters just kind of mill around tacky sets that wouldn’t pass muster in a Canadian sci-fi TV series. It’s the only Friday the 13th movie that is actively boring, and that is the cardinal sin of cinema.
#11 Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Between the goofy 3-D gags, the disco theme, Jason getting his hockey mask, and the shirtless handstand guy, this movie should be more appealing to me as both a lover of camp classics and a slasher historian, but I find the majority of the movie to just be so inert and lifeless.
#10 Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Even though Jason gets most of the kills in this crossover epic, it’s still primarily a Nightmare on Elm Street movie in both its setting and story construction, which is why it’s placed so low on the list. It just doesn’t have that Friday the 13th vibe, save for a few of the more radical kills.
#9 Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
At 100 minutes, Jason Takes Manhattan is the longest installment in the franchise. That is a sin that I will forgive much less easily than the fact that the movie mostly takes place on a boat and that when said boat arrives in Manhattan, it is mostly played by Vancouver. The boat stuff is totally fine meat-and-potatoes slashing, even if it’s relatively uninspired, and everything perks up in that deliriously bonkers finale, so it ain’t all bad.
#8 Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
I have a soft spot for Jason Goes to Hell. Sure, we don’t get a lot of Jason, but the body-hopping demon worm angle is compellingly bizarre and results in some tremendously good special effects moments. Plus, bounty hunter Creighton Duke is one of the greatest characters in the history of Western storytelling. But a soft spot can only do so much to propel a movie this clunky and awkward up the list. Like its New Line follow-up, Jason X, there are too many characters, and they are poorly integrated into a story that coughs and sputters its way toward nowhere in particular.
#7 Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
I think I’ve proven that I don’t mind when they futz with the formula, so the lack of a “real” Jason doesn’t bother me. A dude in a hockey mask is killing people in this movie. It’s not like it would have played out any differently if it was Jason. I love the guy, but I don’t watch these movies for his indelible personality. The real problem is its wet blanket of a final girl, who constantly sidelines iconic returning character Tommy Jarvis so she can take center stage and whimper uselessly.
#6 Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
The New Blood lives and dies on being the first (and best) of the Kane Hodder Jason movies and having that excellent Jason square off against a worthy opponent for the first (and only) time in the form of the telekinetic Tina. However, the preceding hour is so ravaged by the MPAA that it is basically just empty. A solid third act cannot be supported by a foundation made of tissue paper. It all just collapses when you get right down to it.
#5 Friday the 13th (2009)
As with most divisive movies, the remake is neither the dire pit of despair the haters would have you believe nor the beacon of quality that its proponents describe it as. It is a perfectly functional Friday the 13th movie with a Jason who perhaps has a bit more useless backstory than I prefer but is nevertheless well-performed. And it has a vein of sleaziness that hearkens back to its prurient 1980s origins more than most remakes of its era.
#4 Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
Jason Lives is charming, it’s funny, it features the hottest Tommy Jarvis in a denim jacket. I’m all in on this movie. But my last watch really highlighted the fact that the plot just involves characters going in circles between like three locations, which knocked it down a peg in my overall ranking.
#3 Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
If every kill in this movie was as good as Mark’s, it would be even higher on the list. But regardless, this movie boasts one of the franchise’s surest directorial hands (Steve Miner accomplishes some truly remarkable shot design here), perhaps its best final girl (Ginny’s only character flaw is caring about what happens to Paul), and plenty of memorable supporting characters (all the way down to Muffin the dog).
#2 Friday the 13th (1980)
I probably rank the original movie higher than most. Although it has those inimitable Tom Savini effects, its shaggy late-70s vibe is very different from the rest of the 1980s entries, and I think maybe people who love the franchise as a whole don’t respond to that well. But there is something primordial in the simplicity of the story and the filmmaking that I find endlessly compelling as a sordid campfire story that is worth constantly revisiting.
#1 Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Now, this is the platonic ideal of a 1980s slasher. It’s basically Jason crashing his way into a John Hughes movie, complete with splashy Savini effects, ample and joyous nudity, and Crispin Glover dancing his ass off. Truly, I have no notes.
Hello! Hi! Greetings!
I know I don’t make posts here very often but here I am! I needed to take a moment from torturing the writers of Horror Press in the basement to make an announcement.
I recently received some feedback regarding the content published on Horror Press, specifically mentioning “too many rankings” and “too many listicles.”
I wanted to take a moment to address this directly.
Since Horror Press began in 2022, we’ve published over 800 articles. (I’m very proud of that number btw!) While that might not seem like a lot, it’s important to consider that every single writer who contributes to the site is paid. I personally handle everything on the backend, and on average, we publish more than 20 articles each month, and that’s on top of my full time job. Yes, I am very busy, which is also why I don’t have much time to make little posts like this.
I manage nearly every aspect of the website myself, including disbursing payments to each writer directly from my own personal income. I’m fortunate enough to have a stable job and the disposable income that allows me to cover the overhead for Horror Press, and I do this because it genuinely brings me joy.
In many ways, I’m the sole driving force behind everything you see here on the site.
It’s also worth noting that the vast majority of websites today don’t generate profit, and those that do often struggle to fully cover operational costs and provide a comfortable living for everyone involved. It would be a dream to pay every writer a full time livable salary. Seriously, the writers at the HP estate are the best and I wouldn’t trade them for anything (except for maybe a taxidermied peacock for my bathroom).
With AI on the rise, and Google constantly changing the rules of the game every other weekend, things are stacked against websites.
My main goal when I started Horror Press was to create an outlet for my passion for horror, and a need to create a platform for underrepresented voices within the genre.
I feel like I have achieved that goal, however, I can always do better, and the goalpost is always moving.
Over the past three and a half years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many writers, and the brainstorming sessions with them has been some of my most rewarding experiences. Beyond publishing articles, I’ve also made a consistent effort to support creators and their projects through sponsorships and features on our website.
Now, back to the comment about our content: Out of the 800+ articles we’ve published, approximately 60 have been categorized as “rankings.” This represents roughly 7.5% of our total output. My intention with these rankings is for them to be fun and lighthearted. However, if I’ve missed the mark, then please, by all means, join our Patreon, and sign up for the tier to help choose what content we focus on in the future. Hell, sign up for any of the tiers available!
Until then, I remain the Curator of all things Horror Press, and decide what makes it to the website, and you can continue to cry about things like Bella Ramsey on Reddit. Until next time,
JM
Misc
Ranking Every Jason from the Friday the 13th Franchise
The iconic slasher killer has taken many forms over the years, and I’m not just talking about the different performers who played him (who I have mostly credited below, though there are cases where other stunt performers/costume designers/etc. filled in for certain moments that I’m not going to go through with a fine-toothed comb). Jason’s look, behavior, and even the way he operates changes drastically throughout the franchise, even between consecutive films that are directly linked, which is why there is so much meat on the bone here. Without any further ado, let’s rank every Jason from the Friday the 13th franchise!
May 2025 marks the 45th anniversary of the original Friday the 13th, so now is the best time to take a stroll through the 12-film franchise it birthed. Well maybe not the best time, but I don’t want to wait five years, so we’re ranking every version of Jason Voorhees now, dammit.
The iconic slasher killer has taken many forms over the years, and I’m not just talking about the different performers who played him (who I have mostly credited below, though there are cases where other stunt performers/costume designers/etc. filled in for certain moments that I’m not going to go through with a fine-toothed comb). Jason’s look, behavior, and even the way he operates changes drastically throughout the franchise, even between consecutive films that are directly linked, which is why there is so much meat on the bone here. Without any further ado, let’s dive in.
Every Jason from the Friday the 13th Franchise Ranked
#12 Reboot Jason (Derek Mears, Friday the 13th 2009)
No shade to Mears’ performance. He is delivering a powerful and credible threat here. But there’s something about the warren of tunnels, the kidnapping, and the turning on klieg lights (that I highly doubt were there back when Camp Crystal Lake was operational) to hunt down victims that just isn’t “my” Jason. I prefer a hulking avatar of death rather than the backwoods survivalist mode that he’s got going on here.
#11 Roy (Dick Wieand unmasked & Tom Morga masked, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning)
I love the snazzy powder blue accents he’s rocking here. And frankly, I don’t care who’s behind the hockey mask as long as he’s murderizing people good and proper, but Roy is simply not Jason, so it would be a crime to rank him any higher than this.
#10 Imaginary Jason (Tom Morga, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning)
I guess it’s nice that there is a proper Jason Voorhees floating around in the “copycat killer” movie, but outside of the Corey Feldman prologue, the imaginary Jason mostly just stands around like Michael Myers and watches Tommy Jarvis change. Like, I know Tommy’s jacked now, so I sort of get it, but it’s just not a very interesting thing for Jason to be up to.
#9 Zombie Boy Jason (Ari Lehman, Friday the 13th 1980)
Sure, he provides a potent jump scare that is probably the only reason (other than Tom Savini’s effects) that the movie became such a word-of-mouth smash hit. But his presence at the end of the original Friday the 13th absolutely ruins any hope that the character will ever have a comprehensible continuity, right from the beginning. And this is nobody’s fault! They didn’t know they’d have to make 11 more of these. They just wanted one final shock in the movie, and they were right to want that! But Jason transmogrifying from a dead child to a living adult in Part 2 has plagued continuity-heads for 44 years, and it’s hard for that not to rankle just a little bit.
#8 Jason vs. Freddy (Ken Kirzinger, Freddy vs. Jason)
He has some great kills here (the bed! the rave!), but Jason Voorhees is very much second banana when it comes to his position in the overall narrative. I suppose that’s what you get when the other guy talks and you don’t, but that’s not very fair, is it?
#7 Uber Jason (Kane Hodder, Jason X)
Uber Jason is better in theory than in execution. It’s a fun way to engage fully with the sci-fi premise that they’ve thrown their killer into for basically no reason (New Line really spun out the second they got their hands on the property, didn’t they?). But the design is bad and he just looks plasticky and cheap, not actually menacing or properly enhanced.
#6 Demon Worm Jason (Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday)
Speaking of New Line spinning out… Jason Voorhees primarily manifests in this movie as a body-hopping demon worm. Why is this ranked so high? It’s nonsense, but at least it’s fun nonsense. Plus, I wouldn’t trade the “Jason shaves a cop, transfers the demon worm, and then his previous body melts” sequence for the world. It’s uncomfortable, ooey gooey gross, and just plain weird, which are things I prize in my horror movies.
#5 Funny Jason (C.J. Graham & Dan Bradley, Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI)
Beyond the James Bond parody at the beginning of Jason Lives, most of the funny bits in the most purposefully comic installment happen around Jason. I think that’s for the best, in order to maintain him as a credible threat. But he does get a little lost in the sauce here, especially with a Tommy Jarvis and a proper final girl jockeying for screen time elsewhere.
#4 “Final” Jason (Ted White, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter)
This is a real meat-and-potatoes Jason, but he delivers some of the gnarliest kills in the franchise with aplomb.
#3 3-D Jason (Richard Brooker, Friday the 13th Part III)
I don’t like the sexual assault overtones of this Jason, but come on. This is the installment where he embraces his hockey masked self, and that’s simply iconic. Plus, Brooker is acting the hell out of this role, delivering a physical, menacing Jason that has a wiry wiliness that is very different from the raw strength delivered by other performers who I might mention…
#2 Recurring Jason (Kane Hodder, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, bits and pieces of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, the first two-thirds of Jason X)
And oh look, here comes one of those performers now! Kane Hodder’s Jason is a longtime favorite, and for good reason. His Jason is hulking, menacing, and cuts through crowds of nubile young people like a hot knife through butter. However, it’s a damn shame that he showed up right when the franchise was going off the rails, because beyond the telekinetic battle at the end of The New Blood, he only gets a few proper showcase moments scattered throughout his quadrilogy.
He genuinely looks great in his first two movies, though. The rotting zombie face of New Blood and the slimy river rat look of Jason Takes Manhattan are the masked and unmasked versions of Jason that I probably picture the most.
#1 Baghead Jason (Steve Daskewisz masked & Warrington Gillette unmasked, Friday the 13th Part 2)
Betcha didn’t expect to find him here, did you? Now, look. I love the hockey mask. More than the bag. But Steve Dash is acting the hell out of this version of Jason, setting the template for what the adult version of this character could be, now that he has been released from his zombie child shell. Somehow. This makes him a perfect foil for Ginny, who is the best-acted and most effective final girl from the franchise and deserves a worthy opponent.
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