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.
Misc
‘Death Becomes Her’ 4K Giveaway: Live Forever with This Cult Classic!

We’re back with another killer giveaway! This Oscar-winning, campy Robert Zemeckis flick, shot by the always incredible Dean Cundey, has re-rocked the queer community with its recent Broadway adaptation. A few simple steps can put you in the running to receive this genre classic.
Enter Our Death Becomes Her Giveaway!
How to Enter:
Step 1. Make sure to FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM!
Step 2. LIKE the giveaway post!
Step 3. TAG A FRIEND who you’d like not to get old and decrepit with.
Luckily for you, we’re not asking for a $200,000 check for an elixir that grants eternal youth and immortality.
If the winner does not respond on Instagram within 24 hours, we will randomly select another winner.
What You’ll Win
- 4K transfer of the original 35mm camera negative
- Presented by Dolby Vision
- The Making of Death Becomes Her: featuring interviews with Robert Zemeckis, writer David Koepp, Director of Photography Dean Cundey, Production Designer Rick Carter and Special Effects Artists Lance Anderson and David Anderson
- Vintage Making-of Featurette
- Photo Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
Celebrate Pride with this gorgeous 4K copy of a bona fide cult classic! What are you waiting for? Your rejuvenation potion to kick in? Go on, do it, it’s the completion of your physical media collection! SEMPRE VIVE!
Misc
Demon Twinks: Horror’s Deadliest Skinny Boys
Ranking the top 10 deadliest twink horror villains! From Corey Cunningham in Halloween Ends to Lee in Bones and All, these slim slashers bring terror with style.

When one is ideating horror-related topics for Pride Month, it shouldn’t take too long for the phrase “demon twink” to pop into one’s head. Naturally, it took me three years to come up with this idea. I never said I was a genius. But once it got into my head, I couldn’t get it out. Twinks don’t have a reputation for being imposing or menacing. They’re usually young, slim, etc., and as such can be quickly written off.
But horror villainy is an equal opportunity business, and there are plenty of demon twinks to be had, if you know where to look. Twunks need not apply. So I took the time to do some exhaustive research and break down some of the deadliest skinny boys in the business (ranked by deadliness, of course – their body type is part of the foundation of this discussion but not attached to any sort of value judgment).
Warning: Some of these movies are whodunits, so there will be spoilers.
Top 10 Demon Twinks in Horror
#10 Orphan: First Kill (2022) – Gunnar Albright
Demon twink number 10 is low on the list because he doesn’t actually kill anybody during the events of Orphan: First Kill, but (VERY SPOILER ALERT) the fact that, prior to said events, he murdered his own kid sister and conspired with his mother to cover it up very much earns him a place on this list. That’s demonic as hell.
#9 He Lives by Night (夜驚魂) (1982) – The Stocking Killer
This Hong Kong movie is probably the least well-known of the titles on this list, but it shouldn’t be. Well, it is a touch transphobic, as are so many early post-Psycho slashers, so be warned. But the killer – whose mind snapped because of his cheating wife, leading him to murder women by strangling them with stockings – pulls off a heap of brutal, protracted, often beautiful murders, including one that I would accuse of ripping off Tenebrae if it hadn’t actually come out before the Argento classic.
#8 Terror Train (1980) – Kenny Hampson
Kenny racks up a pretty solid body count for an early 1980s slasher villain, helping 10 people shuffle off this mortal coil. However, the flair that he has for changing costumes is not reflected in the kills, which can be a little samey, landing him a little lower on the list than he maybe should be.
#7 Scream VI (2023) – Ethan Landry
Like all Scream movies, the exact body count that each Ghostface is responsible for in Scream VI is a little unclear. However, given where he is at certain times in the movie, he could have perpetrated at least five of the New York City slayings, which is more than his dad (three, tops) or his sister (who maxes out at four). He’s also pretty clearly the Ghostface behind the notorious ladder scene, which results in one of the most gruesome deaths in the movie. Poor Anika. We hardly knew ye.
#6 Cutting Class (1989) – Brian Woods
See, this demon twink 1980s slasher killer has a more compact body count of 6, but he knows how to have fun with it. He’s out here baking people into kilns and inspiring Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving with a deliciously preposterous trampoline murder.
#5 Angst (1983) – K
K may not have a lot of meat on his bones, but what he does have to offer is an uncontrollable urge to torture and murder people. This bleak, shocking motion picture has a relatively low body count, because it primarily follows him tormenting one isolated family. However, the sheer intensity of what we do see cannot be denied, as is the intensity of the way K does everything in his life, including eating a sausage in what might actually be the most disgusting scene in the movie.
#4 Fade to Black (1980) – Eric Binford
When it comes to a small body count with flair, look no further than Eric Binford, who stages five spectacular murders inspired by classic films, namely Kiss of Death, Dracula, Hopalong Cassidy, The Mummy, and White Heat, all while trying to get with a Marilyn Monroe lookalike. Commitment to a theme will get you far in Pride Month, and we must all pay respect.
#3 Bones and All (2022) – Lee
Lee’s onscreen kill count isn’t especially high, but he gets extra points for style (Slitting a dude’s throat in the middle of a hookup? This demon twink brings the drama) and for canonical cannibal murders that have taken place before the events of the story, including those of his father and babysitter. Plus, Timothée Chalamet is the ur twink of our day, and that is what pushes him so far toward the top of the list.
#2 Children of the Corn (1984) – Malachai
Although he does not figure very much in the opening scenes of the movie when the town’s children turn on the adults, Isaac’s second-in-command makes up for lost time once the main thrust of the story kicks in. In fact, he’s really the only person who commits proper, non-supernatural murders from that point on, and he takes to his job with terrifying gusto.
#1 Halloween Ends (2022) – Corey Cunningham
I know, I know. He’s not technically Michael Myers, and we’re all mad about that. This is something I’ve written extensively about for Horror Press in the past. But he is the primary killer in this movie, like it or not. He’d already get points for the accidental but spectacular murder of that beyond irritating kid he’s babysitting in the opening sequence (which I’ve also written about previously), but he later adds nine bodies to that count, as well as a homoerotic assist for a Michael Myers slaying. And some of those kills are pretty damn gruesome! This is a deadly, demon twink if there ever was one.
Runners-Up: Jesse Walsh from A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Alex from My Soul to Take, Charlie Walker from Scream 4, Arne Johnson from The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and Norman Bates from Psycho IV: The Beginning