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‘Friday The 13th’ Films: The Top 4 In The Franchise [Video]

By Nick Younker
Published on: 09:21 PST, May 13, 2016

Friday the 13th has been one of the longest lasting and most profitable horror movie franchises in the history of the film genre. So why has the legacy of the film franchise and the infamous serial killer, Jason Voorhees, been such a magnetic draw? Well, just to be fair, the film does play off of one of the most superstitious days on the calendar.

So in this list of the best four Friday the 13th movies, we have taken the entire gauntlet of films and pulled the best out for your consideration this Friday the 13th. For inclusive measures, we have also considered the films that did not have Friday the 13th in the film’s name, but still featured Jason Voorhees. That includes Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Jason X, and Freddy Vs. Jason. But in hindsight, none of those films even made it in the top 8, so they are not on this list.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. For those who do not know, this is the first Friday the 13th film where Jason actually became a supernatural entity. In the first four films, Jason just kept surviving the final attacks of the previous movie. That means that even though the movie ended with the assumption that he had been killed, he still found some way to endure and come back to Camp Crystal Lake to kill more camp counselors.

In this case, this is also the film that had one of the hardest rocking soundtracks with a fun score to watch it. Alice Cooper wrote exclusive music for this film, like “He’s Back, (The Man Behind the Mask)” and it also featured some more of his previously released music, like “Teenage Frankenstein.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE3ZfNs4_Hg

Aside from the hard rocking soundtrack and the return of Tommy Jarvis, who was one of the few characters to repeat as a star in three of the Friday the 13th films, there was also that incredibly funny humor that was injected into the movie.

“Dig him up? Does he think I’m a fart-head?” Martin, the cemetery caretaker said after Jarvis tried to prove Jason was not in his grave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP1FGkNC4Fg

There were also those moments in the film that were genuinely scary. In the previous films, the kids at the summer camp have been absent, due to the murders happening the night before they arrived. But in this film, the kids finally arrived to summer camp.

Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter.Given its moniker in the title, this was supposed to be the last film in the series. But as most fans could see, that just wasn’t going to cut it. This was also the first film that featured Tommy Jarvis, who was portrayed as a kid, played by a young Corey Feldman.

To put it simply, this was the Friday the 13th film that really put the scares out front and showed that the franchise still had a lot to offer a horror audience full of devoted fans. But in the end, it was young Tommy Jarvis that went crazy on Jason Voorhees and slashed him over and over again until he was a truly a corpse. As fans of the franchise will attest, this was the film that featured the “true death” of the living version of Jason Voorhees.

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Okay, this is the second film where Jason Voorhees was brought back from the dead, but this time it was by accident via a telepathic incident by the film’s young teenage star, Tina, who also happened to be a knockout beauty.

For true fans of the franchise, this is also the film that featured the debut of Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees, who would go on to star as the monstrous man two more times and forever be cemented in history as the true version of the hockey masked killer.

This film was unique because it featured the young heroine, Tina, who also had telekinetic powers. Those powers were what brought Jason back from his watery grave and they were also the same powers that were a true match for Jason. As a matter of fact, there was one point in the film were his hockey mask was ripped off and for the first time, he showed a true human emotion on his face.

Friday the 13th Part III. Given that this is the only Friday the 13th film on the list that featured the 3D effects, which were actually a thing back in the ’80s, this movie had to be included for that rare horror romp that was just fun and gross to watch.

This film started after the events of Friday the 13th Part II and was another one of those “Jason escaped death” moments again. There was no real explanation as to how he cheated death, but to be fair, at the end of Friday the 13th Part II, he simply was not found and the survivors were wheeled away in an ambulance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whAyBYOztrk

The 3D events of this film featured a few eye-popping moments, literally. But for most people today, especially those that were not around when the film was released in 1982, then you have been deprived of the old movie theater 3D experience. But you still got to see that awesome moment where the underdog nerd got one over on the biker gang. This is also the film where Jason scores his iconic hockey mask.

[Image via Paramount]

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