Friday the 13th: A Retrospective

With Halloween rapidly approaching, we've decided to put together a positively ghoulish retrospective on one of the the most iconic slasher series' ever created. We're talking, of course, of Friday the 13th.

Jason Voorhees, with his signature hockey mask and machete combo is undoubtedly one of the most spine-chilling bogeymen to ever cause the mass-soiling of jimmy-jammies all over the world; and with good reason, too. With a body count in the triple-digits, few have survived an encounter with this undead beast of a man. The dude is a death machine.

He isn't the only killer in the Friday the 13th series, though. Other characters have indeed killed in Jason's place throughout the series. Want to know who they were? How about how many people Jason has killed in each film? Well join us, as we take you over to Camp Crystal Lake on a guided tour through the entire series.

BE WARNED - MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

The original Friday the 13th film set the standard for teen slasher films for the rest of the 1980s. Picking up the incredibly successful template that John Carpenter's Halloween made famous, our killer in Friday the 13th would prey on frisky teenagers and hunt them down in a variety of gruesome ways.

In 1958, two councillors at Camp Crystal Lake were murdered. Their murders caused the summer camp to be closed for many years, until now that is. In 1980 the camp is preparing for its re-opening, with a group of councillors staying at the site. Unfortunately for them, the killer is back and still pissed off…

While it's well known that Mrs. Voorhees (Jason's mother) was the killer in the first Friday the 13th (thanks Scream), it's interesting to note just how different the first film in the series feels because of it. While most of the other entries in the series used Jason's hulking frame to their advantage when generating scares, the stalking scenes and kills in the first film are almost entirely POV, lending the film a 'Giallo' vibe. Making the identity of the killer a mystery also reinforces that, however the way the film actually deals with the big reveal was somewhat inept.

We're only introduced to Mrs. Voorhees at the very end of the film, mere moments before finding out that she's the killer. She killed the first irresponsible people because they were too busy practicing the horizontal mambo to notice that her son, a young boy named Jason Voorhees, was drowning out in the lake.

We also don't learn anything about that motive until the end, either. The average episode of Scooby Doo is more competent than that. Luckily, the haunting ending of the film, featuring a freakish Jason emerging out the water to pull the surviving character out of her rowboat more than made up for it. It's still one of the shining moments of the entire series.

While the first film is notable for laying the ground work and birthing the legend of Jason, it was definitely topped by many of the sequels that followed. Its highlights (apart from the one mentioned above) include a young Kevin Bacon getting an arrow through the neck, and Mrs. Voorhees' awesome decapitation at the hands of the film's survivor Alice.



Bodycount: 9 (or 10, if you include the death of Mrs. Voorhees)
Nudity: Low (Kevin Bacon's butt do anything for ya? How about a blink and you'll miss it boob shot?)
Gore: High (Tom Savini, always great)

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5


It turns out that the previous film's sole-survivor Alice wasn't quite as lucky as we thought. With Jason's rowboat attack having been nothing more than a bad dream, it appears that Alice's nightmares are about to become a reality. It appears that Jason never actually drowned, and has been living in the woods since his near-death experience. In fact, Jason witnessed the decapitation of his mother and is now out for revenge. Two months later, Alice is ice-picked in the head, and Jason's bloodlust won't stop there.

Set five years after the events of the last film, Friday the 13th Part 2 is a fantastic entry in the series for a number of reasons: it's Jason's debut as the official bogeyman of the series, the mythology of the character and his relationship with his mother is further explored, it has incredibly effective jump scares, and last but not least, the nudity is much better than the first.

This is Jason's first foray into mass-murder, and he definitely does it in style, sporting a burlap sack on his head to hide his hideously deformed face. While the gore-level is a bit lower than that of the last film (due to the censors getting scissor-happy), the terror was definitely ratcheted up, with a sense of dread that permeates throughout the whole film.

Highlights include a spear that turns a love-making scene into a human shish-kebab scene, Jason's shrine devoted to his mother (complete with her rotting head), and a surprise attack through a window that will leave you breathless. Check out the trailer (that gets the body count of the first film wrong) below.



Bodycount: 9 (or 10, as Paul is missing and presumed dead)
Nudity: High (Full-frontal skinny-dipping FTW!)
Gore: Low (Tom Savini didn't work on this one, which combined with cuts by the censors, makes this one more about the jump scares)

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5


The first (and only) 3D entry in the series, Friday the 13th Part III takes every opportunity possible to exploit its 3D gimmick, with constant objects pointing directly into the camera (even its poster gets in on the action). While this might have looked great in theatres upon its original release, watching a normal version of the film on DVD doesn't do it any favours.

Thankfully, this entry in the series brings back the grue, with some truly great and bloody kill scenes. We get electrocutions, pitchforks, a machete to the crotch, and someone even gets a knitting needle through the head. Jason stoops as low as slaying a pregnant woman! But while Part III piles on the gore, it curiously dials back the sex and nudity. Why must there be such a trade off?

Also, continuing in the series' tradition of taking baby steps towards the Jason we know and love, the third entry sees Jason finally acquire his signature hockey mask, which he swipes from one of his victims. It's not long before someone ruins it though, with the film's last survivor girl Chris burying an axe into Jason's head. The split in his mask has remained a distinguishing feature of his mask ever since.

The film has an amazing ending, with Chris leaving the camp in a canoe, only to fall asleep, and then wake up to find Jason still alive and staring at her from the house. Then, a rotting Mrs. Voorhees leaps out of the water to pull Chris in, in homage to the ending of the first film. This was all a fake-out though, with Chris waking up to find that ending to be a horrible dream. The film then cuts to one of the series' most unnerving images; the camera slowly moves in on a shot of Jason still lying lifeless in the barn, while we nervously wait to see if he comes back to life or not.



Bodycount: 12
Nudity: Low (A quick shower scene that doesn't show much)
Gore: High (We've been dropped into a meat grinder with this film!)

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5


Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about. Many find Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter to be the best entry in the whole series. This is for many reasons, like the incredible amount of gore, sex and nudity on display (a series highpoint), but I'd like to think that it's mostly due to us finally having fleshed-out characters that are worth caring about, as opposed to the usual parade of interchangeable jerks. This is largely due to 12 year old Corey Feldman, whose character of Tommy Jarvis is probably the third most iconic character of the series after Jason and his mother.

We care about Tommy because he's a geek just like us, and because of this, he uses his smarts to outwit and take down Jason. Yes, you read that right: Jason is killed by a 12 year old boy, and what an amazing death it is! Sure, Tommy ended up somewhat demented and troubled after the experience, but it was worth it.

Another reason that the film stands as a marked improvement is the noticeable rise in production value compared to the last three films. There's more action, it's glossier, has a larger scale, and has proper character actors. Crispin Glover gets one of the film's shining moments, with a freaking hilarious 80s-style nerdy dance sequence that has to be seen to be believed. What's that? We've embedded it for you below? How kind of us!



Bodycount: 13
Nudity: Very High (Skinny-dipping en masse! Twins! Shower sex!)
Gore: High (Tom Savini is back, and very brutal!)

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5


This entry, much like Part 2, is set a few years in the future, with Tommy Jarvis being released from an institution as an adult (now played by Random McDude) after having been mentally scarred by his encounters with Jason. He's not all clear though, he's actually just moving to a home for troubled youths in the hope that he can find a way to stop his nightmares.

Lucky for him then, because just in time for his arrival, some total A-hole decides to take up Jason's old modus operandi and start hacking young people to death. Yes, this is the Friday the 13th film that features a Jason copycat rather than Jason. While it should be commended that the producers of the series tried to continue it with some sense of realism, as well attempt to bring a sense of mystery back to the series, it's still kind of lame.

Audiences must've agreed, because A New Beginning would be the last time that the series would contain some semblance of reality (until the inevitable remake in 2009). There's still plenty to like though, with heaping helpings of gore and nudity to keep fans happy.

Highlights include an incredibly busty chick in the woods. (Trust me you won't forget it any time soon.) In terms of kills, a scene with a guy getting his head squashed via the twisting of a belt is rather squirm inducing, as is the scene where the aforementioned chesty girl gets garden shears through her eyes (such a shame).



Bodycount: Kind of all over the place. We get 3 kills in dream sequences, and 18 real kills, though not all by the killer
Nudity: Very High (Did we mention the busty girl in the woods? And that's not all)
Gore: High (pretty gnarly)

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5


Tommy Jarvis (now played by 80s horror regular Thom Mathews) decides to return to Jason's gravesite (despite the fact that he was supposedly cremated according to the last film) to make sure that he's really dead. Ridiculously, he accidentally brings Jason back to life and now the killing spree begins once more!

Tommy sticks a pole through Jason's rotting corpse, which unfortunately gets struck by lightning, resurrecting him. While an occurrence like this might seem like a classic shark jumping moment, the fact that the rest of the film keeps up this fun tone means that we're too busy having a blast to care. Jason even apes the infamous James Bond entrance for the film's opening titles!

Thom Mathews does a great job playing Tommy Jarvis as a guy on the edge, yet who is still very likeable. It's completely different to how he was portrayed by Blandy McBlanderson in A New Beginning. While the film isn't the goriest or sexiest of the series, it really feels like a more focused, mainstream film, with some great dialogue (for a change) and nice direction.

Highlights include the opening that we mentioned earlier, Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter getting Jason's fist punched straight through him, and the scene where the Sheriff becomes half the man he used to be…




Bodycount: 18
Nudity: Non-existent. Wait, what?! That's just unacceptable. Luckily, the film is so good that we can forgive just this once.
Gore: Medium (suffered many cuts at the hands of the MPAA)

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5