Halloween may have opened the door to the slasher films of the ’80s, but it was Friday the 13th that set the table upon which these ripoff films would feast. It took some time for the franchise to find its voice, and when it did it devolved into self parody over the span of only a few movies. There is a sweet spot in the series, and it is noticeable.
Here, now, is the definitive ranking of the Friday the 13th franchise, scrutinized and analyzed and… who am I kidding, I just watched these things and ranked them based on what I liked. And along the way, I added a few tidbits of information where it was warranted. Enjoy… or get mad. It’s up to you.
3Friday the 13th (2009)
The 2009 reboot of the original film – even though they pretty much skip right past Jason’s mom as the killer and give audiences Jason in the burlap sack and hockey masks – has a budgetary advantage over all the rest. The $19 million budget is equivalent of six of the original franchise films, and while it’s not much for a 2009 picture it still allows for certain levels of quality unavailable to the previous entries.
The reboot brings a certain ferocity and energy to the action, and we move right past the human-looking iterations of the character from the early films to the hulking Kane Hodder monsters from the later pics. They also tried to give the story a sense of spatial logic, having Jason use tunnels to move quickly across Camp Crystal Lake. That might seem like too much thought for a movie like this, but it plays well in the story.
As for the horny teen brigade, well, they’re in line with the previous dozen or so oversexed platoons. There’s something cynical about the need to ignore Jason’s mom as the killer in order to get to the franchise’s central character, but it’s how things were (and still are) in 2009. Audiences don’t have time for some old lady slaying teenagers, get to the good stuff.
