FRIDAY THE 13TH: Ranking Our Favorite Demises In The Franchise

Who says the best kills have to be committed by the main slasher? I can tell you that in 1985, no kill in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning got as big a reaction as when annoying schlub Joey (Dominick Brascia) catches an axe to the back of his head — and then to the rest of him — from fellow patient Vic (Mark Venturini).

As slasher fans, we were conditioned to expect a period of inactivity before the slashing started in these things, but director Danny Steinmann had other plans, and the rest of the film is (thankfully) equally unbothered about slasher etiquette. – Phil Nobile Jr.

Friday the 13th Part 2 is where this franchise finds the footing that would guide it into the future, with Jason Voorhees truly becoming the killer. He takes up after his mother, killing all of the deboucherous counselors who are partying it up at Camp Crystal Lake.

Of all the counselors who are dispatched by the bag-headed version of Jason, none get it worse than Mark (Tom McBride). Bound to his wheelchair, Mark takes everything in stride and, deciding to hang back at the camp, he’s about ready to score with Vickie (Lauren-Marie Taylor), but before that can happen, he gets a machete buried deep in his face before rolling off the porch into the rain.

Aside from looking cool as hell, it establishes something rather important; sympathetic character or not, Jason is not one to discriminate. – Ryan Scott

A tried-and-true slasher rule: When the kill happens, it's usually just the victim and the killer. It's an intimate moment that takes on a different energy when there are witnesses, and meaner still when it happens in front of the victim's loved ones. Call me old-fahsioned, but there's something pure and primal, maybe even noble, about Jason vs. a victim, alone in the woods.

But in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, when Jason (C.J. Graham) bends Sheriff Garris (David Kagen) in half like a garment bag in front of his daughter and co-workers… I dunno man, everyone loves a good cop folding, but that's just not cricket. – Phil Nobile Jr.

Jason X has a similar though seemingly less controversial reputation than Jason Takes Manhattan (maybe millennials are just more accepting of the absurd) and has developed a cult following over time. Despite how you feel about Jason making the ultimate '90s journey, heading to space, it inarguably boasts some of the most creative franchise kills.

Azrael Benrubi (Dov Tiefenbach) suffers far more than your average slasher victim. He loses his entire arm to the machete-wielding maniac, and that's while Jason (Kane Hodder) is still cryogenically frozen.

It's the future, 2455 to be exact, and so the arm is successfully reattached by cybernetic ants (of course), and he sets off to play some VR video game, completely oblivious that Jason has since thawed out. Jason kills Azrael's character in the VR game somehow before ultimately cracking his spine over his knee when Azrael takes off the equipment and attempts to fight back. A long journey to death on a short spaceship. – Kimberly Leszak

Director Tom McLoughlin brilliantly brought Jason Voorhees back to life in the aptly-titled Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Embracing the over-the-top nature of it all and making more of an overt horror/comedy, the movie quickly establishes itself as a heightened version of what came before.

That’s crystal clear early on, after Tommy Jarvis (Thom Matthews) and his ill-fated pal Allen (Ron Palillo) accidentally revive Jason at a graveyard thanks to a rogue lightning strike. After a maggot-covered Jason emerges from his grave, he promptly rips Allen’s heart right from his chest, putting his arm all the way through the man, mere moments after he literally says “My heart can’t take any more of this.”

He then falls into Jason’s former coffin, which slams shut in the rain. This leaves Tommy in full-on “here we go again” mode, setting the stage for the wild ride that follows. Cinema! – Ryan Scott

In recent years, James Cameron has pushed for 3D cinema to represent some sort of next-level, elevated immersion technique; opinions on that approach vary. But in my day, 3D was used for one thing: to make it look like things on the screen were COMING AT YOU. And yo-yos, popcorn, harpoons, gross old men, they were all COMING AT YOU in Friday the 13th Part III.

In my opinion, this 1982 film is the artistic pinnacle of the format, and it's all crystallized the moment Jason (Richard Brooker) lifts Rick (Paul Kratka) off the ground and squeezes his head so hard his eyeball flies out of his skull and into our faces. That's cinema, baby. – Phil Nobile Jr.

Throughout the history of the Friday the 13th franchise, sleeping bags have been involved in several memorable kills. One of them is brought up very frequently by hardcore fans (which you'll find elsewhere on this list). However, one that is slightly more unsung but no less impressive (not to mention brutal) comes to us courtesy of the 2009 remake.

It takes place in the early section of the movie in which Derek Mears’ Jason dispatches a whole group of campers in search of a treasure trove of pot that just so happens to be near Camp Crystal Lake.

Poor Amanda (America Olivo) is hung upside down in her sleeping bag over a campfire and is cooked to death before our eyes. It’s drawn out, truly horrendous, and one of Jason’s more inventive methods of death, which is saying something. It also let viewers know that this remake wasn’t fucking around. It was gonna go hard. – Ryan Scott

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is one of the sillier entries in the franchise. Some people love it, some people just outright despise it. I'm kind of on the “love it” side.

Most of the movie takes place on a boat, but once Jason (Kane Hodder) finally makes it to Manhattan, he finds himself chasing Julius (Vincent Craig Dupree) to a New York rooftop. Julius then proceeds to punch Jason for 78 straight seconds, with Jason doing nothing to retaliate.

Jason then grabs Julius and punches his head clean off — like a fatality in Mortal Kombat, but with far less blood. Julius' head flies off the roof and rolls into a dumpster so hard that the dumpster lid slams shut. Silly and ridiculous, but definitely one of the more memorable kills in the franchise. – Jason Kauzlarich

Debbie made it out of the shower, presumably safe in her hammock with a FANGORIA magazine in hand! But alas, she never made it past Tom Savini and Godzilla before Jason interrupted her quiet evening in with a kill reminiscent of the iconic Kevin Bacon knife-through-the-throat kill from the first installment in the franchise.

As Debbie settles in to celebrate twenty-five years with our favorite kaiju, her mint condition Fango (#13 on the outside; #1 inside – hm!) is defiled by blood. Just as she finds the horrifying source of the crimson leak, (after smearing it around and working it into her fingers), Jason attacks from underneath the hammock, with a reverse sword in the stone move — the tip of a knife slowly rising up from Debbie’s chest cavity. RIP girl, you had impeccable taste in reading material. – Angel Melanson

Being one of the more beloved characters in a slasher film means that your death will resonate a bit harder for fans. Such is the case with Jimmy (Crispin Glover), the heartsick soul of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Does anyone in the franchise enjoy a fuller arc than ol' Jimbo? He starts the film dumped and dejected, his sexual prowess belittled by his best friend. He nevertheless wrangles the courage to dance with new friend Tina (Camilla More), takes her to bed, restoring his self-confidence, then gets corkscrewed in the hand by Jason before catching a cleaver to the face.

Fun meta detail: When Jimmy yells “Ted, where's the corkscrew?” he is impaled with it by performer Ted White, who's playing Jason in the film. – Phil Nobile Jr.

Jason X couldn’t possibly be accused of being high art. Or even art disguised as a trashy slasher flick. It’s good old-fashioned silly late-era franchise fun that takes us far into the future and finds a ridiculous way to send Jason Voorhees to space.

Because hey, once you’ve done nine movies, why not go beyond Earth’s atmosphere? The environment lets Kane Hodder’s hulking Jason Voorhees kill in some remarkably inventive ways. None more memorable than Adrienne (Kristi Angus), whose head is dipped in a sink filled with liquid nitrogen, which freezes it solid, and Jason then proceeds to smash it on a counter, shattering it into many, many icy, blood- and flesh-colored pieces. No notes, extra points for ingenuity. – Ryan Scott

A true classic never goes out of style, and while the original Friday the 13th might not be as wild as later entries in the series (nobody goes to space, sadly), one of the most iconic kills in slasher history is easily Kevin Bacon’s Jack getting an arrow through the neck by Mrs. Voorhees.

Simple yet so effective, this moment does what any good horror movie kill should do, and makes you scared of the places you should feel safe. Poor Jack was just chilling in bed in post-coital bliss, after all. The Kevin Bacon Kill also showcases the great Tom Savini’s resourcefulness in crafting a kill that still looks realistic almost 50 years later. – Amber T.

Jason loves a sleeping bag kill, but the most notorious iteration to diehard fans is undoubtedly Judy's demise in Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Judy Williams (Deborah Kessler) is impatiently waiting for her freshly slain boyfriend to return to their tent when, hearing Jason's boots nearby, she ill-fatedly cries out “Okay, you big hunk of a man, come and get me” and come and get her he does.

Grabbing her sleeping bag tightly by one end, he drags Judy out of the tent and into the clearing. In one fatal and impressive-looking stunt for Kane Hodder's first go as Jason, who manages to crack her face into a tree like a sack of potatoes. The logistics don't make a ton of sense, but the creative brutality has ranked highly with effects fans for nearly forty years. – Kimberly Leszak