The Correct Order To Watch The Friday The 13th Movies
The mythology for the long-running "Friday the 13th" film series has been notoriously shabby and amorphous. At the end of Sean Cunningham's 1980 original slasher, it was revealed that Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) had witnessed her developmentally disabled son Jason drown in Crystal Lake years earlier, largely thanks to the neglect of the boy's randy, sex-distracted counselors. Pamela set about getting madness-inspired spiritual revenge by murdering any new counselors who deigned to have sex at Camp Crystal Lake. Luckily, Pamela was killed before she could commit any more murders than she already did.
In Steve Miner's "Friday the 13th Part 2," however, it was revealed that Jason (Steve Daskewisz and Warrington Gillette) was still alive, living in the woods for decades, presumably unbeknownst to his mother. But Jason, it is revealed, knew his mother was killing people and witnessed the events of the first "Friday." Why, one will immediately ask, didn't Jason reveal himself earlier? And if Jason didn't die, why did Pamela go on a killing spree? It don't make no sense.
From there, the "Friday" movies settled into shabby and serviceable violence delivery systems which ended with fewer teenagers left on the planet than when the films started. The chronology is easy enough to follow, although there are a few side mythologies, including a remake and a crossover special, that should be addressed, as well as — frustratingly — two non-final films with the word "Final" in the title.
It should be noted that the 1987 TV show "Friday the 13th: The Series" isn't connected to the Jason Voorhees slasher movies, nor are Howard R. Cohen's 1981 spoof "Saturday the 14th" and its 1988 sequel "Saturday the 14th Strikes Back."
Here are the canonical "Friday the 13th" movies in order:
The release order
The release order is as follows:
- Sean Cunningham's "Friday the 13th" (1980)
- Steve Miner's "Friday the 13th Part 2" (1981)
- Steve Miner's "Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D" (1983)
- Joseph Zito's "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" (1984)
- Danny Steinman's "Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning" (1985)
- Tom McLoughlin's "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" (1986)
- John Carl Buechler's "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" (1988)
- Rob Hedden's "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan" (1989)
- Adam Marcus' "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" (1993)
- James Isaac's "Jason X" (2002)
- Ronny Yu's "Freddy vs. Jason" (2003)
- Marcus Nispel's "Friday the 13th" (2009)
There is a cosmic injustice that there have been, since 2009, only 12 extant "Friday the 13th" movies. It seems more fittingly poetic that there should be exactly 13. Sadly, because of massive and prolonged litigation about the series, any potential sequels have been on the back burner for quite some time. Those thirsting for more murderous mayhem from the Crystal Lake universe will shortly be treated to a new series, called "Crystal Lake," currently in production.
The first ten "Friday" movies all follow a singular mythology, even if they contain a lot of continuity errors and abruptly changed premises. It's never explained, for instance, how Jason Voorhees could go to Hell in "Jason Goes to Hell" only to be mysteriously back on Earth for the events of "Jason X." That latter film, incidentally, cryogenically freezes Jason and resurrects him on a spacecraft 435 years later (actual dialogue: "That's almost 500 years!").
"Freddy vs. Jason" is essentially a fan film that pits Jason and Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" against each other. It could potentially be slotted narratively in between "Manhattan" and "Hell."
The Freddy/Jason expanded universe
Of course, if another series is involved, we need to expand our list. Jason and Freddy, both famous throughout the '80s, are rarely talked about independently and their movies sometimes directly referred to each other. As such, a proper "Friday" marathon must incorporate the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies as well.
Hence the following list:
- Sean Cunningham's "Friday the 13th" (1980)
- Steve Miner's "Friday the 13th Part 2" (1981)
- Steve Miner's "Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D" (1983)
- Joseph Zito's "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" (1984)
- Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984)
- Danny Steinman's "Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning" (1985)
- Jack Sholder's "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge" (1985)
- Tom McLoughlin's "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" (1986)
- Chuck Russell's "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" (1987)
- John Carl Buechler's "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" (1988)
- Renny Harlin's "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master" (1988)
- Rob Hedden's "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan" (1989)
- Stephen Hopkins' "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child" (1989)
- Rachel Talalay's "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" (1991)
- Adam Marcus' "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" (1993)
- Wes Craven's "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" (1994)
- James Isaac's "Jason X" (2002)
- Ronny Yu's "Freddy vs. Jason" (2003)
- Marcus Nispel's "Friday the 13th" (2009)
- Samuel Bayer's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (2010)
One may also incorporate the 1988 anthology TV series "Freddy's Nightmares" if they so desire, as it was hosted by Freddy Krueger, played by regular actor Robert Englund.
Nispel's 2009 remake could be slotted in between the second and third "Friday" movies if one wanted to experiment with canon. One should skip Bayer's 2010 film entirely.