The 15 Best Friday The 13th Kills Of All Time, Ranked
The "Friday the 13th" series isn't known for its deep character studies or intricate plot elements. We pay to see the kills, and goodness, does it deliver. The franchise's central villain Jason Voorhees has racked up a body count somewhere over 200 to date, and if it weren't for those pesky legal issues, his tally would probably be nearing 300 or 400 by now.
Across 12 feature films, including the 2003 battle royale "Freddy vs. Jason" and the much-maligned 2009 remake, the hockey-masked night-stalker has utilized every manner of weapon to off his victims. The machete is his go-to choice, but he's known to use such random items as poles, spearguns, pitchforks, and even liquid nitrogen. It doesn't matter, as long as it gets the job done.
While we wait with bated breath for a new film — it's already been 13 years since Jason was last onscreen — we count down the 15 best and most gruesome kills of the franchise. Most of these picks are celebrations in special makeup effects with sprays of blood and chunks of gore, while others are prime set-pieces in jolting you awake. If you have the stomach for it, let's get to it.
15. See No Evil
"Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning" is an interesting installment. While the killer is some rando paramedic named Roy, the fifth entry at least feels like a traditional Voorhees flick. From the classic score and musical cues to sequences of tremendous dread, you wouldn't be none the wiser 一 that is, until the big "reveal" in the third act.
It's been a number of years since the conclusion of 1984's "The Final Chapter," and Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) has undergone psychiatric care for trauma. Now, he takes up residence in a halfway house as he re-acclimates to a normal life. The cast of characters features your usual transient stereotypes, including emo/punk girl Violet (Tiffany Helm) and the should-be-in-prison Vic Faden (Mark Venturini).
When two other residents, lovebirds Eddie (John Robert Dixon) and Tina (Debi Voorhees), sneak off for a little mid-day romance, the unseen stalker tracks them down. After intercourse, Eddie heads down to the creek to wash off and returns to find his lover murdered. In one of the film's best moments, Eddie is strapped to the tree with a leather-bound harness and his eyes gouged out. It's the perfect balance of suspense and violence with a helping of blood.
14. Heads Will Roll
"Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan" promised a full-on city takeover, but what we got was Jason On A Boat and only 20 minutes in the Big Apple. Once a luxurious yacht sets sail for New York City, a newly-revived Jason hops aboard and slowly picks off members of the graduating high school class. It mostly feels like your standard Jason film, but upon landing in the sweeping metropolis, that's when things get interesting.
A young boxer named Julius (V. C. Dupree) is first assumed dead when he's accidentally shoved overboard. It soon becomes apparent, however, that he actually survived as he swims to shore. He makes his way through dark alleyways and eventually faces off against the hockey-masked killer on a rooftop. He takes big swings, seemingly holding his own, but he quickly tires. With one punch, Jason chops off his head, which rolls like a bowling ball down into a dumpster. It's so outrageous, you can't help but laugh — and that's what makes it so great.
13. A Hand Walker's Mistake
"Friday the 13th Part III" doesn't have the most interesting characters, but it makes up for that with some fantastic 3-D effects and kills. During a trip back to Crystal Lake, Chris (Dana Kimmell) wants to revisit her childhood home as a way to finally confront her past and address unresolved trauma, owed largely to her own experience with Jason Voorheers years prior.
Her group of friends, including theater geek/prankster Shelly (Larry Zerner), settle into their respective genre stereotypes. An encounter with a local biker gang aside, the weekend seems to go off without a hitch. Naturally, Jason shows up and throws bloody wrenches into their plans. One of the film's best, most gruesome deaths occurs when Andy (played by Jeffrey Rogers) hand walks through the cabin. Jason has already picked off numerous characters, and when he finally enters the house, he hides in the hallway. Andy makes his way out of the bathroom, where Debbie is taking a shower, and gets absolutely castrated with a downward swipe of the machete. Andy's body crumbles with a thud on the floor 一 and its sheer brutality is a shock to the system.
12. Never Have Sex
If there's just one genre trope to remember, it's that you should never have sex. It's a death wish at this point. In "Friday the 13th Part II," Jason Voorhees doesn't even give two characters any time to clean up or take a shower. In fact, he guts them mid-intercourse.
The film follows yet another group of counselors readying the camp to reopen. Led by Amy Steel's level-head psych major Ginny, the cast otherwise contains your usual cannon fodder. Mid-way through the film, the characters split off with some heading into town for a few drinks, while others stay behind. Lovers Sandra (Marta Kober) and Jeff (Bill Randolph) get intimate when Jason decides to shove a spear right through Jeff's mid-section and directly into Sandra. Especially in your most vulnerable state, you are not safe.
This death scene isn't particularly new to the genre, although casual horror fans may not recognize it'd been done before. Mario Bava had two lovers slaughtered in the exact same fashion in his 1971 giallo/slasher "A Bay of Blood." It's a stylish set piece that just works in every single way.
11. Skull Crusher
Well, sort of. As mentioned above, "Friday the 13th Part III" has some gnarly kill sequences. Much later in the film, Chris and her boyfriend Rick (Paul Kratka) head out into the nearby woods, and she reveals her traumatic past and being attacked by Jason. Upon their return, Rick's car dies, and they're forced to trek back to the cabin on foot.
They return to find the house in absolute shambles. When Rick goes back outside, Jason pounces and muffles his cries. In a fit of worry, Chris follows, steps out on the front stoop, and calls out into the night. The camera slowly pans out, and the audience spies Rick fighting for his life just around the corner. This expertly shot sequence, courtesy of director Steve Miner and cinematographer Gerald Feil, instills the high stakes of the third act.
Chris slams the door behind her, leaving Rick to a grim fate. Jason takes his head between his hands and crushes his head, and his eyeballs literally pop from his head, plastering to the screen with a cool 3-D effect, brought to life by 3-D effects supervisor Martin Sadoff. The special makeup effects (coordinated by Doug White) are already top notch, and the 3-D simply elevates it even further.
10. Sleep Tight
Fans' dreams came true with 2003's "Freddy vs. Jason," the cinematic showdown between horror's biggest titans. The story is quite simple: Freddy has lost his power over the kids of Elm Street, so he inhabits Jason Voorhees' dreams and convinces him to wreak havoc on his home turf. As a result, the community believes Freddy has come back, and their fear grows stronger than ever.
But before Freddy can regain his true form, Jason must do a little killing first. Lori (Monica Keena) and her friends are in the eye of the storm. Still reeling from her mother's murder, Lori invites Kia (Kelly Rowland) and Gibb (Katharine Isabelle) over for a sleepover. Gibb's abusive boyfriend Trey (Jesse Hutch) shows up out of the blue and entices Gibb upstairs to work a kink out of his neck.
After intercourse, a dissatisfied Trey demands Gibb hop in the shower. When he leans over to grab yet another beer, Jason punctures his back with his machete, thus incapacitating him. He then yanks both ends of the hide-a-bed shut and snaps Trey's body in half. It's a downright unsettling image.
9. Crazy in Love
"Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" is wildly unlike every other installment. It dares to do something bold, even if it doesn't totally work. Director Adam Marcus and screenwriters Jay Huguely and Dean Lorey should be commended for that, at least. The opening scene sets up Jason's demise (finally, right?!) when he's lured into the middle of a firing squad and blown to smithereens.
Of course, he's not 100 percent dead, as his heart is still beating. Later, at the morgue, Phil the coroner is hypnotized by the beating heart, devours it like an apple, and becomes possessed by Jason's soul. Phil goes on a bloodthirsty rampage throughout the rest of the film. He eventually comes across a group of campers and picks them off one by one.
Deborah and her boyfriend are in the middle of intercourse when a Jason-possessed Phil skewers her with a giant pole. But that's not all. When Phil/Jason removes the sharp rod, Deborah is ripped in half 一 and the makeup effects are glorious. Shout-out to visual effects coordinator Al Magliochetti for constructing the a series-best kill.
8. Deep Sleeper
It's not like we need reasons to not go camping. But if you're still not convinced, "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" will certainly do the trick. The film trades out the Tommy Jarvis storyline for a total refresh. This time, the story centers around a psychic teenager named Tina (Lar Park Lincoln), who believes she was the direct cause of her father's death. At the behest of her psychiatrist, she and her mother return to their lakeside house to address ongoing trauma.
Next door, a group of 20-somethings is on summer vacation. As you know, Jason requires lots of victims, and it's a smorgasbord. Before Jason even gets back to Crystal Lake, he stumbles upon a young couple camping nearby. Judith (Debora Kessler) and her boyfriend are snuggling in for the night, but Judith ignores his advances and urges him to go collect more firewood instead. While he's away, Jason creeps upon Judith, and she ducks into her sleeping bag, as if that'll do any good. Jason yanks the sleeping bag and slams her body into a tree. Unlike most other kills, there's a sadistic edge to this moment that leaves the viewer speechless.
7. A Little Bit Psycho
Many horror movies frequently either borrow elements from other films or make explicit references. Similar to "Friday the 13th Part II" reusing a kill from "A Bay of Blood," the 1984 entry "Friday the 13th: The Final Friday" takes a cue from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 feature "Psycho."
In the film, starring Corey Feldman (as Tommy Jarvis), a group of youngsters heads out into the woods for a weekend getaway. Their house lies next door to the Jarvis residence, and other than that, they are in complete isolation. Per slasher rules, each character slowly meets their demise. When Doug (Peter Barton) is alone in the shower, Jason circles the drain and creeps into the steam-filled bathroom, much like Norman Bates descending upon Marion Crane.
The kill is considerably more graphic. It takes what worked so well in "Psycho" (the suspenseful build, several camera angles showcasing blood spiraling in the shower) and bumps it up a few notches. Jason punches his hand through the glass sliding shower door and knocks Doug's head against the ceramic wall, slowly and surely bending his jaw back and ripping open his face. While it's never been confirmed whether the landmark slasher had any influence explicitly on this film, there are clear traces here.
6. Tumbling Dice
Make-up effects artist Carl Fullerton deserves a huge applause for making "Friday the 13th Part II" as bloody as it is. His willingness to push the envelope turns your usual camp slasher into an absolute visual feast. Despite 48 seconds slashed from the original theatrical release (thanks, MPAA!), the second entry still has plenty of gore to behold. In a Shout Factory release, the uncut footage (once thought lost forever) was reassembled and packaged into a boxed set.
The absolute best kill sequence involves Mark (Tom McBride), a wheelchair-bound counselor. When the group splits up, those left behind on the camp property are the first to undergo Jason's rampage. Looking for Vickie, Mark ventures out of one of the houses and onto the front porch. He quickly meets the end of a machete, quite literally. Jason pops up out of nowhere and slams the rusty blade directly into Mark's face, forcing him backward and down an absurdly long staircase. With the addition of rain, thunder, and lightning, it's a moment that forever immortalized the entire film.
5. Steam
Who knew a sauna rock could wreck the body? Well, director and special makeup effects coordinator John Carl Buechler sure did. In "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," this unlikely object fuels one of the film's most surprising set-pieces.
Soon after a luxury yacht sets sail for Manhattan, Jason stows away on the ship and very quickly begins killing. After chopping up a young girl with her electric guitar (a kill that deserves a shout-out here), the zombified Jason comes across a boxer lounging in the sauna. With a towel over his face, he doesn't realize Jason has entered the room and thinks it's his disheartened competitor, whom he'd defeated earlier in the day. Jason grabs a huge sauna rock and rams it deep into the boxer's stomach. If the brunt force didn't do the trick, the scorching stone certainly put a proverbial nail in his coffin. You can literally feel his pain through the screen, it's that effective.
4. Pain in the Neck
What makes the original 1980 "Friday the 13th" so special is its hyper-focus on mood and tension. Quieter, more somber moments are punctuated with surprise kills and jump scares. And the granddaddy of them all (at least in this first film) involves Kevin Bacon's Jack character and a sharp spear to the back of the throat.
Marcie (Jeannine Taylor) and Jack have just made passionate love in one of the cabin bunk beds. Unbeknownst to them, Ned's bleeding corpse lies above their heads. When Marcie heads to the showers, Jack lights up a cigarette and discovers blood dripping down upon his forehead. He doesn't even get a moment to comprehend what it is or what's happening before Jason, hidden beneath the mattress, shoves an arrow-tipped spear through the back of his throat. Jason twists the device for good measure, as blood spews from a makeshift contraption in Bacon's prosthetic piece.
Famously (or is it infamously), the blood contraption ran into a bit of a hiccup during filming. Of course, you wouldn't be able to tell onscreen. Allegedly, "the pump broke on the blood plumper," as Bacon remembers it, so the special effects artist blew through the nozzle to get blood to spurt out. Oh, movie magic.
3. Eye See You
I could write a dissertation on the lack of likable, non-stereotypical characters in "Friday the 13th Part III" at this point. Thank goodness there are some memorable kill sequences to pick up the slack, though. Doug White is a visionary for his special effects work throughout the film, supplying enough gore to satiate any thirst.
As bodies pile up, Vera (Catherine Parks) takes a leisurely stroll down to the dock and reflects upon the tension between her and resident prankster Shelly. Moments before, Shelly was unceremoniously offed with a machete to the throat, and his wallet ends up floating in the nearby lake. Vera discovers it and picks it up. She swings around in time to see Jason, who has adopted Shelly's hockey mask as his own, and she believes it to be Shelly in disguise. Jason lifts the speargun and shoots an arrow right into Vera's eyeball. It's an effect that's equal parts nauseating and chill-inducing. Jason has no chill when it comes to weaponry.
2. Burning Up
Say what you will about the 2009 "Friday the 13th" remake, but it keeps you on your toes, kill-wise. The initial 25 minutes or so repackages the greatest hits of the franchise, from the Pamela Voorhees-starring intro to sack-head Jason. This kill in particular also emerges as a top-tier entry in the series, repurposing the iconic sleeping bag death we saw in "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" and turning the dial up to 100.
Before we even meet the main protagonists, we follow a smaller group of campers as they set up their tent and settle in for the night. Amanda (America Olivo) and her boyfriend Richie (Ben Feldman) are having some naughty time when they hear footsteps closing in. Thinking it's their other friend playing a joke, Richie goes to investigate.
Amanda is unfortunately the first to go. The scene plays out much like in "Part VII" with Amanda hunkering down inside her sleeping bag and Jason yanking her from the tent. This time, though, Jason's sadistic streak is on full display. Richie finds his friend's bloody corpse and dashes back to the campsite, tripping in a bear trap. He looks on to discover Amanda tied up in a sleeping bag and dangling over a roaring fire. Her screams are truly disturbing.
1. Brain Freeze
While 2001's "Jason X" frequently gets raked over the coals, the film absolutely delivers with relentless violence and gore. The crown jewel of the series remains Adrienne's (Kristi Angus) untimely demise in a vat of liquid nitrogen. After a bait and switch opening, in which Jason Voorhees is finally captured, the film jumps centuries into the future at a time when earth has become uninhabitable, and the human race has forged new life on Earth Two.
When the crew scouts the now-abandoned Crystal Lake Research facility, they discover Jason's cryogenically-frozen corpse, as well as scientist Rowan's body, and make the mistake of bringing him aboard their spacecraft. He thaws loose, and Adrienne is tasked with dissecting and analyzing him. Well, she gets more than she bargains for when Jason grabs her head and shoves it inside liquid nitrogen. He then slams her now-frozen skull into the counter like a porcelain doll.
With makeup effects supervisor Stephan Dupuis at the helm, alongside effects supervisor Bob Hall, the brain freeze kill is the series' most iconic. It retools the classic drowning kill and shoots it into the stratosphere (literally) to turn it into an unforgettable cinematic moment across all genres.