Movies - Friday the 13th

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Friday the 13th (film series)

	Movies - Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th is a popular series of slasher films. All of the films feature Jason Voorhees, either as the killer, or as the motivation or inspiration for the killings.

The original film was directed by Sean S. Cunningham. Afterwards, the franchise was taken up by Frank Mancuso Jr. during its time with Paramount. When it was sold to New Line Cinema, Cunningham returned to oversee the franchise. Victor Miller, the original writer, has not returned and claims to have never seen any of the sequels.

Series overview

Although each entry in the series is unique, they share many similar qualities. The setting usually consists of isolated campgrounds and suburban neighborhoods. The victims are usually teenagers, or college aged and frequently those who partake in recreational drug use and sex.

The films

Friday the 13th (1980)

In the first film, a group of teenagers return to a summer camp, Camp Crystal Lake, to prepare it for reopening. Many years earlier, a young boy named Jason Voorhees had drowned at the camp. Shortly thereafter, the two counselors responsible were murdered. One by one, the new teenage counselors are brutally murdered by Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees.

Friday the 13th Part 2 (1982)

In the second film, it is retroactively revealed that Jason did not drown in the lake and had been living as a hermit in the woods next to the camp for several decades. Having watched his mother's murdering from afar, Jason tracks down and kills the survivor of the first film and resumes his mother's work, hacking and slashing through numerous other victims at the nearby camp.

Friday the 13th Part 3 (1983)

In the third installment (filmed in 3-D), Jason acquired his trademark hockey mask, and machete. Jason found himself slaying a group of teenagers and a motorcycle gang who are spending time at a farmhouse near a lake, the only survivor (Dana Kimmel) kills Jason and as a result, goes insane in one of the most surreal endings in the series

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

The fourth installment continues Jason's slaughter before he encounters a young Tommy Jarvis, who is the one to end Jason's life. Part 4, simply titled Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter featured up and coming 1980s stars Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover and did extremely well at the box office--so well that it immediately caused Paramount to go back on their plan to have the film serve as the ending to the Friday the 13th franchise.

Friday the 13th 5: A New Beginning (1985)

The fifth film picks up with a mentally troubled adult Tommy at a halfway house when a series of familiar murders start up. However, the killer is not Jason, but a copycat avenging the death of his son. Fans were unhappy with the twist, and the producers decided to bring Jason back in the next film.

Friday the 13th 6: Jason Lives (1986)

The sixth entry in the series made this clear in its title: Jason Lives. However, since Jason had been supposedly rotting through the years since Part 4, writer and director Tom McLoughlin brought back the monster in a classic Frankenstein approach. Seemingly ignoring the events of the previous film, Jason Lives opens with Tommy digging up Jason's corpse so he could destroy it, only to have the body struck by lightning, which brings Jason back to life. From here on, Jason is now a zombie (though many fans argue that Jason was never completely human in the previous films). The film's use of humor made it slightly more popular with critics and many fans consider it the best in the series.

Friday the 13th 7: The New Blood (1988)

In this seventh outting in the Friday the 13th series, a telekinetic girl revives him again from the bottom of the lake where Tommy had left him imprisoned. The film, which has been dubbed "Jason Vs. Carrie" by fans, featured the first appearance of Kane Hodder as Jason. Hodder would continue to play Jason in all the following entries in the series until Freddy vs. Jason, and would become the most well known of the actors who have played Jason over the years.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Friday the 13th (film series) ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Friday the 13th (film series); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.