Best/Worst "Friday the 13th" Movie?

"HI KIDS!"

The American Movie Classics channel has been running a marathon of the first 9 "Friday the 13th" films all this week as part of their annual "Fear Fest" Halloween horror celebration, so I've been catching them in bits and pieces as they appear. During my teenage years I was a massive "F13" fanboy, I owned all of them on VHS and went to the theatre to see each new installment on opening night for a number of years. Yea, I know. I was a geek.

Anyway, looking back on the "Friday" series obviously some films were better than others. My personal favorite has always been "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives," much of that is likely due to nostalgia as it was the first "F13" I saw in a theatre. Aside from that, though, "Part VI" is certainly the most well-made film up to that point in the series. The previous 5 films all had the same scuzzy, grindhouse, ultra-low-budget look to'em, whereas "VI" had slicker production values, cooler stunts, and even a theme song by Alice Cooper!

Picking a "worst" F13 film is a tough call between the 8th ("Jason Takes Manhattan") and 9th ("Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday") because they're both equally awful. For a film sub-titled "Jason Takes Manhattan," very little of the 8th film actually takes place in New York City, and "Jason Goes To Hell" suddenly tried to cram in more mythology and back story to Jason's life and family than all of the other eight films combined. Even worse, Jason suddenly developed the ability to "possess" other people's bodies in that flick, so he was jumping from body to body for 3/4 of the movie and therefore wasn't really "Jason" in it except for the opening scene and the closing scene. I remember being suckered into that flick by a killer looking trailer, and by the end of it I actually wanted to ask for my money back.

A lot of people will probably vote for "Jason X" as the "worst" of the bunch but I actually get a huge kick out of that movie, it's so over the top and ridiculous that you almost have to love it. As I've said many a time, that flick works better if you treat it as a parody of the "F13" films rather than another legit entry in the series.

The 2009 "remake"/"reboot" (whatever you want to call it) of "Friday the 13th" also seems to get a lot of hate from the fanboys, but I haven't seen that one yet so I can't comment on it one way or the other.

Sooooo anyway, my picks:
BEST: "Part VI: Jason Lives"
WORST: "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday"

So what sayest thou, fellow horror geeks? Which is your "Best" and "Worst" of the many "Fridays?"

Yes, I'm bored.

Best: I don't know...either the debut or part 6.

Worst: either part 5 or Jason Takes Manhattan.

detuned wrote:

Worst: either part 5 or Jason Takes Manhattan.

Yeah, Part 5 is pretty bad too. But it does feature a brilliant performance by "Dudley" from "Diff'rent Strokes"

Jason takes Manhatten is horrid, first of all he is on a crusie for most of the movie and he is in Manhatten for what, like 15 minutes?

If they had a movie called Jason takes a 3 hour crusie and ship wrecks on Gilligan's Island now that would have been one hell of a film. JasonTakes on Gilligan's Island now that would scary film.

Quote :

Jason takes Manhatten is horrid, first of all he is on a crusie for most of the movie and he is in Manhatten for what, like 15 minutes?

Supposedly the writer/director of "Jason Takes Manhattan" had lots more New York based scenes in his original script but the budget simply didn't allow for them. They did shoot a couple of scenes in on location in Times Square and the rest of the "New York" stuff was shot in Toronto.

Even though it's a horrible movie, I have to say that "Jason Takes Manhattan" had the coolest poster of the entire series:

I actually Jason X because it was such goofy silliness that took the character to even more absurd situations, Jason in outter space, how can anyone dislike that?

manny wrote:

I actually Jason X because it was such goofy silliness that took the character to even more absurd situations, Jason in outter space, how can anyone dislike that?

It's hilarious!! When New Line Cinema took over the rights to the Jason character from Paramount, they must've said "OK, we're not going to do the same old annual 'Jason chops up campers in the woods' installments, we're gonna go completely NUTS!"

Fat Freddy wrote:

manny wrote:

I actually Jason X because it was such goofy silliness that took the character to even more absurd situations, Jason in outter space, how can anyone dislike that?

It's hilarious!! When New Line Cinema took over the rights to the Jason character from Paramount, they must've said "OK, we're not going to do the same old annual 'Jason chops up campers in the woods' installments, we're gonna go completely NUTS!"

I agree and speaking of Jason, I actually loved Jason vs Freddy another gonzo installment that delivered what it promised to do, two characters duking it out without logic or plot getting in the way

manny wrote:

I agree and speaking of Jason, I actually loved Jason vs Freddy another gonzo installment that delivered what it promised to do, two characters duking it out without logic or plot getting in the way

Yea, I just bought 'Freddy vs. Jason' on DVD a couple of weeks ago. Again, a lotta the fanboys of both series hated that movie but I have no idea why, it was exactly what I wanted to see. Were the fans expecting Shakespeare or something??

Fat Freddy wrote:

manny wrote:

I agree and speaking of Jason, I actually loved Jason vs Freddy another gonzo installment that delivered what it promised to do, two characters duking it out without logic or plot getting in the way

Yea, I just bought 'Freddy vs. Jason' on DVD a couple of weeks ago. Again, a lotta the fanboys of both series hated that movie but I have no idea why, it was exactly what I wanted to see. Were the fans expecting Shakespeare or something??

God who knows what goes thru some those Jason's fans heads, btw never saw Jason Goes to Hell, my fav of the series is Friday the 13 Part II

manny wrote:

never saw Jason Goes to Hell

You aint' missing much there. But it's on tonight at 8 on AMC if you wanna check it out.

manny wrote:

my fav of the series is Friday the 13 Part II

Yeah, that's a good'un. Even though Hockey Mask Jason is an iconic figure, Potato-Sack-Head Jason is creepier looking.

hey Freddy was there a Friday the 13th TV series on in the 80's or I am imaging things and should have caught back on the pot smoking back in the day? I know there was a Nightmare series where Krugar was the host.

I had to go read some plot summeries on Wikipedia to remember just how many of these I've actually seen. I think I tapped out on Ft13th: A New Beginning (part 5) and even that one has fuzzy memories.

So with that in mind, I'd proably vote for the 1st one as the best and A New Beginning as the worst, seeing as how I can't quite remember if I even saw it.

manny wrote:

hey Freddy was there a Friday the 13th TV series on in the 80's or I am imaging things and should have caught back on the pot smoking back in the day? I know there was a Nightmare series where Krugar was the host.

Yes there was...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th:_The_Series

manny wrote:

hey Freddy was there a Friday the 13th TV series on in the 80's or I am imaging things and should have caught back on the pot smoking back in the day? I know there was a Nightmare series where Krugar was the host.

Yes, there was an "F13" TV series, but it wasn't connected to the movie series at all. It was actually a pretty decent show, it had to do with a team of antiquities dealers attempting to track down a different "cursed" item in every episode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_The_Series

"Freddy's Nightmares" was a "Twilight Zone"/"Tales from the Crypt" style horror anthology series, Freddy was the Rod Serling style host who'd show up at the start of each episode to introduce the story with his trademark wise-ass commentary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy%27s_Nightmares

*EDIT* Dangit, MG71 beat me to it.

I'm partial to the "Final Chapter-Part IV" (YEAH RIGHT!). It was the first one I saw at the theatre (in a packed house of 4-my buddy and me and a woman with a little girl-graet flick to take her to) and I think the worst is Takes Manhattan (But they had all been pretty weak after VI).

I do have to say that the New Blood was pretty cool with the telekinetic girl battling Jason. It certainly wasn't like any of the other Friday movues.

007 wrote:

I do have to say that the New Blood was pretty cool with the telekinetic girl battling Jason. It certainly wasn't like any of the other Friday movues.

"New Blood" was on AMC last night. I tuned in just in time to watch the psychic chick start kicking Jason's ass all over the woods. I was like "YES!" That gal put The Big J through the freakin WRINGER in the last twenty minutes of that movie!!

That Friday the 13th series was on for 3 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fat Freddy wrote:

manny wrote:

hey Freddy was there a Friday the 13th TV series on in the 80's or I am imaging things and should have caught back on the pot smoking back in the day? I know there was a Nightmare series where Krugar was the host.

Yes, there was an "F13" TV series, but it wasn't connected to the movie series at all. It was actually a pretty decent show, it had to do with a team of antiquities dealers attempting to track down a different "cursed" item in every episode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_The_Series

"Freddy's Nightmares" was a "Twilight Zone"/"Tales from the Crypt" style horror anthology series, Freddy was the Rod Serling style host who'd show up at the start of each episode to introduce the story with his trademark wise-ass commentary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy%27s_Nightmares

*EDIT* Dangit, MG71 beat me to it.

Sorry bud. Only because I was already on the Wiki site . Otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue. I think I remember that "Freddy's Nightmares" show though. Sounds familiar. Or maybe I'm confusing it with "Tales from the Crypt".

I never saw any of those two series and I was surprised that the Friday the 13th series managed to last three seasons.

manny wrote:

That Friday the 13th series was on for 3 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've noticed lately that episodes of the "F13" TV series have been turning up on SyFy Channel in the wee hours of the morning. I am not gonna stay up till 3 AM to watch'em but I've been meaning to set my recorder to catch a couple of 'em so I can check'em out again. I haven't seen the series in years and I'm sure it probably hasn't aged well at all but I wanna see it again anyway, mainly cuz the chick who played "Micki" (one of the investigators) was hot.

Fat Freddy wrote:

manny wrote:

hey Freddy was there a Friday the 13th TV series on in the 80's or I am imaging things and should have caught back on the pot smoking back in the day? I know there was a Nightmare series where Krugar was the host.

Yes, there was an "F13" TV series, but it wasn't connected to the movie series at all. It was actually a pretty decent show, it had to do with a team of antiquities dealers attempting to track down a different "cursed" item in every episode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_The_Series

"Freddy's Nightmares" was a "Twilight Zone"/"Tales from the Crypt" style horror anthology series, Freddy was the Rod Serling style host who'd show up at the start of each episode to introduce the story with his trademark wise-ass commentary.

If I remember right,the first episode was about Freddy,showing his origin (and oddly,not showing his face before he was killed by the vengeful parents).

Best:The first is great, but I love the effects of part 3, so I'll go with that.
Worst:Jason X. I tries to go with it, but I just couldn't.

I completely abandoned this franchise after the 3rd one which I thought was abysmal.

The first one established a whole new genre IMO though.

I have a warm spot in my black heart for FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER....

It has some creative carnage and Crispin Glover!!


I gave up on the series after Part 5 so that or any after films would fit in as a worst for me.