| abstract
| - Friday the 13th is a series of Slasher Movies, currently containing twelve installments (with the thirteenth in development). This Villain Based Franchise is mainly based around the hockey-masked wearing, machete-wielding, Psychopathic Manchild of a Zombie named Jason Voorhees. As a child, Jason allegedly drowned at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of the teenage camp counselors. Decades later, the lake and surrounding campgrounds are rumored to be "cursed" and are the setting for a series of mass murders staged on or around Friday the 13th (Jason's birthday). Though clearly inspired by the Halloween series of movies, Friday the 13th is the Trope Codifier for the slasher genre. The films typically start with a Developing Doomed Characters sequence: a group of teenagers -- typically counselors or vacationers -- have come to Crystal Lake for various reasons, but they usually involve sex and drugs. They (along with more than a few other minor characters along the way) are slowly hunted down and killed in a variety of ways, one by one, with none of the remaining members of the group being the wiser until the Final Girl (and occasionally a Tagalong Kid) discovers the bodies and forces a confrontation with the killer. Though it is a series, and each movie follows the previous one (sometimes even starting directly after), there are few recurring elements besides Jason and the Crystal Lake location; the exception to this rule are installments 4, 5, and 6, as these films feature the character of Tommy Jarvis. As a boy (in 4), Tommy loses quite a bit of sanity after his mother is murdered by Jason (who Tommy is forced to kill in turn), and when he grows up, Tommy dedicates himself to the destruction of Jason at any cost; ironically, Tommy's quest to eradicate Jason inadvertently becomes the catalyzing force for Jason's resurrection as a zombie. The franchise's name was slapped onto a horror anthology series -- Friday the 13th: The Series -- which had very little to do with the films. There was also a Nintendo Hard video game adaptation. Jason's hockey mask is iconic enough to be part of the Hockey Mask and Chainsaw trope. (It should be noted that Jason never actually uses a chainsaw in any of the films.) Here are some (very) brief synopses for each movie of the franchise: Counselors are stalked and killed at Camp Crystal Lake as they attempt to prepare the camp to be reopened. As famously pointed out in the opening of Scream, this movie does not actually feature Jason as the killer; it is actually his mother, Pamela Voorhees, who blames the counselors at the camp's previous incarnation for letting her son drown (since they were too busy having sex to watch him). Despite what the sequels became, this film is surprisingly effective as a horror piece. Counselors are stalked and killed at Camp Crystal Lake. Sensing a pattern here? Even though this film is pretty much a retread of the previous film, it features the first occurrence of Jason as the killer; his face is covered by a pillow case instead of the iconic hockey mask, which he would gain in... Teenagers are stalked and killed at a camp near Crystal Lake. You'd think they'd know better by now. Originally shot in 3-D, the film randomly features shots of popcorn popping and yo-yos coming toward the camera -- along with a couple of (very cool) three-dimensional kills. This is also the movie where Jason gets the iconic hockey mask, and it's also likely that this the film where your sympathies start going towards the killer. Teenagers are stalked and killed at a lake house near Crystal Lake. The police really should be looking into this. This film was a Series Fauxnale, as it was expected to be the last film in the series; it performed so well at the box office, however, that the series continued anyway. This film features Corey Feldman as the young Tommy Jarvis, Crispin Glover as one of the teenagers, a lot of gratuitous nudity, what is widely believed to be the best gore in the series (courtesy of Tom Savini), and a ton of Narm Charm. If you want a So Bad It's Good teen comedy that morphs into a So Cool It's Awesome horror movie, this is the one to check out. Teenagers and adults alike are stalked and killed at a halfway house for troubled teens located near Crystal Lake -- and one of the teenagers staying at the house is Tommy Jarvis, who is still trying to recover from his encounter with Jason four years prior. See what they did there? This film features a twist where the hockey-masked killer turns out not to be Jason, but a man who wanted to avenge the death of his son, which occurred at the halfway house earlier in the film. While it's considered one of the worst of the series in terms of the plot, it does feature some of the best death performances of the whole franchise. These kids know how to die! After Jason is accidentally resurrected by Tommy Jarvis, teenagers are stalked and killed in the town of Crystal Lake -- all while Tommy seeks to stop the Crystal Lake Killer once and for all. This film is noticeably less gory than previous installments, and it's the only one in the series to feature no nudity whatsoever (due to an upswing of Moral Guardians at the MPAA); even with these drawbacks, it's still regarded as one of the finest and most tightly-plotted films in the series by fans. This entry is probably most notable for being the turning point at which the series seemed to recognize how utterly goofy it was and started to include some Lampshade Hanging and self-deprecatory humor (until the remake tried to make things scary again, at least). As an aside: this is the only film in the series where kids actually make it to a newly-reopened Camp Crystal Lake. Teenagers are stalked and killed at houses built near Crystal Lake. Shocking change of pace, right? This time, instead of Tommy Jarvis, a young woman named Tina is the one to both awaken and confront Jason over the course of the film. This was actually the first attempt to bring about Freddy vs. Jason; after negotiations between Paramount and New Line broke down, a girl with Psychic Powers (Tina) was turned into the lead protagonist, which resulted in the film receiving the Fan Nickname of Jason vs. Carrie. This was the first movie to feature Kane Hodder in the role of Jason, and many fans consider Hodder to be the best actor to play the role. Teenagers are stalked and killed on a boat leaving from Crystal Lake, then in Manhattan for the last twenty minutes. At least it's something different, right? This film was actually filmed in Vancouver -- and it shows. It's most notable for a scene where Jason punches the head off of one of his victims. The film is the lowest grossing movie in the series and generally considered to be the worst entry, though fans have pointed out a few charms. Jason is finally killed by the government, but becomes partially resurrected thanks to his evil heart; now limited to jumping from body to body as an evil spirit, Jason seeks out his last living relatives so that he can kill them before they can kill him. Along the way, he kills a bunch of people. This is another Series Fauxnale, but this time, it goes completely off the rails thanks to the "body jumping hellspirit" gimmick. In the final scene of the film, Jason's hockey mask gets dragged down to Hell by Freddy Krueger's bladed glove, setting up the crossover film that would come ten years later. Jason only shows up twice during the film (at the very beginning and at the very end). Teenagers (and Space Marines) are stalked and killed on a spaceship after picking up Jason's cryogenically frozen body at an abandoned Crystal Lake. Then he fights a robot. Then he becomes a robot and kills more people. (Despite its name, it has nothing to do with the Memetic Mutation of pressing X to Jason.) This film is well known by fans not only for being extremely cheesy (to the point where it can be considered the most humorous entry of the franchise), but also for containing one of the best death sequences in the franchise (a woman gets her face frozen in liquid nitrogen before Jason smashes it to pieces) and the VR scene depicting the Camp Crystal Lake of the past (which pretty much defined exactly what the whole series was all about). It also features a brief appearance by David Cronenberg. Jason teams up with, then turns on, Freddy Krueger; this leads them to stalk and kill a bunch of teenagers before fighting each other, but in the end, nothing is settled. If you consider the statistics, Jason technically won with over twenty kills to Freddy's one. Word of God also differs on who ultimately won and what the ending of the film means, depending on which "God" you talk to. The film takes place after both Jason Goes To Hell and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Jason X and Wes Craven's New Nightmare have no bearing on the film's story, though it could be considered a prequel of sorts to the former. This is a Continuity Reboot of the series; if you've read this far, then you don't even have to guess what the plot is. This reboot film was created with the intent to give Jason more personality and emphasizing a "menacing survivalist" nature. (Does that mean his kill count gets rebooted, too?) There are plans for a sequel to this film -- which would make it the thirteenth film in the franchise, if one counts Freddy vs. Jason as part of the franchise -- but said sequel is currently sitting in Development Hell.
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