The Friday the 13^th series is one of the longest-running and most influential slasher franchises in history. The series’ main villain is Jason Voorhees, a hulking hockey-masked maniac who lurks in the woods around Camp Crystal Lake. Here are all the Friday the 13th movies ranked.

Jason supposedly drowned in Camp Crystal Lake in 1958 because the camp counselors weren’t paying attention. Jason’s alleged demise led to his mother, Pamela, to embark on a bloody killing spree to avenge his death. After she is decapitated in the original movie’s climax, Jason is revealed to somehow be alive. He begins a rampage of revenge against anyone who dares enter the forest.

Unfortunately, the series has been stuck at twelve installments since 2009 because of legal battles over the domestic rights to the original film’s script. Fortunately, the legal limbo appears to finally be coming to a close. A new prequel series called Crystal Lake is now in development and is expected to air on Peacock. In the meantime, here are our rankings of all twelve of the Friday the 13^th movies.

The Friday the 13th movies in order

Like many long-running franchises, the Friday the 13th series eventually stopped using the number of the installment in the title. Paramount cranked out new movies like clockwork in the ’80s, but after that, releases have been sporadic at best.

Friday the 13th (1980)
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Jason X (2001)
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Friday the 13th (2009)

The Friday the 13th Movies Ranked

12. Friday the 13^th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)

This installment replaces Jason with a copycat killer, a middle-aged ambulance medic named Roy who goes on a rampage at a mental institution where Tommy Jarvis, a major Jason nemesis who was introduced in the fourth installment, is recuperating after the events of the previous movie.

Friday the 13^thwas never a cerebral series, but this movie sinks to depths unseen in the earlier installments. A boring villain, annoying characters, and a lack of atmosphere puts this movie at the bottom of the barrel. This movie often feels more like softcore porn than a slasher movie.

11. Friday the 13^th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

This one was hyped as Jason in New York City but, due to budget limitations, he only makes it there for the last third of the movie. The film is mostly set on a cruise ship. Jason, who has inexplicably gained the ability to teleport, kills a group of hapless and bland teenagers before following the final girl and her boyfriend through grungy ‘80s New York City.

This movie has the dumbest ending of the entire series. It does have some funny moments and features an earnest performance by Jensen Daggett as the final girl, Rennie.

10. Jason Goes to Hell (1993)

This is certainly the weirdest installment. After his body is blown up by the FBI, Jason’s evil soul possesses various people, hopping from body to body throughout the film. Eventually Jason’s sister, who was never mentioned before or in any of the movies since, defeats him by stabbing him with a mystical dagger.

Although it deserves points for originality, Jason Goes to Hell doesn’t feel like a Friday the 13^th movie and fails to recapture most of the elements that made the series popular in the first place.

9. Jason X (2001)

There was a brief trend in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s of putting horror villains in space. They did it with Hellraiser, Critters, and Leprechaun. Then Jason got his turn. This movie is set hundreds years into the future, where a captured Jason is placed in a spaceship heading to a distant planet.

This movie has some fun moments but its cheap production values and lack of fresh ideas doom it to mediocrity. The low rent special effects in Jason X are unintentionally hilarious and add to the film’s campy atmosphere.

8. Friday the 13^th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

This film marks the great Kane Hodder’s debut as Jason. A telekinetic girl named Tina, played by Lar Park Lincoln, accidentally uses her powers to release Jason from his watery grave at the bottom of Crystal Lake. Jason looks great in The New Blood with the most impressive makeup of the series.

This movie would be ranked higher, but unfortunately it was released in the late ‘80s, when the MPAA ratings board was extremely strict with violence. Nearly all of the gore effects had to be significantly toned down or eliminated to get an R rating, leaving the movie feeling somewhat neutered. It also has a ridiculous twist ending involving Tina’s dead dad. However, Hodder’s smoldering intensity as Jason makes it worth watching.

7. Friday the 13^th (2009)

This is the most recent Friday installment. It’s a reboot that borrows elements from each of the first four movies, features a somewhat humanized Jason, and has two final girl characters, although one of them turns out to be a decoy. It revives many of the elements and plot points from the earliest installments but can’t quite capture their eerie atmosphere.

Derek Mears gives a solid performance as Jason. He has the physique and power to be believable in the role. A direct sequel was originally planned, but it was discarded on the heap of failed Friday the 13th projects that have come and gone over the past fifteen years.

6. Freddy vs Jason (2003)

This monster mash battle has far more plot than most of the Friday movies, plenty of gore, and a fun showdown between arguably the two most famous slasher movie villains in the world. It features multiple fun battles, both in Freddy’s dream world and the real world.

However, it feels more like a Nightmare on Elm Street movie that happens to have Jason in it, rather than an actual Friday the 13^th movie. It was produced by New Line Cinema, who made the Freddy movies, so it’s no surprise that they filmed it from a NOES perspective.

5. Friday the 13^th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Jason Lives is the perfect installment for a casual slasher fan who has never watched a Friday the 13^th movie. This movie’s tone sharply diverges from the previous installments, with far more comedic elements and, surprisingly, no major nudity.

After being killed in the fourth installment, and replaced by a copycat killer in the fifth, Jason is resurrected as an immortal superhuman monster. He is pursued by a returning Tommy Jarvis (Thom Matthews) and his new love interest Megan (Jennifer Cooke), the daughter of the local sheriff.

Related Article: The Most Underrated Final Girls in Horror History

There are episodes of Sesame Street that are scarier than this movie and yet, somehow, it works. This is easily among the most entertaining movies of the series, and it’s capped off by an epic boat battle between Tommy and Jason on a fiery Crystal Lake.

4. Friday the 13^th Part 2 (1981)

Part 2 is the first movie with Jason as the killer. This early prototypical version of the character wears a bag over his head. He is portrayed as a deranged hermit who lives in a run-down cabin deep in the woods. Part 2 has one of the best final girls of the series – Ginny played by Amy Steel. She’s a child psychologist who is capable of manipulating Jason.

But it also has its share of dumb moments, with numerous characters who seem to serve no purpose whatsoever, plus no explanation for how Jason is alive after supposedly drowning as a child. Jason is portrayed as being more or less human in this installment, a far cry from the superhuman killing machine he became later.

3. Friday the 13th (1980)

The original has more ambience and atmosphere than any of its sequels. The identity of the killer is a mystery for most of the movie, which sets it apart from the others as well. Director Sean Cunningham does a good job building up an atmosphere of tension and dread. The killer in this one is Jason’s mom, with Jason only popping up at the very end in one of the most famous jump scares in slasher movie history.

2. Friday the 13^th Part 3 (1982)

The installment is best known for Jason getting his iconic hockey mask and for its 3-D effects, which reportedly were impressive back in theaters in 1982. Oddly, this is the only installment where none of the characters know who Jason is and his backstory is never explained. The extended cat and mouse battle between Jason and the final girl, Chris (Dana Kimmel), and the glorious eyeball-popping scene where Jason dispatches her insufferable boyfriend set it near the top of the series.

1. Friday the 13^th – The Final Chapter (1984)

Despite its misleading name (it is only the fourth of the series), The Final Chapter stands head and shoulders above the rest of the franchise. It has everything that you could want in a Friday the 13^th movie. Jason is absolutely brutal in this one, dispatching another gang of hapless teens.

He also attacks the local Jarvis family, including teenage Trish and her younger brother, Tommy, who became a recurring character in the series. It even features a couple of recognizable ’80s actors: Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman. Jason’s (temporary) comeuppance at the end is satisfyingly savage.