All of the movie posters.
The Friday the 13th franchise is a series of horror slasher movies that currently consists of 12 movies (currently 1980-2009). It stars killer Jason Voorhees, who drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of the camp staff. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be "cursed" and is the setting for a series of mass murders. Jason is featured in all of the films, as either the killer or the motivation for the killings.
Its influence was 1978's Halloween. It is also known for competing with a similar slasher series, A Nightmare on Elm Street, starring another killer, Freddy Krueger. In 2003, the two films had a crossover awaited by fans in Freddy vs. Jason.
Although the films were not popular with critics, Friday the 13th is considered one of the most successful media franchises in America—not only for the success of the films, but also because of the extensive merchandising and repeated references to the series in popular culture.
Movies
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- Friday the 13th Part III (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 (2002)
- Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
- Friday the 13th (2009)
Movie Plots
In the original Friday the 13th, Mrs. Voorhees stalks and murders the teenagers who are preparing Camp Crystal Lake for re‑opening. She is determined to ensure that the camp does not reopen after her son Jason drowned in the lake because two staff members who were supposed to be watching him weren't. The last counselor, Alice fends off Mrs. Voorhees long enough to grab a machete and decapitate her. In Friday the 13th Part 2, Jason is revealed to be alive and fully grown. After killing Alice, Jason returns to Crystal Lake to guard it from all intruders. Five years later, a group of teenagers arrive at Crystal Lake to set up a new camp, but Jason murders them. Ginny Field, the last counselor Jason attempts to kill, finds a cabin in the woods with a shrine built around the severed head of Mrs. Voorhees. Ginny fights back and slams a machete through Jason′s shoulder. Jason is left for dead as Ginny is taken away in an ambulance. During the events of Friday the 13th Part III, Jason removes the machete from his shoulder and finds his way to Chris Higgins's local homestead. Chris returns to her property with some friends, and Jason kills anyone who wanders into the barn where he is hiding. Taking a hockey mask from a victim to hide his face, Jason leaves the barn to kill the rest of the group. Chris seemingly kills Jason with an axe to his head, but the night′s events drive her into hysteria as the police take her away.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter continues where Part III leaves off, with Jason found by the police and taken to the local morgue after removing the axe. Upon arrival, Jason kills the coroner and a nurse before returning to Crystal Lake. A group of friends rent a house on Crystal Lake and fall victim to Jason′s rampage. After killing the teens, Jason seeks out Trish and Tommy Jarvis, who live next door. While distracted by Trish, Jason is attacked and killed by Tommy. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning follows Tommy Jarvis, who was committed to a mental health institution after the events of The Final Chapter and grew up constantly afraid that Jason will return. Roy Burns uses Jason′s persona to become a copycat killer at the halfway home to which Tommy has moved. Tommy, supervisor Pam, and a young boy named Reggie manage to defeat Roy. They eventually learn that Roy had a son who was murdered by one of the patients at the institution, triggering Roy to take on Jason′s likeness and kill everyone there. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives begins with Tommy visiting Jason′s grave after being released from another mental institution. Tommy inadvertently resurrects Jason with a piece of the fence surrounding the cemetery acting as a lightning rod. Jason immediately heads back to Crystal Lake and kills the people working at the new summer camp. Tommy eventually chains Jason to a boulder that he tosses into the lake, where he leaves Jason to die.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood begins an indeterminate length of time after Jason Lives. Jason is resurrected again, this time by the telekinetic Tina Shepard, who is trying to resurrect her father who drowned in the lake when Tina was a child. Jason once again begins killing those who occupy Crystal Lake and is returned to the bottom of the lake after a battle with Tina. Jason is resurrected again in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan by an underwater electrical cable. He follows a group of students on their senior class cruise to Manhattan, where he kills the ship′s crew and the majority of the students. Upon reaching Manhattan, Jason chases Rennie and Sean, the two remaining students, into the sewers. Jason eventually melts away because the sewer is flooded with toxic waste. In Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Jason, through an unexplained resurrection, is hunted by the FBI at Crystal Lake. The FBI sets up a sting that successfully kills Jason. Through possession, Jason manages to survive by passing his black heart from one being to the next. It is revealed that he has a sister and a niece, and that he needs them to get his body back. Jason resurrects himself, but his niece, Jessica Kimble, stabs him with a mystical dagger and he is dragged into Hell.
Jason X takes place in the future, when Jason has again been inexplicably resurrected. A scientist, Rowan Lafontaine, decides that cryonic suspension is the only method of stopping him, but Jason breaks free and kills the army personnel guarding him before he can be again imprisoned. Rowan manages to lure Jason into the cryo‑chamber, but he ruptures the tank and freezes both himself and Rowan. Over 400 years later, a team of students studying earth discover Jason′s body and take it into space. Upon being thawed by the team, he proceeds to murder everyone aboard the spacecraft. He is seemingly killed, but is then resurrected via nanotechnology as a cyborg version of himself. Finally, he is ejected into space and lands on the planet Earth 2. The next Friday the 13th film, Freddy vs. Jason, was a crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Set in the contemporary period, Freddy Krueger resurrects Jason and sends him to Springwood hoping that he will create enough fear among the residents that Freddy will be strong enough to invade their dreams. Jason accomplishes this but refuses to stop killing. A battle ensues both in the dream-world and at Crystal Lake. The outcome is left ambiguous, as Jason surfaces from the lake holding Freddy′s severed head, which winks and laughs.
In 2009, a new Friday the 13th film which restarted the film series continuity was released. In this film, after witnessing his mother being beheaded at a young age, an adult Jason follows in her footsteps and kills anyone who comes to Crystal Lake. Jason subsequently kidnaps a young woman, Whitney Miller, who reminds him of his mother. Six weeks after her disappearance, her brother, Clay Miller, comes to look for her. The pair reunite and work together to seemingly kill Jason.