7 Most Memorable Kills in the Friday the 13th Franchise

Now that the Friday the 13th franchise is seemingly gearing up for the reboot it so desperately needs, fans are just hoping the series can toss a fresh new kill the audience’s way. It’s an IP that lives or, well, dies, on its core promise of delivering particularly unique offings of its protagonists. Naturally, when an antagonist has a kill count as high as Jason Voorhees’, it can be hard to show the fans something fresh. Something memorable. But, even if the future Jason Universe, as it’s being called, treads familiar ground, there’s some particularly memorable (and gruesome) ground to tread.

What follows are the most iconic kills throughout the Friday the 13th franchise. From the (mostly) Jason-free original film to the 2009 reboot, these are the most creative and memorable death scenes in the 12-film saga.

Jack in Friday the 13th

When ranking the first movies of iconic horror franchises for objective quality, Friday the 13th falls somewhere towards the upper middle, but the death of Kevin Bacon’s Jack is undoubtedly top-tier. In fact, there’s a pretty fair argument to be made that this is the most famous death of the entire franchise, and not just because it’s Bacon who’s getting knocked off.

The irony, of course, is that this kill isn’t under Jason’s belt. It’s under his mother’s. As Scream told a new generation of horror fans, Jason doesn’t show up until the sequel. Jack’s final scene checks every stereotypical slasher box (And it arguably is why movies like Scream have pointed to those stereotypes). Does Jack smoke pot? Yes. Does he have sex? Also, yes. Does he then get an arrow through the throat as his friend lays dead on the bunk above? Big yes.

Mark in Friday the 13th Part 2

Not every character in the Friday the 13th films is particularly likable, but poor Mark Jarvis seemed to be one of the kindest people on the planet. Wheelchair-bound after a motorcycle accident cut his potential career as an athlete short, Jarvis is nonetheless hopeful and confident about the future. He even has a budding little romance with Vickie Perry, a fellow counselor trainee at Packanack Lodge.

Yet, his romance with Perry is cut short along with his dreams when he goes out on the main cabin’s porch. Looking for Perry, he instead finds Jason in the form of a machete to the face, at which point he rolls backward down a flight of stone steps as the screen cuts to white.

Rick in Friday the 13th Part III

Friday the 13th Part III is arguably the scariest Friday the 13th, primarily thanks to Richard Brooker’s performance as Jason and the fact he kills a pregnant woman. The only factor that sometimes diminishes its scare factor is the 3D and the effects used to accomplish that visual element. Yet, even if the fake head for Rick Bombay’s head-crushing kill looks a little goofy and the viewer can see the string yanking the eyeball toward the camera, it’s still pretty grim stuff.

Bombay is the second-most prominent character in the film, and like Mark in Friday the 13th Part 2, he’s a likable guy. This makes the swift nature of his death (he basically leaves protagonist Chris Higgins’ side for a second and gets snatched up) all the more impactful. There’s also something deeply unsettling about Higgins standing outside her house at Higgins Haven, calling for him, while he’s mere feet away. But he can’t answer because Jason’s hand is over his mouth. Then that hand, along with the other, moves up to his skull and gives it a squeeze, leaving Ms. Higgins completely and utterly alone.

Jimmy in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Easily one of the best A-list slasher sequels ever made, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter has quite a few things that work for it. For instance, the gonzo performance from Crispin Glover, who was just one year shy of his star-making role in Back to the Future. In The Final Chapter, Glover plays Jimmy Mortimer, a lovesick teen who just got dumped and is now tagging along with his friends as they rent a summer house. Unfortunately for them, their stay lasts far less than a full summer. It doesn’t even last a full week.

There are a few really great kills in this not-so-final film, from the pervy coroner Axel’s throat slit via hacksaw (and subsequent head twist) to Doug’s mid-shower head crush, but it’s Mortimer’s offing that takes top prize. After rebounding from his recent dumping with twin Tina Moore, Mortimer goes downstairs to grab some celebratory wine. He asks his jerk of a buddy Ted where he can find the corkscrew, at which point Jason immediately answers his question by using it to pin Mortimer’s hand to the counter then slamming a meat cleaver into his face.

Judy in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

The Friday the 13th movie with Jason’s most iconic physical appearance also features what is also arguably his most iconic kill (Mrs. Voorhees killed Jack, after all). It’s odd because, as a whole, the MPAA practically assured that Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood was the least memorable entry of Paramount’s eight-movie run of the IP. If the crummy extended scenes could ever get a touch-up for a future Scream Factory 4K release, it would be a real gift to the fans (cough-cough).

One of the sillier cuts that was made was the death of Judy Williams in the first act. Unrelated to the central plot about a surprise party, Judy and her boyfriend Dan Carter are just campers who have planted their tent stakes in the murder capital of the world, Crystal Lake. After punching Carter’s heart out of his body, Jason turns his attention to Williams. Slicing through the tent, he grabs her, zips up her sleeping bag with her still inside, and slams the bag against a tree. It’s a shame the MPAA cut out all but one of the slams because it diminishes the scene’s darkly funny impact, but it works, nonetheless. It took seven movies, but Jason finally utilized a sleeping bag in a camper’s death (and he’d do it again three movies later to a similarly humorous extent).

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Julius in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

Jason Takes Manhattan may be widely and fairly deemed the nadir of the Paramount years, but it’s also something of an underrated gem. If seen as a movie that’s actually trying to scare the audience, it’s a total failure. If viewed as a horror-comedy, there’s some gold to mine throughout the 100-minute run time.

There’s good reason to believe director Rob Hedden was, in fact, going for horror-comedy, too. For one, there’s the scene in Manhattan (actually Vancouver) where Jason kicks a loud boombox down the curb, angering the young delinquents enjoying it, only to then turn around and lift his mask up to scare them off. Two, there’s the boxing kill. Julius Gaw may make it all the way through the S.S. Lazarus‘s doomed voyage (from Crystal Lake to Manhattan), but he doesn’t last long once they’re in the city. That said, he gives Voorhees a run for his money in the form of about 80 punches to the face while the two of them are on a roof. Too bad for him that Voorhees only needs to respond with one, which sends Gaw’s head careening off the side of the building right into a dumpster.

Adrienne in Jason X

The same movie that revisits The New Blood‘s sleeping bag kill, Jason X, also gave the audience Mr. Voorhees’ most unique kill to date. The movie as a whole may be far too cheesy for its own good, but in the kills department, Jason X is a fitting final adventure for Kane Hodder, who got his start in the aforementioned seventh film.

Jason X is a film that features someone impaled by a giant screw inexplicably sticking up from the floor, but that’s not the best kill (though it’s close). No, the best kill doesn’t involve a sharp object at all. Adrienne Thomas-Hart is an intern aboard The Grendel, a spaceship currently transporting Thomas-Hart and other New Harvard University alumni and students from Earth II to, well, our Earth. But she doesn’t make it the full trip, not even halfway, as while she’s performing the recently unfrozen Jason’s autopsy, he grabs her by the head, shoves her face in liquid nitrogen, and smashes her freeze-dried face onto a counter. One gets the sense New Line made this movie for two reasons: to hold onto the rights until they could get Freddy vs. Jason off the ground and this kill.

The first eight Friday the 13th films are free to stream with ads on Pluto TV. Jason X is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.