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FOR A SERIES ostensibly about a hockey-mask-wearing, machete-wielding killer, the Friday the 13th series is weird. From the original film, which doesn't really star Jason Voorhees as the killer (a favorite kernel of hack trivia nights nationwide), to fighting a Carrie stand-in to going to space, the slasher franchise has gone through many an identity crisis. Not to mention the wild legal battle over the rights to the names “Jason” and “Friday the 13th.”
For a series born from a cheap, down-and-dirty exploitation film meant to capitalize on Halloween’s success, it’s done quite well for itself. With ten main series entries, a crossover with Freddy Krueger, a remake, video games, and even a TV series, its longevity is nothing to sneeze at. The quality may ebb and flow, and the killer might not always be Jason, but the undead man himself has become a cultural institution. You don’t need to have seen the series to know what that hockey mask means and where it comes from.
As the franchise finds new life in Crystal Lake, a new series now streaming on Peacock and starring Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees, we’ve given you a quick primer. Not all Fridays are created equal, but you’ll never leave an entry mad you saw it. Okay, you might be a little mad, but we’ll get to that.
Friday the 13th (1980)
The film that started it all. Or, rather, copied it all. Yes, Friday the 13th won’t win any points for originality, nor would you call it a “great” film. It’s stuck, though, for a reason, and the lion's share of that goes to its fun hook: A group of campers is stalked by an unseen assailant as the legend of the death of a physically deformed child, the young Jason Voorhees, 20 years earlier looms over them. One might assume the killer hiding in the shadows is Jason, somehow alive and grown up, exacting revenge on a new batch of counselors (including a young Kevin Bacon!), after the carelessness of the previous ones, but it’s not that simple. It’s been 40 years, so forgive the spoiler, but that “Ki-ki-ki-ma-ma-ma” you hear throughout the film? That’s not a fun little stinger on Henry Manfredini’s great score. It’s little Jason’s voice echoing “Kill Kill Kill, Mama” in the deranged mind of his mother as she slaughters her prey. Yes, it’s Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) doing the killing in this one. It’s a reveal so iconic that it still surprises new viewers to this day, many assuming that Jason was the killer from the jump. In Crystal Lake, recent Emmy winner Linda Cardellini steps into Mrs. Voorhees’s probably-not-too-comfortable shoes, proving it isn’t just her son who will never die.
Friday the 13th Pt. II (1981)
