10 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching The Friday The 13th Movies

The Friday the 13th movies were some of the most notable slasher films ever produced, but upon rewatching them, some harsh realities must be faced. With 12 movies that included a crossover and a remake, there’s no shortage of content featuring the hockey mask-wearing deformed killer Jason Voorhees. However, even the franchise’s most passionate supporters will have to admit the films are of varying quality. From repetitive plotlines to huge narrative inconsistencies, this iconic series had many issues over the years.

As one of the longest-running horror franchises ever, Friday the 13th and the Voorhees family have been giving viewers nightmares since 1980. With the introduction of supernatural elements, more comedic aspects, and even sending Jason to space in a sci-fi story, Friday the 13th has been a vast and varied franchise that always seemed to be suffering from an identity crisis. While there have been plenty of brutal kills through the Friday the 13th series, the harsh reality was it had its fair share of problems throughout.

10 Pamela Voorhees Was Underutilized

Friday the 13th’s original villain has been cast aside

While the casual filmgoer may view Friday the 13th as all about the murderous rampages of Jason Voorhees, it was actually his mother, Pamela, who went on the original murder spree in Crystal Lake. Intending to avenge her son’s death, who camp counselors allowed to drown in the lake after being too distracted sleeping with one another, Pamela was a vengeful mother seeking retribution for her young son’s untimely demise. This was a great backstory that could have been carried forward into the rest of the series.

However, Pamela was only the antagonist for just one film, and despite some small appearances as visions encouraging Jason to kill, she’s been mostly left behind by the Friday the 13th franchise. This was a real shame as Pamela represented one of the few truly terrifying female killers in the slasher genre and was a more notable way of differentiating Friday the 13th from other similar movies like Halloween or Sleepaway Camp. While Jason has become a horror icon, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Pamela was killed off before her character had been fully realized.

9 Alice Hardy Was Killed Too Early

Friday the 13th’s first protagonist was killed off in the second movie

Although Friday the 13th has gained a reputation as a definitive horror franchise, this series lacked a consistent protagonist and often featured Jason hunting down groups of otherwise unconnected victims. While Halloween had Laurie Strode and Scream has Sidney Prescott, Friday the 13th populated its films with disposable characters who failed to add effectively to the franchise’s lore. This could have been a lot different if the original protagonist, Alice Hardy, had stuck around for more than two films.

Alice was the original final girl in Friday the 13th who appeared in the opening sequence of Part 2 only to be quickly killed off in an act of revenge by Jason Voorhees. While this was an excellent introduction that helped solidify the false protagonist trope in slasher movies, it also killed off a world of sequel potential following Alice’s trauma and life after witnessing Pamela’s murder spree at Crystal Lake. However, Alice’s actress Adrienne King has been cast in the upcoming prequel series Crystal Lake (via Bloody Disgusting), so there’s a chance her character may somehow return to the franchise.

8 Jason’s Motivation Is Weak

Friday the 13th’s silent antagonist has been underdeveloped

The original Friday the 13th movie had a killer with a clear motivation, as Pamela Voorhees sought to avenge her son’s seeming death and kill promiscuous teenagers who she deemed were responsible for it. However, Jason’s motivation was less certain once he emerged deformed from Crystal Lake. After killing Alice Hardy and avenging the death of his mother, he continued on his murderous spree, yet his exact wants and desires remained shrouded in mystery.

While part of the appeal of the Friday the 13th franchise was that Jason was a mindless killer who could not be stopped or reasoned with in any way, this also meant his character had very little room for growth. Without some sort of motivation, it’s impossible for audiences to truly understand Jason. While this may have worked for one or two movies, after 12 films, it’s disappointing that Jason was still so one-dimensional.

7 It’s Packed With Unresolved Storylines

Friday the 13th disregards and ignores previously established narratives

Slasher movies often end with a clue that the violence has not yet concluded, with the door open for a sequel. This was a trope Friday the 13th utilized throughout the franchise, yet the sequels often ignored the loose ends its predecessor had left behind. The most jarring example of this was the ending of A New Beginning. This was the only entry in the series that did not feature a Voorhees as the antagonist and told the story of a grown-up Tommy Jarvis who was left traumatized from his encounter with Jason, whom he killed in The Final Chapter.

The ending of A New Beginning set Tommy (John Shepherd) up as the new villain of the series as he wore Jason’s signature hockey mask and approached Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman) while wielding a knife. However, this development was unpopular with viewers, and rather than address and overcome this issue in the sequel, it was just ignored altogether. Rather than have Tommy take over as the villain, Friday the 13th revived Jason from the grave and turned it into a supernatural franchise.

6 The Inconsistent Supernatural Lore

Friday the 13th’s introduced supernatural elements without rules

The unstoppable force of evil, Jason Voorhees, always found a way to return in the Friday the 13th series. While in later installments, Jason was confirmed to be a supernatural figure, the early films were grounded in a sense of reality as Jason first emerged after a horrific childhood of fending for himself around Crystal Lake and even evaded death as he escaped from the morgue in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. While this may have stretched the limits of believability, it was only in Part VI: Jason Lives that he was brought back from the dead and became supernatural.

This was a natural development and the only logical way to bring Jason back for another movie, yet the problem was the supernatural lore has been extremely inconsistent throughout the Friday the 13th franchise. From passing his spirit on to victims in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday to his sci-fi regenerative powers in Jason X, Jason’s abilities vary greatly from one movie to the next. Without any consistency across the franchise, it’s clear writers and directors have just been making it up randomly as they went along.

5 Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Friday the 13th has remade the same movie again and again

While slasher movies, by their very definition, follow a pre-established pattern of killers hunting down their victims, when rewatching the Friday the 13th series back-to-back, it’s jarring just how much the films repeat themselves. By continually introducing a new set of victims to the area around Camp Crystal Lake, the first four Friday the 13th movies were essentially the same movie repeated with slight alterations. With such a bare-bones antagonist as Jason, the only thing differentiating Part 2 from Part III was that Jason switched his burlap sack for his signature hockey mask.

This may have been acceptable for viewers during the theatrical releases who waited years for the next entry, but to a modern viewer watching the entire series at once, many installments were painfully derivate. Friday the 13th has consistently relied on a stab-and-repeat formula that failed to powerfully add to its series lore in a way that feels meaningful. When a series had 12 separate installments and a whole host of spin-off media, it would be nice if it actually had something new to say.

4 The Genre Changes Can’t Distract From Weak Narratives

Friday the 13th has continually switched up its style

While the earliest entries in the Friday the 13th franchise told classic slasher stories of an unstoppable killer hunting down groups of unsuspecting teens, later entries shook things up with genre changes. These included the supernatural occurrences of a psychic teen in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood or even the sci-fi stylings of Jason X, an installment that moved the action to the year 2455 as Jason had been cryogenically frozen for over 400 years. While this willingness to play with genre made the franchise stand out, it was not enough to overcome weak narratives.

The genre changes of Friday the 13th can be a lot of fun, but it does not change the fact that most movies devolve into a simple chase-and-kill story by the end. Although Friday the 13th has utilized aspects of sci-fi, supernatural, and even meta-comedy styles, these serve as mere distractions from poor narratives that often have very little to say. While Jason going to space may sound like a fun idea on paper, in reality, it played like a franchise that did not know what to do next.

3 It’s a Franchise of Diminishing Returns

Friday the 13th does not get better with later installments

The early Friday the 13th movies were hugely influential on the slasher genre with nefarious scores and some truly terrifying kills. With Jason Voorhees only being properly introduced in the second movie and not sporting his signature hockey mask until entry number three, there’s a lot to be said about the development of the beginnings of this franchise. However, the Friday the 13th movies lost their way over the years, and even the franchise’s biggest supporters would admit this series was one of diminishing returns.

It seems even the people behind Friday the 13th were acutely aware that it was a franchise that was best put out of its misery as both the fourth and ninth films were marketed as the series conclusion. Despite this, The Final Chapter and The Final Friday could not keep Jason buried at Crystal Lake, and he always found a way to return. While the latter part of the series had its moments, 12 movies may have been overkill.

2 Freddie Beats Jason

Friday the 13th has been continually compared to A Nightmare on Elm Street

Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street were two of the biggest slasher franchises of the 1980s, so it makes sense that viewers often compare the two. The debate of who was better, Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, has been raging for decades. This question grew even more pressing with the release of Freddy vs. Jason, a 2003 crossover movie that brought the two murderous figures together as they faced off in an epic battle. While the fight’s winner was left ambiguous in the film, the harsh reality was that Freddy beat Jason in terms of artistic merit.

Although A Nightmare on Elm Street has had its fair share of low points, the truth was it was a more complex and deep series than Friday the 13th. Entries like cult classic Dream Warriors or the metacommentary on the series itself, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, meant Freddy was a far more engaging villain upon rewatch. While this is a subjective issue, and everyone will have their own opinion on who is better, there’s a lot of merit to the idea that Freddy beats Jason from a franchise quality viewpoint.

1 The Remake Was Just A Greatest Hits Run

Friday the 13th’s remake failed to bring anything new to table

After a series filled with increasingly convoluted sequels that saw Jason Voorhees return from the dead countless times, Friday the 13th was finally remade in 2009. This reimagining of the original story switched the focus from Pamela to her son Jason. Rather than be just a retelling of the first movie’s events, it picked different aspects from across the series and melded them into one film. This allowed Jason to start wearing his signature hockey mask and streamline the franchise into a straightforward horror without all the supernatural baggage it had accrued.

While there was plenty of enjoyment about the remake of Friday the 13th, it also did not add anything new to the franchise and instead just rehashed the same gruesome style of killing audiences had already grown used to. This was a chance to fix all the mistakes of the past, but instead, Friday the 13th was happy to just lean into slasher tropes and cliches. This remake did not receive any sequels, and audiences can only hope they will do something new and exciting with Jason’s story next time they decide to revive him for the big screen.

Source: Bloody Disgusting