Friday the 13th: Ranked from Favorite to Least Favorite

For about thirty years, this hasn't been at the top of the list as my favorite but for the last ten years my appreciation for it has risen. You hear of its weak final girl and killer, but I think it has a setting that is utilized to the fullest, characters that are developed into likeable cats, Manfredini's score at its freshest, the bitchin' end theme and Carrie-inspired jump scare that closes the film just right. Its weakness to me is actually its lack of bite in the kills besides the classics like the arrowhead and knife violence to throats and potent "after the fact" body mutilation. I think Alice is a fresh-faced sweetheart who must defend herself against a psycho unexpectedly different than anticipated. Off with her head! The East Coast sylvan vibe and rural small town feel is good stuff. It could very well sink down the list again, but as of now the first makes it to the top.

This has been my favorite Friday film probably since I started watching them. Part 6 has the significance of being the first of the franchise I watched, but Part 4 left a lasting impact that continued to bring me back time and again to the franchise. It has my favorite Jason portrayal in Ted White who is active and ferocious. The great face damage to Jason at the end shows Savini's work in its prime when he was heavily sought after. Crispin Glover with his dance and quirky character, Corey Feldman before The Goonies getting a kick out of a couple making out, Aronson's hot bod, a romance (along with Barton's face) crushed, twin magic, and a rad opening sequence as director Zito follows right behind the previous film as the police and paramedics are on the scene doing "crime scene cleanup" with the silence after the activity ends leaving a chilling finality to Higgin's property as a devastated area Jason left in his wake. It has all these individual moments that attach to me with great nostalgia.

I've come to this point after just watching them that Parts 2 and 3 are kind of at the same level now with me in how I favor them. Part 2 has my favorite final girl of the franchise in Ginny, Amy Steele, and I like the fireside story on Jason by Paul which explains his possible presence in this film, even if it all could be scrutinized to the hilt. I think the cast is fun--camp counseling center to train them for summer camps throughout their state, I assume--and Miner maintains Cunningham's approach and visual style, not straying from the formula that works too much. Not as violent as the next Miner film, and suffers from rather tame kills hurts this one, but I like the continuation of what made it work: the setting is once again a character unto itself, and Jason just kind of substitutes for his mom, but instead is rocking the whole burlap sack mask/hillbilly hick garb, with a shack deeper in the woods. The Jason-through-the-window jump scare on Ginny mines the original's shock-to-the-senses jolt, which I think does still hold its own. It doesn't have Manfredini's melody or Alice in a boat on the lake, though. Paul's fate, left a bit ambiguous, is the stuff of fan theory legend.