After all these years and so many sequels, it can be hard to remember what really happened
in all the Friday the 13th movies.
Let's take a deep dive into Crystal Lake and map out the entire gruesome story.
What's the worst that can happen?
In the original Friday the 13th, audiences first heard the sad, sinister story of young
Jason Voorhees.
He drowned at Camp Crystal Lake in 1958, after two counselors took their eyes off the boy
to go have some sexy-time.
Those two counselors were murdered, and the camp was subsequently shuttered.
The camp reopens two decades later, but it still has a reputation for murder and mayhem
— and rightly so.
Meet Annie, freshly hired as a camp counselor.
She hitchhikes to Crystal Lake, opting to ignore the warnings of Crazy Ralph, a generic
townie who asks if she's going to "Camp Blood."
"You'll never come back again."
"Oh shut up Ralph."
"It's got a death curse!"
But maybe Crazy Ralph isn't so crazy after all.
Annie is chased through the woods by an unseen assailant and brutally murdered… and she's
just one of several counselors to meet a grisly end.
It turns out Jason Voorhees isn't the killer in the first installment.
The murderer is his mom Pamela, who doesn't want the camp reopened because of her son's
death.
Twenty years of grief have curdled into madness, and Mrs. Voorhees hears her son's voice urging
her to kill.
Fortunately, an intrepid camp counselor named Alice decapitates Pamela Voorhees, and that's
the end of this particular bad mama.
At the end of the film, Alice has a nightmare in which she's attacked by the rotting corpse
of young Jason Voorhees.
It's surely one of the greatest jump-scares of all time...
Alice swears it wasn't a dream…but police say they never found a body.
Strange, isn't it?
Friday the 13th Part 2 kicks off two months after the events of the first film.
We learn that Alice is still haunted by the night she killed Pamela Voorhees.
Little does she know that Jason is still alive — and he's been living out in the woods.
Jason tracks down Alice and totally kills her… but not before stashing Mrs. Voorhees'
head in the fridge.
As you might already know, Jason's trademark hockey mask doesn't make an appearance until
the third installment of the franchise.
Instead, we get Sackcloth Jason —- and here's how that plays out:
"Sandra?"
This time, Jason is going after a whole bunch of camp counselors in training.
"It's great to have you all here at our new counselor training center."
Clearly the legend of Jason Voorhees has grown over the years — which we learn during a
bone-chilling exposition dump, courtesy of head counselor Paul.
"I'm going to give it to you straight about Jason.
His body was never recovered from the lake after he drowned."
Jason does what he does best, using a variety of weapons including a hammer, a spear, and
a machete.
He dispassionately stalks and murders camp counselors… until only Ginny is left.
She eventually finds Jason's shrine to his mom, with her decapitated head front and center.
To elude Jason, Ginny pretends to be Pamela Voorhees by putting on her old pullover and
stealing her hairstyle.
He doesn't fall for it — because who would?
"It's all done, Jason.
You've done your job well.
Mommy is pleased."
After Ginny conquers Jason, she hobbles back to her cabin to decompress.
She soon learns that a cute little dog named Muffin survived the whole ordeal.
Friday the 13th Part 3 is distinguished by two major game-changers.
It's the first time Jason shows off his iconic hockey mask, and it's the first entry in which
he isn't expressly terrorizing a campground.
Meet Chris.
Years before, she was attacked by a masked figure in the woods near her home on Crystal
Lake.
Chris tries to confront her trauma by returning to the scene, hoping it will help her to heal.
She decides to bring a few friends along for the ride... because why not make it a party?
"I shouldn't have come back here so soon."
"Don't let it get to you.
Relax.
Enjoy the weekend."
Some of Chris' friends antagonize a bunch of scary bikers, who retaliate by trying to
burn down her barn.
That's when we learn that a wounded Jason had been hiding in there.
He immediately starts killing everyone.
In their final confrontation, Jason reveals his face to Chris — and it turns out he's
the one who stalked her all those years ago.
She finally dispatches him with an axe to the head.
And here's an interesting factoid for you: The 1982 film was originally released in 3D
like several other horror sequels from the era... including the awful Jaws 3D, and the
Satanic snoozefest Amityville 3D.
Now we arrive at Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.
Following his apparent death in Friday the 13th Part 3, Jason is taken to the Higgins
Haven morgue... where he quickly proves he's not quite dead.
He immediately kills a few staffers, just to keep his hand in.
Soon enough, Crystal Lake beckons, and Jason — much like Lassie — makes his way back
home.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter introduces audiences to Tommy, played by Corey Feldman,
and his sister Trish, played by Kimberly Beck.
They're both visiting their Crystal Lake summer home.
They soon meet a rowdy group of high schoolers hanging out in a neighboring house for the
weekend.
Tommy is a quirky kid obsessed with creature features, and he even makes his own monster
masks, as you can see.
Jason's killing spree inevitably brings him to Tommy and Trish's house — and the quick-thinking
Tommy fights back using everything he knows about Jason Voorhees.
He shaves his head and covers his face with white powder, trying to remind the masked
killer of himself at a young age.
"Remember me, Jason?
Jason, don't you remember?"
This gives Trish a chance to use Jason's machete against him… and his mask falls off to reveal
his increasingly monstrous face.
In the end, Jason is seemingly killed, and Tommy looks into the camera with an expression
that suggests he might never recover.
Meanwhile, the Friday the 13th franchise bounced back soon enough.
In Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, we learn that Tommy Jarvis was indeed psychologically
scarred by his encounter with Jason.
As you can see, the experience has totally changed him.
In fact, the character is played by a different actor: John Shepard.
Five years after the events of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Tommy still suffers
from severe post-traumatic stress, experiencing flashbacks and extreme anxiety.
As you can see, he's quite the disturbed young man:
"Yo man!"
Travis is admitted into a rural treatment facility… one that's literally full of farm
animals.
The staff at Pinehurst Halfway House hopes to help the young man get a better handle
on his past.
And as you can see, this is a rare sort of treatment facility that lets patients keep
sharps at the ready.
Case in point: On Tommy's first day, patients Vic and Joey get into a deadly disagreement...
"... um, to be perfectly honest with you, I never really chopped wood before, but it
certainly looks like fun—" "LEAVE ME ALONE!!"
Before you know it, Vic murders poor Joey with his trusty axe.
Paramedics rush to the scene.
"Is there someone we should notify?"
"As far as I know, there's no immediate family."
Suddenly employees and patients are getting killed by a maniac in a hockey mask — and
everyone thinks Jason is back.
But something here doesn't add up.
For one thing, the killer's hockey mask has blue stripes instead of Jason's signature
red.
Could this be a clue that the killer isn't who he appears to be?
Could troubled Tommy be the culprit?
We eventually learn that Roy — one of the paramedics that collected poor Joey's corpse
— was secretly the boy's father.
Turns out Roy had a psychotic break after his son's death and decided to become a professional
copycat killer.
"Roy was a real loner.
Never talked much.
Not even to the other paramedics…"
Well, Tommy Jarvis just couldn't leave well enough alone.
At the start of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, the troubled young man takes a close
friend to Jason's grave in Crystal Lake.
Notice that Tommy is once again played by a different actor — Thom Matthews this time.
Once they find the grave, they dig it up and shove a metal rod into Jason's rotting corpse.
That's when lightning suddenly strikes the rod, instantly reviving Jason.
The undead killer attacks Tommy and kills his up-for-anything friend.
Tommy narrowly escapes with his life.
Of course, the police don't believe Tommy's story because of his past mental health issues.
"No, wait, you gotta listen to me!
Jason's coming and he's after me!"
The sheriff's daughter Megan is the only one who believes Tommy, and she decides to help
him out.
Jason quickly makes it back to the place where he originally died… and plenty of children
are already there for summer camp.
Jason scares the kids, but for some reason, he doesn't actually hurt any of them.
Meanwhile, he gleefuly kills every adult and teenager within a five-mile radius.
Thankfully, Tommy eventually wraps Jason in some chains and drowns him.
Or does he?
In Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, we're introduced to the talented Tina Shepard.
She's your average American girl with telekinesis — and we learn that she accidentally killed
her father by drowning him in Crystal Lake.
Tina is understandably traumatized by the death of her father.
Many years later, Tina's sketchy therapist Dr. Crews pressures her into returning to
Crystal Lake to confront her fears… or so he says.
What he's really trying to do is understand the scope of Tina's powers by using Crystal
Lake as a trigger.
She feels tremendous grief when she stands in the spot where her father drowned… and
she also senses a dark presence.
It's Jason, and he finally manages to break free from his chains.
Needless to say, the killings begin again...
Meanwhile, a bunch of teens are preparing for the world's wackest birthday party.
"Party hasn't even started yet, and already this place looks like closing time at the
Stock Exchange."
"Russ, honey, we'll clean it up, I promise."
"Yeah, chill out."
Tina starts getting cozy with hunky Nick, and Jason basically kills everyone.
In the film's finale, Tina has an epic showdown with Jason — with her telekinetic powers
on full display.
Look, she can even move couches with her mind.
She unmasks Jason and discovers that he's really let himself go.
Oh, and then the ghost of Tina's father helps chain Jason to the bottom of the lake... since
that worked so well the last time.
Tina and Nick both survive.
"Where's Jason?"
"We took care of him."
Important note: The New Blood is the film that features the notorious sleeping bag murder.
And then… this happened.
The first half of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan takes place on a cruise
ship — and we watch proudly as Crystal Lake's graduating seniors embark on a class trip
to the Big Apple.
Little do they know that the anchor of another boat has come into contact with some ominous
underwater wires.
An electrical current zaps Jason's chains and reanimates him again.
He eventually climbs aboard the cruise ship in broad daylight and starts killing a bunch
of recent high school graduates.
To escape all the unthinkable horror, a handful of survivors take a raft to Manhattan's shore…
but they fail to realize that Jason has followed them.
And how does he fare in the big city?
Pretty well, actually.
"Yo man, It's cool man, you're cool."
In the end, final girl Rennie faces off with Jason deep within the New York sewer system...
and she eventually gets her hands on some extremely toxic waste.
The film ends with Jason getting hammered by even more toxic gunk, which presumably
kills him.
In the final scene, Rennie enjoys New York with her boyfriend Sean and cute little dog
Toby.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday isn't the final entry in the series… but it's
quite possibly the weirdest.
The trouble begins when the FBI intercepts Jason on his way back to Crystal Lake, killing
him for the millionth time.
Things get especially complicated when a medical examiner decides to take a bite out of Jason's
still-beating heart.
Soon enough, some sort of Spirit Jason starts taking over people's bodies... and all hell
breaks loose.
Jason Goes to Hell introduces some new supernatural elements to the franchise.
For instance, we learn that only a member of Jason's bloodline can kill him, and only
if they're armed with a special dagger.
Jason's half-niece Jessica soon rises to the task — and stabs Jason with the magic blade.
In the end, Jason's mask is all that remains… until Freddy Krueger's claws emerge from the
ground to drag the mask down to hell.
Meanwhile, the Friday the 13th franchise remained up here on Earth.
Much like the rest of us, Jason X tries to pretend Jason Goes to Hell never happened.
The 2001 film takes place in deep space and many years into the future.
The planet Earth has been ravaged by overpopulation, war, and climate change.
Scientists from the artlessly named Earth 2 are on a field trip to take samples.
They soon discover the cryogenically frozen Jason inside the Crystal Lake Research Facility
— and they decide it's a great idea to bring his body onto their ship.
Jason soon thaws out, jumpstarting a highly convoluted plot that draws heavily from Alien
and the Terminator series.
He obligatorily kills almost every member of the crew, at one point even battling an
android named KM 15.
She wounds and almost kills Jason — but as usual, he just won't die.
"You gotta be kidding me."
Freddy vs. Jason was an epic monster mashup that combined two competing franchises.
The story finds A Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger in quite a pickle: He's lost
a great deal of his power... because Springwood residents just aren't afraid of him like they
used to be.
"Not strong enough yet."
So he hatches the perfect plan.
Back in Hell, Freddy poses as Pamela Voorhees and awakens Jason.
"You are like a big stupid dog who can't stop eating… even though your master said you
had enough!"
Jason is supposed to remind the people of Springwood that Freddy is still a force to
be reckoned with — go ahead and call it the ultimate PR nightmare.
"No..."
But things don't go as planned: Jason winds up simply killing his prey instead of luring
them to Freddy.
The teenagers at the center of the story come up with a confusing plan of their own: They
want to drag Freddy out of hell and back into reality so Jason can definitively kill him.
The final confrontation finds Freddy loading up on one-liners while Jason maintains his
silent, singular focus.
In the end, Freddy gets decapitated by Jason... but his severed head later gives the audience
a wink.
What a coy little minx.
The 2009 Friday the 13th reboot tried to bring the franchise back from the dead.
Once again, young Jason witnesses his mom get decapitated by a desperate camp counselor.
Decades later, a group of youngsters head to Crystal Lake to search for an illegal pot
farm.
Jason stalks and kills them all — except for young Whitney.
He kidnaps her because he thinks she looks a lot like his dear dead mom.
Six weeks later, Whitney's brother Clay is still looking for his missing sister.
He goes door to door and eventually finds Jason, who's been busy racking up more victims.
Clay ultimately frees his sister and they team up to kill the sick jerk once and for
all.
Clay dumps Jason's body into the lake, but at the very last minute, the unstoppable maniac
jumps up and grabs Whitney.
Despite the cliffhanger ending, this is the last we've seen of Jason on the silver screen.
For now, anyway...
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