Considered one of the most iconic horror franchises, Friday the 13th comprises 12 of what are considered some of the best slasher movies, woven together by the classic character Jason Voorhees. Jason was thought to have drowned as a young boy whilst away on a camping trip that went drastically wrong, but decades later, the lake he drowned in becomes the setting for a series of grisly and shocking mass murders.

Update October 13, 2023: It is Friday the 13th, which makes it the perfect time to check out the iconic franchise, so this article has been updated with additional information about the franchise for those looking to dip their toe into Camp Crystal Lake.

Featured or referenced in all the films, Jason is either the killer or the motivation for the killings, and he truly does make one of the most well-known and classic slasher villains. Friday the 13th is famously known not only for the success of the films but also for the hugely popular merchandise and the recurring references to the series. Here are the Friday the 13th films in chronological order and by release date.

How to Watch Friday the 13th Movies in Chronological Order

• Friday the 13th
• Friday the 13th Part 2
• Friday the 13th Part 3
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
• Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
• Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives
• Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood
• Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan
• Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
• Freddy vs. Jason
• Jason X
• Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th

The original Friday the 13th follows the story of a group of counselors who begin working at Camp Crystal Lake, preparing it for a teenage summer camp. However, one mother doesn’t want the camp to go ahead, and we watch hesitantly as she seeks revenge and the camp counselors are picked off one by one, facing a gruesome death.

As one of the first times a film was able to get away with brutally and shockingly murdering innocent teens, the blood and gore of these killings is what set this film off as a brilliant leader of the pack and introduces us to numerous sequels, prequels, and spin-offs.

Friday the 13th Part 2

Following the success of the first movie, fans didn’t have to wait long for Friday the 13th Part 2 to hit our screens, to be subjected to more slashes and jump scares. It brought back three characters from the first movie, including Jason’s crazy, deranged mother and two of the camp counselors who surprisingly managed to survive.

It’s in this movie that viewers are made aware of what actually did happen to Jason and that rather than drowning, he actually swam to shore and lived in the woods, where he spent the entire time plotting his murderous revenge. The flashbacks of his mum haunt Jason, and he begins his journey to avenge her death.

Friday the 13th Part III

Friday the 13th Part III picks up exactly where we left off, with Jason stalking and terrorizing a group of friends staying in a cabin in the woods. Unfortunately, this film didn’t quite hit the spot and the ending wasn’t really anything to write home about, so viewers had to wait for The Final Chapter to see if this had been an attempt at a full circle. For some, though, this was the movie that changed the horror franchise, giving Jason his iconic hockey mask.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Is it really The Final Chapter? Obviously not, as fans know that Jason is never truly dead. Jason is lured back to Crystal Lake for one last good fight in an effort to kill him off forever. With crazy machete-wielding action, the killer is hacked, and his skull cracked open to be defeated in the final fight. However, Jason fans know that he will always find a way to come back and terrorize us.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning - 1985

In an attempt to reinvent the franchise, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning takes place five years after we saw Jason being hacked to death by a machete. Viewers are treated to a few jump scares when they follow the main character, Tommy, who has been haunted by the events of that night and is struggling to move on with his life. We also find out that the person doing the brutal killings in this movie is actually an imposter, meaning that the producers stayed true to the story and kept Jason dead.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Writer Tom McLoughlin wrote a great script for this next chapter. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives delivers some frightening twists and turns, and it received plenty of praise as being the best movie since the original film. We watch as Tommy returns home but continues to deal with hallucinations and nightmares from the years of trauma brought on by Jason.

In order to ensure that Jason will never escape, Tommy heads off to his grave to encase his body with cement. However, just as we expected, things do not go as planned. Will Jason rise to inflict more devastation on the small town?

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

If fans hadn't guessed by now, Jason cannot and will not die. In Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Tina is the character we see haunted by her actions when she uses her telekinetic powers to kill her abusive father at Crystal Lake. In an attempt to help Tina deal with her trauma, her mother takes her back to the lake where she wishes her father could come back.

However, she instead resurrects Jason, who has been chained to the bottom of Crystal Lake, decomposing but still breathing away. On his revival, in true Jason style, he wreaks violent destruction on Tina, her mother, and everyone else attempting to heal.

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

After his revival from the last killing, in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason manages to get aboard a boat full of senior kids on a class trip, which is set for New York City. Once in the Big Apple, he begins to exact his reign of terror across the city. Intended to be the final film, this one unfortunately disappointed at the box office, though the idea of taking a franchise to New York has been influential, from Home Alone 2 to the upcoming Scream 6.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

1993 saw the franchise resurrected with Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, and despite Jason being blown to pieces, it goes to show no matter what you do, he will always find a way to kill.

His spirit lives on in the body of a coroner, which is a vessel now doing his dirty work. We watch as Jason murders more people, possessing their bodies and collecting their souls, traumatizing more towns as he travels through. Despite being dragged into hell at the end of the movie, he still manages to come back for the next film.

Freddy vs. Jason

Freddy vs. Jason sees Jason pitted against Freddy Krueger, the killer from The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. We watch as Freddy uses Jason to assault fear into the hearts of the people of Springwood, which makes it easier for Freddy to come back and haunt their dreams. However, we know Jason just can’t stop himself and ends up killing Freddy’s potential victims.

Viewers are put on the edge of their seats as, eventually the two killers battle, and we wait to see who will come out alive. The idea of pitting iconic villains against each other became influential with later films like Alien vs. Predator.

Jason X

Despite being released in 2002, Jason X is the last film in the original timeline. It takes place in 2455. Taking place in space and in the future, Jason was captured by a scientist for the government in 2010 (about seven years aftere his fight with Freddy Krueger), who decide that cryonic suspension is the only way to stop Jason. After killing all the army and guards who had been watching over him, Rowan manages to lure Jason into the cryo-chamber, but they both become frozen in the tank after Jason ruptures it.

A team of students studying Earth discover Jason's body over 400 years later and take him up into space. After being thawed, we watch as he exacts death on everyone aboard the spacecraft. Although apparently killed, he is, of course, as usual, resurrected; this time, it's via nanotechnology. As a cyborg version of himself is ejected into space, he is incinerated by Earth Two’s atmosphere, and we see his mask falling to the bottom of the lake. It might take until 2455, but it looks like Jason is finally dead.

Friday the 13th (2009)

Since it is a reboot, Friday the 13th stands apart from the main timeline of events told in the original series. The film, in many ways, is a combination of plotlines and storylines from the first four films in the franchise. The story of Jason's mom is told briefly at the beginning, following an opening sequence with Jason wearing a bag on his head like in Part 2, with the main portion of the film with him haunting a particular group wearing his trademark hockey mask.

Franchise Future

A series titled Crystal Lake was announced on October 2022, which will act as a prequel to the franchise. Camp Crystal Lake is the infamous camp where the first murders took place. The A24 series is set to be aired sometime in 2024 on Peacock. Actor Adrienne King, who played the role of Alice Hardy in the original movie, is set to return to the franchise in this series, but we don't know which role she will play yet.

It was also revealed by writer Jeff Locker, along with his coworkers Sean Cunningham and Jeremy Weiss, who have pitched a new Friday the 13th movie idea that could come to life pretty soon. The project is either envisioned as a reboot of the franchise or a legacy sequel similar to recent films like 2018's Halloween or 2022's Scream.

How to Watch Friday the 13th Movies by Release Date

The Friday the 13th franchise is a long franchise that stretches as far back as the 1980s. Worth noting that of the twelve films in the Friday the 13th franchise, only five have ever opened on Friday the 13th. Also, despite being a horror franchise and Jason being a Halloween icon, the series has never released a movie in the month of October.