Every time Friday the 13th comes around, I get excited because I know it is time to dust off the Friday the 13th knowledge and share it on the world. But this time there are 3 Friday the 13th’s on the calendar and I already did some really great posts and I have been racking my brain to figure out something to write about.
This time I reached out on Facebook and my fellow Horror Professor, Frankie of Danny Greene(a Hardcore Metal Band) pointed out an interesting fact about Friday the 13th 2, 3 and Final Chapter. He also stated that most people think each film is a new summer and, I know they are not. With that it made sense, I did the body count, I did the worst to first and why not a a timeline. Also, if you haven’t check it, check out Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th. This will only include the Paramount films, starting with Friday the 13th and go all the way to Friday the 13th part VIII Jason Take Manhattan. Why? Well I ask you, where does Jason Goes to Hell fit? Where does Freddy vs Jason Fit? We can all agree that Jason X would be at the end. No, I am considering Jason Goes to Hell and Freddy vs Jason, stand alone films.
Just a reminder, these are some of the past Friday the 13th posts.
I was debating on starting all the way from the beginning, when Pamela Voorhees was born and according to a tombstone in the Final Chapter, which leads me to 1979, this date is also on the tombstone for when she died. But, the original murders happened in 1958.
Summer 1958 – Prologue – Friday the 13th (1980)
Pamela Voorhees has her revenge after her son drown the year before, so it’d be 1957 and the following year she killed the counselors. Then over the years others tried to open the camp, but different things happened over the years, unexplained fires.
1962
There would be an attempt to re-open the camp, but there was a case of bad water. Eventually the camp comes to be regarded by locals as having a “death curse”, well crazy Ralph and Camp Crystal Lake is nicknamed “Camp Blood”. The trucker who gave Anne a ride really sets up the history for Camp Blood.
June 13, 1979 – Friday the 13th (1980)
The events of the first film take place, because spoiler alert, Pamela Voorhees dies at the end of the film and if she dies at the end of the film, that means the first film takes place…in 1979.
It takes place all in one night, Steve Christy is sinking his money into renovating the camp to re-open the camp, after it had been closed for 20 years.
That night Mrs. Voorhees killed nearly everyone, except Alice. Alice was able to survive and kill Mrs. Voorhees.
The next morning Alice sits in a canoe after she survived the night. The police show up and the young boy Jason pops out of the water and pulls her in. The movie should have ended there, but she wakes up in the hospital and talks about the little boy, Jason. But it turned out to be a dream and Alice just seems crazy and that is fine, I still love the film overall. But in talking to friends, Frankie, things it would have been great if the film ended with Jason and adult Jason jumping out of the water and pulling Alice in with him. That would be a great way to end the film and Alice would not have had to be in the second. Although, if that were the case the rest of the series would be different.
Here is the problem, the film takes place in 1979, Jason should be 32 at this point, it is 22 years after he drown in the lake. So it should have been an adult Jason. I have a theory that Alice had a shock nightmare, she had just learned about Jason drowning in the lake from his mother. She just lost her friends and she killed someone, she had to be in shock. Not to mention the police did not find any boy.
Later, Jason would visit Alice and kill her in her apartment.
Summer 1982 – Friday the 13th part 3 (1982)
Chris Higgins disappears into the woods after her parents argue, she is attacked by Jason, who has no burlap mask or no mask at all, he also looks nothing like he does in part 2, more on that later.
July 13th 1984 – Friday the 13th part 2 (1981)
Paul Holt opens a camp counselor training program on Crystal Lake and now Jason does not seem to like this so, he kills a bunch of them. He also finally kills Crazy Ralph, you know,“It’s got a death curse”.
In this film, it is strange, Jason is wearing a burlap sack over his head, which is probably all he could find to cover his messed up face. He also has hair, but wait, I will get to that later.
Some of the counselor’s survived the night because they went out drinking, but when Paul and Ginny come back the see the carnage and nearly fall victim. Ginny gets crafty when she stumbles on Jason’s shack and finds a shrine to his mother. She puts on the sweater and convinces Jason that she is his mother, the escapes.
Jason does come back to get them, but fails. The next morning Ginny is being taken away by an ambulance and Paul is nowhere to be found. What happened to Paul?
July 14th 1984 – Friday the 13th part 3 3D (1982)
In the aftermath of Friday the 13th, Chris Higgins returns to Crystal Lake with some friends. There are conflicting reports that everything in this film takes place on Friday the 13th and the events of part 2 take place on the 12th. The two films take place one day after the next. It would make sense to me that Chris and her friends go up on a Saturday and I guess Paul Holt’s training camp started on a Thursday.
So, Chris returns with her friends, I am calling it Saturday the 14th. Jason moves his way to that part of the lake, Crystal Lake is huge. He finds and kills her friends, including Shelley the prankster. Thanks to Shelley, Jason gets his signature hockey mask and can now hide his hideous face. The terrible thing is Chris hits Jason in the head with an ax, damaging the mask. But it seems to kill Jason.
By the end of the film, Chris escapes to the lake, very much like Alice, but is pulled in by Mrs. Voorhees rotting body, with her head on her shoulders. Before she is pulled under, she sees Jason in the house, with no mask and he rushes towards her. But, this is a dream as Chris is seen being taken away by the police and Jason’s body is still laying in the barn with the ax in his head.
So Jason’s appearance goes from a frumpy looking, regular sized guy to a hulking bald mongoloid. What happened within the 24 hours. Regardless of which film takes place on Friday the 13th, they happen back to back.
Chris gets carted off to a crazy home and the film ends with Jason laying in the barn, in the day time.
July 14th 1984 – Friday the 13th the Final Chapter (1984)
The film opens where part 3 left off. The only thing, Jason is still laying in the barn and it is night. They left him in the bard for a long time. He is taken to the local hospital/morgue and he kills some people and escapes.
July 15th 1984 – Friday the 13th the Final Chapter (1984)
So, it is Sunday the 15th now and Jason is not finished. It is presumed that since the opening of the Final Chapter picks up right after part 3, it is the same day. If so, Jason’s killing spree from the 3 films is 35, he kills 35 people in 3 days.
These teenagers rent a house that is next to the Jarvis house in the woods near Crystal Lake. The teens make friends with a couple of twins and they party. Meanwhile, Tommy Jarvis and his sister Trish meet with Rob Deir who is looking for Jason, after word his sister was killed by Jason, from who?
Jason kills all the teens in the house and the twins, these some of the most gruesome deaths in the series. But Tommy and Trish are able to stop Jason, more on that in a second. What happened to their mother, Mrs. Jarvis, well she died and in a cut scene her body is found in a bath tub. Back to Tommy and Trish, Trish finds the teenagers bodies and is discovered by Jason, he gives chase to her house. Tommy is waiting, Tommy is a 10 year old boy, he shaves his head to look more like Jason and actually seems to convince Jason. Jason is then impaled by his own Machete and falls to the ground and his head slides down the blade.
At this point, Tommy picks up the Machete and hits Jason over and over, repeating the word, “DIE” and we hear Trish yell out, “Tommy”. Then at the end of the film we see Tommy hug Trish as he looks into the camera.
This was supposed to be the final chapter and we all know there were 8 more films to come. But part 2 of this series will pick back up March 13th the next Friday the 13th. It will follow the timeline and go from A New Beginning all the way to Jason Takes Manhattan.
But before I go, I am sure everyone who is familiar with the series knows what happens next. But I had a theory of what they wanted to do, but couldn’t because of contractual obligations with Corey Feldman. He was set to be in the Goonies and only returned for a single scene that was filmed the back yard of a producer, I believe.
But I believe, it would have been an interesting change if Corey Feldman became the killer, following in Jason’s footsteps. But of course that did not happen and it was a huge missed opportunity.
Thanks for reading my break down of the first 4 films in the Friday the 13th series. It may not be 100 percent accurate, but it has to be close. I like to think of the Friday the 13th to have a couple of trilogies you could watch together. The original film is a stand alone film, since it takes place 5 years prior. Part 2, Part 3 and the Final Chapter could be looked at as a trilogy. To take it a step further, Final Chapter, A New Beginning and Jason Lives is the Tommy Jarvis trilogy, but after that, the rest of the films are stand alone, even if they mostly pick up after each film. We will complete this post after we take short break.
I think it is time for a break, since this a long post…how about some music!
Welcome back!
But moving on there are another 4 movies to cover. Of course we will not touch the remake as it really does not fall into the timeline as it is a remake. Although, I will say one thing about the remake, it really feels like it could fit somewhere into the series. Really between any of the sequels you could fit a movie in, or so it seems.
Well, I guess we should move on the Friday the 13th part V: a New Beginning. I thought about whether or not to even add this, but in doing this post, I realize a New Beginning was a vital part of the series. This was the first time something different since part 2. The story follows Tommy Jarvis and is the middle film of the “Tommy Jarvis Trilogy”.
1984
Tommy and Trish have “killed” Jason and he is dead, right?
Though it is not mentioned the 5th film, for the years following Crystal Lake, changed its name to Forrest Green, as it tried to get away from the Jason Voorhees killing spree. Not to mention a few people did visit the lake, Tina Sheppard and her family had a cabin and Tina killed her father, we will get to that later. Also, Rennie Wickham was being taught to swim in Crystal Lake in this time. Here is the thing, those event take place
1990 – Friday the 13th V: A New Beginning (1985)
Tommy Jarvis, years after he killed Jason is sent to a half way house, why back to Crystal Lake, I do not know. But by this time Tommy is now 17 and most of us expected Tommy to be the next Jason and this would not be the case. Anyone who has seen the film, know it was a copycat named Roy Burns. His son happened to be at the halfway house Tommy had been brought to, Roy ended up killing 17 people.
This all stems from his crazy son being killed by Vic. Roy sees his son Joey dead over a candy bar and uses Jason’s history to go on a killing rampage. At the end of the movie we see Tommy use Roy’s mask and the film ends.
1991 – Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives (1986)
One year later, Tommy Jarvis is driving back to Forest Green to make sure Jason is dead once and for all. Somehow he now has the original mask, who gave that to him and what happened to Roy’s mask? There also is the question of was Jason buried or was he cremated? Well it seems the events of part 5 were pretty much forgotten.
So in trying to burn the remains of Jason, Tommy opens his casket and in anger begins to plunge a part of the gate into his chest. When a lightening storm comes and just like Frankenstein, brings Jason back to life. He takes his mask, that Tommy brought him, on and punched the heart right out of Tommy’s friend’s chest. Tommy leaves and alerts Sheriff Garris.
Over the time of Part VI, Jason Lives he kills 18 and there is no question who is killing all the people. The people of Crystal Lake should thank Tommy Jarvis for bringing him back. Although he does put him in the lake, but that was not enough of course. Tommy had such a good idea by chaining him to a rock and putting him in the lake, so he would wait there.
1992 – 2000
Jason would wait in the lake for many years, ten years in fact. Director of Friday the 13th part VII, John Carl Buechler has stated multiple times that Jason spent ten years underwater before his movie. So if that is the case we have to jump to, oddly enough 2001. Of course the next movie was made in 1988. Also we learn in part VII and part VIII that Tina Sheppard and Rennie Wickham have visited the lake, more on them soon.
2001 – Friday the 13th VII: the New Blood (1988)
Tina Sheppard returns to Crystal Lake with her mother and Dr. Crews (bad news Crews). She also meets a group of teens staying in the house next door, celebrating a friend’s birthday. Of course earlier after Jason Lives, Tina of course ran out of the cabin in and into a boat. This was because her father was beating her mother. She kills her father with her powers. This probably happened shortly after Jason Lives. Tina is 16 in the film and she seemed to be 8 or so when her father died. So I guess that would be 1993?
Under stress from Dr. Crews, Tina goes to the lake and tries to resurrect her father. Of course we know what happened during the events of the New Blood with Tina and Jason’s showdown. It was the best part of the entire film and probably in Kane Hodder’s career. So it looks like Jason was under water for 10 years and then was brought back thanks to Tina and her telekinesis. Then she and her father send him back to a “watery grave”.
2002 – Friday the 13th part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Jason is once again resurrected by lightening, rather electricity and after killing two teens on a boat on Crystal Lake, it somehow reaches the ocean. With that a graduating class is going to New York via the S.S. Lazarus and we meet Rennie, who I mentioned before. She is going with the class on the cruise despite her uncle urging her not to go. She should have listened. Although, years earlier he did try to teach her to swim at Crystal Lake, teasing her about drowning like the little boy Jason. What a jerk!
Jason boards the S.S. Lazarus and kills nearly everyone aboard. Of course his official kill count is a lot smaller, because the ship sinks and we cannot credit all of that others who died to Jason. Everyone who survived the ship sinking makes way to New York City, as does Jason. For some reason, there are millions of people he can kill, he decided to chase the same people through the city. He could have truly taken Manhattan in a different way.
So, Rennie and Sean are able to escape Jason and move on to go see the Statue of Liberty…what? Yeah, that is stupid, not to mention Jason is reverted back to a child by toxic waste, also he is no longer deformed.
That is it for the Friday the 13th timeline. It is hard to place all of this considering, everything is made in the 1980s and there is no official timeline, which would actually make a great book. But who would do it, there is no definitive master of Friday the 13th. I would do it, but my timeline could be a little off. We would need to know character ages, that would help a ton, especially Tommy Jarvis. The book adaptation of Jason Lives gives us a lot of good information as does the book for part II. As far as I am concerned, we have made it from 1979 to 2002.
This is the best I could do and I am not even finished. Happy Friday the 13th, which films will you be watching tonight?
