The Complete Friday the 13th Timeline, From Crystal Lake to Jason X

The one that started it all, as they say. Spawned in the late 1970s in response to the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween, director Sean S. Cunningham and writer Victor Miller began filming Friday the 13th in 1979, hoping to sell it to distributors. Paramount and Warner Bros. became involved in the bidding, with domestic and international distribution split between them. Released on May 9, 1980, it grossed almost $60 million worldwide, and a franchise was born.

The film follows a group of camp counsellors, including a young Kevin Bacon, as Camp Crystal Lake prepares to reopen following the supposed drowning of Jason in 1957 and the murders of two counsellors the following year. Soon, the new staff begin dying at the hands of Jason’s mother, Pamela, who blames them for her son’s death. Then comes that unforgettable lake scene, suggesting Jason himself may still be out there.

Set five years after the first film, Friday the 13th Part 2 was initially conceived as part of an anthology rather than a direct sequel. However, given the original’s success, Paramount wanted to capitalise. Director Sean S. Cunningham and writer Victor Miller were no longer involved, so producer Steve Miner took the helm, returning for Part III, too.

In the sequel, a new group of counsellors gather at a training centre near the now-abandoned Crystal Lake. Despite being warned not to venture into the surrounding area, they soon find themselves targeted by a mysterious figure: Jason. Wearing a sack rather than his iconic hockey mask, he begins slaughtering anyone who comes near, with his mother’s decapitated head still serving as a gruesome shrine. Although the film continued the franchise’s success, it grossed roughly half as much as its predecessor worldwide.

An immediate sequel, Part III follows another group of youngsters spending a weekend at a secluded property near Crystal Lake. Jason is still on the warpath, nursing the injuries sustained in the previous instalment. Before long, he begins his latest rampage through the surrounding woods.

One of the first films to embrace the 3D fad, Part III features elaborate and inventive deaths designed to exploit the technology, although the gimmick does not always land as intended. Nevertheless, the film proved more successful than its predecessor. More importantly, this is where Jason acquires his legendary hockey mask, completing the look that would become the franchise’s trademark. It also became the first film to knock E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial off the top of the US box-office.

After mixed responses and behind-the-scenes issues, Part 4 was definitively subtitled The Final Chapter, with Paramount and producer Frank Mancuso Jr. determined to bring the franchise to an end. Famous last words, of course, but this instalment is widely regarded as one of the series’ strongest entries.

Picking up shortly after the previous film, Jason is taken to a hospital morgue, but it is not long before he is revived and out for blood once more. Heading back towards Crystal Lake, he targets a group of teenagers staying at a nearby holiday home, as well as the Jarvis family living close by. Young Tommy Jarvis, played by Corey Feldman, ultimately helps bring Jason down, or so everyone thinks. With box-office receipts up and fans seemingly happy, surely there was room for just one more?

Picking up several years after Jason’s apparent death, A New Beginning finds Tommy Jarvis still struggling with the psychological scars of his encounters with the killer. Soon, a series of murders begins, and Jason seemingly rises from the grave to continue his reign of terror. Or has he?

In a break from tradition, it transpires that the killings are being carried out by Roy Burns, a copycat killer seeking vengeance for his son’s murder. Using a hockey mask and Jason-inspired methods, he continues the slaughter. However, the ending suggests Tommy himself may be about to adopt Jason’s identity. Following fan backlash, the idea was abandoned.

He’s alive! The franchise was beginning to feel a little strained following Part 5 and its controversial attempt to pass the killer’s mantle to someone new. A course correction was needed, but how would Jason be resurrected? Surely things had jumped the shark by now? Nonsense. Let’s bring him back with a bolt of lightning and make him practically supernatural.

Despite continued reservations about the series, Part VI earned some of the franchise’s strongest reviews, with critics and fans praising its new aesthetic, self-referential humour and fourth-wall-breaking touches. It is the A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors of the franchise: the secret fan favourite. With Tommy Jarvis returning to confront his old nemesis, Jason Lives gave the series a welcome shot in the arm.

Following the positivity surrounding its predecessor, Paramount Pictures wanted The New Blood to be of a “higher quality” than audiences had come to expect. Indeed, one producer reportedly wanted Federico Fellini to direct. It never came to pass, but the film settled on an intriguing idea: what if Jason’s latest adversary possessed telekinetic powers?

The concept stemmed partly from an abandoned attempt to pit Jason against Freddy Krueger, with New Line Cinema and the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise still riding high and unable to agree on a deal. Enter Tina, a young woman troubled by her past but gifted with remarkable psychic abilities. Think Jason vs. Carrie, if you will.

Another year, another accidental resurrection of our jewel in the crown. This time, Jason finds himself taking Manhattan aboard a boat carrying graduating students on their way to New York. What are the odds?

Strangely, despite the title promising a full-scale invasion of Manhattan, relatively little of the film actually takes place in the city. Eventually, the survivors reach the Big Apple, with Jason pursuing them through its streets, subways and sewers as he attempts to finish the job. The film was not a huge success, and it marked the end of an era: the last Friday the 13th instalment released by Paramount Pictures before the franchise rights passed to New Line Cinema in 1993.

Following the conclusion of its predecessor, which saw Jason apparently drowning in New York’s sewer, the franchise changed hands, with New Line Cinema taking over. Original director Sean S. Cunningham returned with an idea to send Jason to Hell once and for all.

In this new chapter, Jason must possess other people to continue killing, moving between human hosts as the film radically changes the established mythology. His ability to do so is linked to his family bloodline, introducing a supernatural dimension to proceedings. Eventually, Jason is dragged into Hell by countless hands reaching up from the ground. His hockey mask is all that remains on Earth, until another hand pulls it underground. Whose hand? Freddy Krueger’s, of course.

Welcome to the future. Well, 2008, to be exact, when Jason is captured by the US government at the Crystal Lake Research Facility. Scientists spend two years trying to kill him, to no avail, before eventually freezing him and placing him in cryogenic storage. Four centuries later, in 2455, he is discovered on an abandoned Earth and transported aboard a spaceship bound for Earth II.

It is not long before Jason begins slaughtering the spaceship’s crew, leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. However, after suffering numerous injuries, he receives a nanotechnology upgrade and becomes the formidable “Uber Jason”. Ridiculous, comedic and strangely fun, Jason X embraces the absurdity of its premise rather than fighting it.