Halloween approaches and with it the desire to revisit some of your favorite horror movie franchise, in order, from start to finish. What better franchise to binge than “Friday the 13th,” the celebrated slasher film series that started with Sean S. Cunningham’s 1980 original before spawning sequels that would introduce iconic killer Jason Voorhees before sending him to Manhattan, outer space and back in time (OK we made that last one up).
Ostensibly the cornerstone of the 1980s slasher film craze, “Friday the 13th” is one of the more inventive franchises, particularly when the concept was given a little more elasticity (as in the case with 1986’s “Friday the 13th: Jason Lives,” which gave us lively meta-textual commentary a full decade before Wes Craven’s “Scream”). For more than a decade, though, the franchise has been fully dormant – the last movie was 2009’s Michael Bay-produced reboot/remake “Friday the 13th.” A24 did recently announce a “Crystal Lake” series to be overseen by “Hannibal”/”Pushing Daisies” mastermind Bryan Fuller, so at least we have that to look forward to!
But how do you go about watching “Friday the 13th” movies? Especially given the somewhat cumbersome nature of the underlying rights (which have added to the complexity surrounding additional films)? We’re here to answer all of your questions!
Streaming on Max
The following installments of the “Friday the 13th” franchise are currently streaming on Max. They represent the mainline “Friday the 13th” franchise, although sadly missing is “Jason X,” “Freddy vs. Jason” and the 2009 reboot.
“Friday the 13th” (1980)
“Friday the 13th, Part II” (1981)
“Friday the 13th, Part III” (1982)
“Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” (1984)
“Friday the 13th: A New Beginning” (1985)
“Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives” (1986)
“Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood” (1988)
“Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan” (1989)
“Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday” (1992)
“Freddy vs. Jason” (2003)
“Friday the 13th” (2009)
Streaming on Paramount+
But Max isn’t your only option when looking for skinny dipping camp counselors to get an arrow through the neck, as Paramount+ also has the mainline franchise – and it includes “Jason X.” (“Freddy vs. Jason” and the 2009 reboot are still unaccounted for.)
“Friday the 13th” (1980)
“Friday the 13th, Part II” (1981)
“Friday the 13th, Part III” (1982)
“Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” (1984)
“Friday the 13th: A New Beginning” (1985)
“Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives” (1986)
“Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood” (1988)
“Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan” (1989)
“Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday” (1992)
“Jason X” (2001)
Not Streaming Anywhere
A more arcane corner of the “Friday the 13th” mythology is “Friday the 13th: The Series.” The show ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990 for a total of 72 episodes. There’s no real connection between the movies and the television series (partially, perhaps, because the movies were still being made during the production of the show) but it was spooky. And it did hire some great Canadian filmmakers for the series, including David Cronenberg, Allan King and Atom Egoyan. It is sadly not streaming anywhere but Paramount has released a “complete series” DVD box set. Physical media! Yay!
