5 of the Worst Friday the 13th Movies

As successful as the slasher franchise Friday the 13th has been over the years, that doesn't mean it's without its low points. As iconic as some of the films are, some are just as ludicrous and laughable. These are the films only for the diehards, the collectors, and the gullible.

For the rest of us, the worst Friday the 13th movies are cultural artifacts, important in many ways but not something we'll likely ever watch. None of the films were ever loved by the critics, so the hell with them anyway. Pop these turds in during a bad movie night and laugh your ass off that a whole team of creative people thought it should be put to film.

There are 12 films in total, so we are looking only for the worst of the worst here — bad acting, poor direction, shitty writing, etc. I'm talking plot holes you could drive a truck through.

Jason is one of the most popular villains in movie history, and his mask is a pop culture phenomenon — there are even Friday the 13th games! All on its own, but he didn't always kill it — although horny teens always died at his machete by the dozens. Now, watch them or don't, you've been warned: these the worst Friday the 13th movies.

Let's face it, the Michael Bay produced 2009 remake of Friday the 13th should never have been made. Much like other Bay movies, the script was totally mailed in, and the special effects were expected to take up the slack. It's more of a reimagining than a straight remake of the 1980 original.

A group of young adults set up tents near the abandoned summer camp where a series of gruesome murders are said to have taken place back in the 80s. The legend proves murderously true, as these campers quickly get slaughtered. Six months later, the brother of one of those campers, played by Jared Padelecki, distributes posters of his missing sister. The police believe she took off with her boyfriend — but he knows better.

We then meet a group of rich, annoying teens marked for death — and believe me, you'll be begging for them to get axed. This is a problem, as none of these kills carry any weight — the characters are varying degrees of awful. This is a lock for worst Friday the 13th movies.

Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan was actually the worst reviewed film of the entire franchise, which is no small feat, easily landing it among the worst Friday the 13th movies.

Not many people know what this one is about, other than he obviously takes Manhattan. The graduating class of the local high school is going on a luxury cruise with Jason Voorhees as a stowaway. Jason sinks the boat and butchers many of the students on it, but a few others escape to Manhattan. A battle with Jason ensues, until Jason is washed away in the New York sewers by a midnight flooding of toxic waste — really.

There are some seriously screwy plot elements in Jason Takes Manhattan, including how Jason can now teleport. None of this makes sense, but you know, it's the eight film.

Jason X takes place in space, in the 25th Century, but that doesn't mean he hasn't retained his murderous lust for horny teen blood. It's set way in the future, and earth is no longer inhabitable — so humans have colonized outer space. The premise alone is one of the worst Friday the 13th movies.

One of these colonies receives two cryogenically frozen bodies, and one turns out to be the famous hockey masked killer. Jason proceeds to stalk and kill these teens in a whole new environment. The best thing that can be said about it is that it's turned into a bit of a cult sci-fi slasher hybrid film.

Five years after killing the hockey masked killer Jason Voorhees, Tommy Jarvis has grown up in various mental hospitals, unable to get over the nightmares about Jason's return — who could? When Tommy is sent to a halfway house in New Jersey for mentally disturbed teenagers, murders start mysteriously happening. Could it be Jason?

This takes place after Final Chapter, one of the best Friday the 13th films, so Part V is a letdown. Corey Feldman played Jarvis in that one, but here he is replaced by John Shepherd, and the two look nothing alike.

The film is the first to depart from Crystal Lake, and operated more on the level of a psychological thriller — albeit with an astronomical body count. The highest body count of the series can't save Part V from being one of the worst Friday the 13th movies.

Part VII involves telekinesis, so I don't even want to argue much about it — automatically one of the worst Friday the 13th movies. Indulge the plot for a second: Years after Tommy Jarvis chained him underwater at Camp Crystal Lake, the dormant Jason Voorhees returns after he is accidentally released from his prison by a telekinetic teenager.

The rest of the film revolves around a 13-year-old girl trying to stop Jason with her powers before he can stalk the camp ground at his whim for eternity. It's the first supernatural horror installment in the series, and if you can get through it without throwing your hands up or slamming the remote on the table, you did it better than I did.