The silent goalie mask-wearing mass murderer Jason Voorhees may not have been the original star of the Friday the 13th franchise, though he soon took the spotlight and became a legend in horror with a multi-movie marathon that fans annually return to on Halloween to celebrate the holiday with his unique brand of terror.
After his mother Mrs. Voorhees took out her vengeance in 1989’s original film, Jason returned for eleven more films that saw the character die, rise from the grave and even visit space as he hacked and slashed his way through promiscuous camp counselors, superpowered teens, high-tech androids and even other horror movie icons.
Jessica Kimble
1993’s Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday featured a wildly different take on Jason Voorhees that began with the character’s death after a sting operation by the FBI, though his demonic heart soon begins to corrupt others to kill for him.
Serial killer bounty hunter Creighton Duke (played by Steven Willaims) was the first to realize the importance of Kari Keegan’s Jessica Kimble and her familial connection to Jason. He outfitted her with an ancient dagger (one of many nods to The Evil Dead) that she used to stab and kill Jason for good — until the next sequel at least.
Julius
While Rennie (played by Jensen Daggett) and Sean (played by Scott Reeves) were the ones who were able to escape from Jason in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, they weren’t the standouts of the film.
That recognition goes towards amateur boxer Julius (played by V.C. Dupree), who stood up to the immortal and undead Jason on the rooftops of Manhattan. He reigned blow after blow upon Jason until he tired himself out, and the masked killer then decapitated Julius with one somewhat hilarious uppercut. But he tried really, really hard.
Tommy Jarvis
The character of Tommy Jarvis first appeared in 1984’s Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, played by 80s mainstay Corey Feldman, where he was able to not only survive Jason’s attack but also managed to “kill” the iconic villain.
An older Jarvis (played by John Shepherd) would return in Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning when he faced off against Roy Burns/Fake Jason. Part VI: Jason Lives featured Tommy once again (this time played by Thom Matthews), who accidentally reanimated Jason’s corpse before he later trapped him at the bottom of Crystal Lake.
Ginny Field
While Adrienne King’s Alice Hardy helped showed Final Girls how to survive horror movies in the 1980 original slasher when she decapitated Mrs. Voorhees, Jason made short work of her in the sequel which opened the stage for Amy Steel’s Ginny Field to shine.
Ginny received some help in surviving Jason’s first actual attack at Camp Crystal Lake, she was the first to attack Jason’s mental state by using a sweater from Jason’s hidden lair to disguise herself as Jason’s mother, confusing and distracting him enough for her to use his own machete on him and escape the franchise alive.
The Millers
The franchise was rebooted with 2009’s Friday the 13th, which attempted to cram four movies worth of Jason’s character development into one film while also introducing the Miller siblings Whitney and Clay, played by Amanda Righetti and Jared Padelecki, respectively.
While Whitney spent most of the film trying to escape from Jason’s captivity and Clay spends more time running than fighting Jason initially, the siblings are a powerful force once reunited, and they managed to gruesomely “kill” Jason and dump his body in the lake, though he still surprised them in the end.
Chris Higgins
1982’s Friday the 13th Part III features an iconic moment in the career of Jason Voorhees as he adopted his iconic goalie mask for the first time, and it also introduced a character who was revealed to have had a past encounter with Jason.
Dana Kimmell played Chris Higgins, who recounted her tale of a near assault two years earlier at Crystal Lake that she discovered was Jason. After a vicious battle that cost the lives of every one of her friends and her own sanity, Chris was able to get back at her attacker by hitting him in the head with an ax, damaging his new mask for the next few films.
Kyle McLeod
While he never actually appeared in the official cinematic franchise, the character of Kyle McLeod (played by Drew Leighty) impressed horror fans when he appeared in 2017’s fan film Never Hike Alone, from writer/director Vincente DiSanti, who also played Jason.
McLeod used every survivalist trick in his repertoire to help him survive against the fan-favorite killer after he encountered him during a hike at the long-abandoned Camp Crystal Lake. The short film proved popular among fans and even featured Thom Matthews’ Tommy Jarvis in a cameo.
Kay-Em 14
2002 saw the release of Jason X, which is largely regarded as the lowest point in the series as the film followed a cryogenically frozen Jason who reawakens aboard a spaceship in the future to resume his unstoppable killing spree.
One of the spaceship’s crew was a Knowledge Matrix 14 android (played by Lisa Ryder) who received a tactical, technical, and oddly sexual upgrade that enabled her to take down and dismember Jason. Unfortunately, she left him on a nanotech-equipped medical table that then upgraded Jason, and he decapitated her in their next encounter.
Tina Shepard
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood introduced a new element into the franchise with young Tina Shepard (played by Lar Park-Lincoln), who encountered the resurrected Jason after he freed himself from the bottom of Crystal Lake.
Tina had returned to the lake with her mother and psychiatrist as they attempted to stimulate and understand her powerful psychokinetic abilities. While she had limited control normally, her powers increased dramatically in battle with Jason, and she was able to call on her dead father to help pull Jason back into his watery grave.
Freddy Krueger
Two of horror’s biggest icons met up in the 2003 crossover film Freddy vs. Jason that combined the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street film franchises that had previously been teased in Jason Goes To Hell.
While Freddy Krueger and Jason initially worked together to hunt and kill the citizens of Springwood, they soon turned on each other and engaged in battles at each of their respective places of power that left both characters maimed and broken, yet somehow still alive to slash again.
