We also get “only” 10 deaths, including Mrs. Voorhees herself. She’s mortal, unlike her soon-to-be-mysteriously-resurrected son. Where does hers rank? Let’s unpack them all. It’s worth noting that, since this is a summary of all the kills in a movie known for featuring brutal kills, some of the following images are of the graphic variety.
10) Barry
image courtesy of paramount pictures
The very first kill in Friday the 13th is the least memorable of the lot, but it’s still important. After all, Barry’s departure was the very first one in the franchise’s history with the exception of young Jason Voorhees himself.
Yet, at the end of the day, it’s one of this movie’s several examples of a knife going into a victim just off-screen. We do get to see Barry falling with his hands clutching his stomach, but it’s still a case of an off-screen kill, and those don’t typically rank high. By the same token, the fact this movie ramps up the graphic nature of its kills is a big reason why it’s such a masterclass of the slasher subgenre.
9) Claudette
image courtesy of paramount pictures
Like with Friday the 13th Part 2, the original film opens with a kill that then swiftly dovetails into a screeching musical note, a full white screen, and the title card. It works very well, but suffice to say Alice’s death in Part 2was more memorable than Claudette’s.
We don’t even see what happens to her but, if you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes photos, you know that Mrs. Voorhees drags a machete across her throat. Regardless, even if it does rank low, it’s moody and another example of the movie being better off showing very little before it gets off the ground.
8) Steve Christy
image courtesy of paramount pictures
Steve Christy may be the man re-opening the camp, but he’s not exactly integral to the movie’s progression. In fact, he’s mostly sidelined. That sidelining works, though, because he’s essentially the adult in the room and he’s taken off the board when the killings start, which makes the counselors feel even less safe. But the way he’s taken off the board for good is kind of lame.
A cop gives him a ride back to Camp Crystal Lake but is called away, leaving Christy to walk the rest of the way. He makes his way through the woods and, as he approaches the sign for the camp, feeling as if he’s nearly there, a flashlight turns on. He gets closer to the individual holding the flashlight and gets a knife to the gut just below the camera’s line of sight. Again, off-screen kills inherently don’t rank high on these kinds of rankings, but this one gets points for the buildup. The line “Oh, hi! What’re you doing out in this mess” is a nice touch, too. It establishes that it’s someone affiliated with Camp Crystal Lake who’s carrying all this out.
7) Brenda
image courtesy of paramount pictures
The rest of the kills on this list are great. Brenda’s is…fine? It has a great buildup, with Mrs. Voorhees standing just outside her cabin, screaming “Help me!” in Jason’s voice.
Points go to Brenda’s offing for establishing a trend in the franchise, though. Specifically, someone is killed then thrown through a window to scare the now-alone protagonist. Points also go to the fact that it’s the one kill in the movie that receives some foreshadowing beforehand, when Ned startles Brenda by shooting an arrow near her (pictured above).
6) Ned
image courtesy of paramount pictures
As has been mentioned, off-screen kills aren’t the best when it comes to slasher movies. Audiences paid to see one thing and off-screen kills cheat them on that.
But Ned’s is amazing. It is the gold standard of off-screen kills. A lot of that has to do with the set-up and the rest has to do with the payoff. Ned is arguably the second most likable character after Annie, and it’s tough to see him look over at a kissing Jack and Marcie and clearly feel so entirely alone. But he starts whistling, putting a hop in his step, right up until he spots someone peering out of the doorway of a cabin. He stops whistling, approaches, and that’s the last we see of him. Until the payoff, anyway, and it’s a good one. As Jack and Marcie are being intimate in bed, the camera pans up to reveal Ned on the top bunk, his throat slit and his body going cold just above his two best friends.
5) Annie
image courtesy of paramount pictures
One of the most effective aspects of the original Friday the 13th is the likability of its characters. None of them feel like anything other than well-meaning late ’70s/early ’80s young people just taking a simple job to try and pay some bills. Perhaps even more than in the original Halloween, they come across as real people. And that makes it stomach-churning to watch them die.
Case in point, Annie, the most likable character in slasher movie history. Here’s someone with nothing but kindness in her heart, never stopping short of being friendly to people or leaving a dog behind without a good head scritch. She takes a ride with one local, and it goes well, outside him warning her to just go home. Then, she takes a ride with another local, and she confirms that Annie should have listened to her first ride. Mrs. Voorhees hunts her down through the woods, and for a little bit we think Annie is going to get away. But then Mrs. Voorhees catches up and slits her throat as she begs to be spared. It’s not the most creative kill, but it’s all executed (for lack of a better word) sublimely.
4) Mrs. Voorhees
image courtesy of paramount pictures
The one kill carried out by someone other than Mrs. Voorhees is, of course, Mrs. Voorhees. And what a way to go.
She’s pursued Alice across the entire camp in what is assuredly one of the best third-act, hero evading villain finales in slasher history. Finally, they’ve arrived at the beach. Alice has knocked the killer out a few times and feels safe enough to take a few breaths. But then she sees Mrs. Voorhees’ shadow, and they scuffle for the final time before Alice gets a hold of the villain’s machete and swings it at her neck, lopping off her head with a single swing. Extra points go to it for all the hair on Mrs. Voorhees’ (in actuality Taso Stavrakis’) knuckles.
3) Marcie
image courtesy of paramount pictures
Marcie is so happy just before her death. She’s in love with Jack, she’s just been intimate with Jack, and now she’s freshening up in the camp’s bathroom, doing an impression of Katharine Hepburn in The Rainmaker.
Then, in a shower towards the end of the building, a curtain moves. Marcie’s eye catches it, but just barely. She goes to investigate, throwing the curtain back and finding no one. But then, from behind her, we see an axe raise. It’s a great shot, and it’s followed by a wonderful display of Tom Savini’s practical effects mastery as Marcie spins around, sees who’s holding it, and falls back against the barrier between showers with an axe down the middle of her face. Brutal, which is an effective juxtaposition to her bubbly, sweet nature.
2) Bill
image courtesy of paramount pictures
It’s a bummer that Harry Crosby was temporarily blinded because of this scene, but there’s no doubt that it’s extremely effective. Ned, Jack, Marcie, Steve, Annie, Brenda, they’re all dead. Alice and Bill are alone, yet they don’t know it. Then, Alice discovers Bill’s body, and she knows she’s well and truly alone.
This kill is brilliant for several reasons. For one, its setup, with Alice looking for Bill through the generator room and only finding his rain jacket, is tense. Two, her moving to close the door only to reveal the body is a great shock. And three, talk about brutal. Mrs. Voorhees didn’t just slit Bill’s throat, she shot arrows into his eye, his stomach, his groin, and his neck.
1) Jack
image courtesy of paramount pictures
The death of Kevin Bacon’s Jack isn’t just the best kill of the original Friday the 13th, it’s the best of the entire franchise. There’s also a pretty fantastic, fortuitous nature that a long-running franchise based entirely on kills gave its best kill to the biggest pre-fame actor to ever be a part of it.
This character offing is perfection. It is the ultimate Slasher 101 example. You have sex, you die. You smoke a joint or drink, you die. That didn’t necessarily start here (that honor goes to Bob and Lynda in Halloween), but it was solidified here. It’s also just so well structured. We already know that Ned is lying dead above Jack, and it stands to reason that audiences in 1980 were expecting that body to fall down or something, not for Mrs. Voorhees hand to burst up in perfect timing then jam an arrow through his throat from below. It’s not fully logical that Jack and Marcie didn’t see Ned, nor did they see Mrs. Voorhees beneath the bunk bed, but let’s chalk that up to it being a dark room.
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