How To Watch The Friday The 13th Movies In Order

Jason Voorhees of the "Friday the 13th" series has been slicing and dicing his way through teenagers for decades now, but he's done it over the course of so many movies that it might be hard to figure out which order to watch them in. After all, he's gone to space, fought off Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and even clashed with Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell). His adventures have spanned nine films, a crossover epic, a reboot, an almost completely forgotten series, and several comics. In many ways, it's a franchise whose future is always up in the air.

How on earth does one watch them in order? Look no further, for we've compiled all the information you need to have a spooky, bloody, and sometimes even 3-D enhanced evening with everyone's favorite Crystal Lake denizen. Whether you want to watch the movies in release order, in chronological order, or in the order recommended by devoted, bloodthirsty "Friday" fans, here's where you have to go and what you have to do to see every single movie in the franchise. 

The series' release order is a pretty straightforward way to watch all the films. The good news is that almost every single "Friday the 13th" movie is available on Paramount+. There are four exceptions to that rule, which will either require separate purchase or rental, or two new subscriptions to different streaming services. 

First in line is 1980's "Friday the 13th." Then there's 1981's "Friday the 13th: Part II," followed by 1982's "Friday the 13th: Part 3." In 1984, Jason Voorhees met his alleged ending in "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter." But box office receipts were too good, so Jason made a comeback in 1985's  "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning," which pits him against a now grown-up Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd). The franchise's sixth outing, "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives," came out in 1986. Then the character took a year-long break, but the franchise filled in the gap with the sequel-in-name-only series "Friday the 13th: The Series." It ran for three seasons in syndication and is only available on Sling. Jason returned to the big screen in what was originally intended to be a face-off with Carrie White in 1988's "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood." Then he came back for the notoriously campy "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," which took the serial killer all the way to New York in 1989.

Here's where it gets sticky, because Paramount+ doesn't have the final few films in the franchise. Max has two of them, but your best bet might actually be to get Philo, which is the only service that has 1993's "Jason Goes to Hell: the Final Friday." Otherwise, the film will have to be rented at roughly $3.99 or bought for $9.99 at any digital retailer. 2002's "Jason X" falls into a similar category; it's only on Sling, but it too can be rented and bought at the aforementioned price points. The 2003 crossover sensation "Freddy vs Jason" and the 2009 franchise reboot "Friday the 13th" are both available on Max.

Watching the film series on a timeline-related basis is actually a fairly easy endeavor. The franchise's first four films take place in linear order, within months or days of each other. There's a large time jump between "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" and  "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning": Five years go by, and Tommy Jarvis grows from pre-adolescent to teenager. The continuity of "Friday the 13th: The Series" can be watched here, but since Jason and Camp Crystal Lake don't exist in its universe, it won't effect anything — it simply takes place from 1987 to 1990. 

Back in the movie continuity, "Jason Lives" takes place several years after the end of "A New Beginning." "The New Blood" is sometime after "Jason Lives," and "Jason Takes Manhattan" a few years after "Jason Lives." The events of "Jason Goes to Hell" don't neatly branch off of "Jason Takes Manhattan," but the ending of "Jason Goes to Hell" presages the events of "Freddy vs Jason," with Freddy Kreuger's glove popping out of the dirt and dragging Jason's mask down into hell with it. "Jason X" takes place in the far-flung future of the 2400s, and thus can be watched last. The "Friday the 13th" reboot, naturally, can be watched at any time as its events don't effect the rest of the chronology.

 If you want to throw the franchise's very patchwork comic book continuity into things, you should read "Jason vs. Leatherface" after watching "Friday the 13th: Part VI," and "Friday the 13th Special" and "Pamela's Tale" before watching any of the films. The "Freddy vs Jason vs Ash" duology is best read after watching "Freddy vs Jason," while the "Jason X" and "Jason vs Jason X" special issues should go after "Jason X," and "Bloodbath" and "Fearbook" after "Jason Goes to Hell."  "The Abuser and the Abused" and "How I Spent my Summer Vacation" can be read at any point.

Veterans of the franchise have, naturally, taken the time to consider different ways to watch the movie series. Fans posting both to the r/horror subreddit and the r/fridaythe13th subreddit have opinions as to the right order they should be consumed in  — and even recommend skipping some movies. 

Multiple fans recommend watching the first seven movies and forgetting anything else that happens outside of them. Some suggest following the release order, while others prefer the chronological order. 

Some fans, of course, have much more playful answers. u/ChainsawSuperman recommends watching them in "Star Wars" order. u/Blakelock82 divvies up the timeline between the "original Jason" era and the "zombie Jason" era. u/ZZoMBiEXIII simply declares that there is no unified timeline. "If you're new to the series, I'd suggest forgetting the concept of timeline or continuity and take these films as campfire tales. Legends told to children to scare them during a summer campout. They don't match, the timeline is wonky at best and outright silly at worst. Just take each one as it's own thing," they say. And that might just be the best way to look at the "Friday the 13th" franchise at large.