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Horror Franchises

The Friday the 13th Movies, Scariest to Least Scary

Ranked by Fear score

The scariest: Friday the 13th (1980), at 6.0 on our Fear axis. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) is next at 5.0.

By Alan WilleyLast updated

Friday the 13th (1980) set the template for the summer-camp slasher, and the series made Jason Voorhees one of horror's best-known killers. This page ranks the films we have scored by Fear.

Fear is one of five scores Watch Darkly's curators give a film, each from 0 to 10. It measures how frightening a film is to watch and is scored separately from gore and intensity, so a bloody entry can still rank low here. Films we have not scored yet are listed after the ranking. How we score

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Ranked from scariest to least scary

  1. Friday the 13th poster
    Curator Score 7.4
    Fear
    6.0
    Gore
    6.0
    Atmosphere
    7.5
    Intensity
    7.0

    Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.

  2. Friday the 13th Part 2 poster
    Curator Score 7.0
    Fear
    5.0
    Gore
    5.5
    Atmosphere
    6.0
    Intensity
    6.3

    Five years after the horrible bloodbath at Camp Crystal Lake, new counselors roam the area, not sensing the ominous lurking presence that proves that the grisly legend is real.

  3. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter poster
    Curator Score 6.2
    Fear
    4.0
    Gore
    5.0
    Atmosphere
    5.0
    Intensity
    5.0

    After his revival in a hospital morgue, Jason fixes his vengeful attention on the Jarvis family and a group of hitherto carefree teenagers.

  4. Friday the 13th Part III poster
    Curator Score 5.5
    Fear
    3.0
    Gore
    4.0
    Atmosphere
    5.0
    Intensity
    4.0

    An idyllic summer turns into a nightmare of unspeakable terror for yet another group of naïve friends. Ignoring Camp Crystal Lake's bloody legacy, one by one they fall victim to the maniacal Jason, who stalks them at every turn...

Our catalog does not have the whole series yet. Parts V to VIII, Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X and the 2009 remake are not in it, so they are not ranked here.

Not scored yet

The Friday the 13th movies in our catalog

In release order. This is not the full series, so it is not a watch order.

  1. Friday the 13th (1980)
  2. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
  3. Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
  4. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
  5. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Common questions about the Friday the 13th movies

What is the scariest Friday the 13th movie?
Friday the 13th (1980), at 6.0 on our Fear axis. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) is next at 5.0.
What is the least scary Friday the 13th movie?
Friday the 13th Part III (1982), at 3.0 on our Fear axis.
Which Friday the 13th movie is the goriest?
Friday the 13th (1980), at 6.0 on our Gore axis.
What is the best Friday the 13th movie?
By Curator Score, Friday the 13th (1980) has the highest at 7.4 out of 10. The Curator Score is our overall verdict on a film and is separate from Fear.
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