In many pieces of media, there’s this concept of “the big three,” where a franchise or genre is represented by three of what fans would consider to be the faces of that certain franchise or genre. 

When it comes to horror movies, specifically under the slasher horror subgenre, the big three movie franchises are “Halloween,” “Friday the 13th” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” These three movies are the staple of the horror genre, from its inspiring humble beginnings of the 80s slasher horror zeitgeist to the franchise’s monetary value and how the antagonists of those films are basically the faces that people recognize whenever they think of horror movies. 

“Friday the 13th” is, in my opinion, the best of the slasher big three because of how creative and consistent the franchise is and how iconic Jason Voorhees has become as a horror icon. 

Obviously, Michael Myers and Freddy Kreuger of their respective franchises are iconic on their own merits, but looking at various horror media, the hockey-mask wearing machete wielding Camp Crystal Lake killer is the one that comes to mind the most. 

Jason Voorhees is the face of the slasher horror genre just from his iconic look alone since the hockey-mask wearing killer is the one that shows up in all sorts of merchandise and even in media that has nothing to do with horror such as “The Simpsons” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

The “Friday the 13th” franchise is the quintessential sleazy slasher series, since the series made all of the horror cliches audiences make fun of today. Not only that, but the series has been able to one up itself with each entry from the series. 

For example, the first film of the series doesn’t even have Jason in it as the camp counselor killer we know and love him as. His mother, Pamela is the main antagonist of the movie and after her death, Jason grows up and takes the reins for the rest of the series. 

In each entry as well, Jason’s look changes from wearing a pillowcase with one eye-hole open to donning the iconic hockey mask that gets dirtier and more decrepit as the series continues, which is to complement how Jason’s form has progressed from looking like a bulky human man to becoming an actual zombie. 

If you were to look past all of the cheese and sleaze of the franchise, you’ll also see that compared to “Halloween” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” there are a lot of interesting psychological aspects to Jason Voorhees and the franchise. Jason is essentially an overgrown child who blindly follows his mother’s orders to harm others because his mother tells him to do it in the name of love. 

This is why he says, “ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma,” as he is looking for his next victim in the woods. The original film’s composer, Harry Manfredini has confirmed that Jason says this because he is trying to say, “kill for mother.” This idea of child psychology is also explored in the franchise’s second film and 2009 reboot where both of the final girls manipulate Jason’s close bond with his mother to defeat Jason by taking on the persona of Jason’s mother. 

This makes Jason’s story more tragic and interesting since, unlike Michael and Freddy, Jason has a reason for why he kills the counselors at Crystal Lake. Also, as mentioned, the franchise one-ups itself with each entry and that also means quality as well as just how far and insane the series can go. 

By the eighth, ninth and tenth entries, Jason has gone to Manhattan, to Hell as a bug creature, and to space with two different forms of himself.

Cheesy as all of this sounds, this gives the franchise a creative edge over “Halloween” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” because it gives the cast and crew different ideas to explore and new ways that they can tell Jason’s story without needing it to be the typical killing teens at Crystal Lake routine. 

A big elephant in the room is that the “Friday the 13th” franchise hasn’t gotten a movie in over a decade while “Halloween” just wrapped up their trilogy. While “A Nightmare on Elm Street” has also been on the Hollywood back burner, it still has relevance given Freddy Krueger’s appearance in the hit horror game, “Dead By Daylight” alongside Michael Myers. 

The “Friday the 13th” series has been put on limbo because of a series of copyright lawsuits between various studios including Gun Interactive, the studio who made the “Friday the 13th” video game. The game shut down at the end of 2023 because of the lawsuits and the fact that they were unable to update the game. 

There has been development of a “Friday the 13th” prequel series by A24 called “Crystal Lake,” but it has also been going through development troubles due to showrunners leaving, which pushes back production. 

Despite all of these issues and arguments about relevancy to the new generation, “Friday the 13th” will also stand out as the best of the slasher horror big three because of the name this series has been able to make for itself. 

Jason Voorhees is an interesting and epic slasher villain that is able to carry such a unique franchise on his back. With passionate and creative filmmaking teams, Voorhees is able to stand out from other horror villains.