31 Days of Horror: Ranking the Kills - Friday the 13th (1980)

I wanted to do something different and figured I may as well put that Friday the 13th box set to work. I've been rewatching the franchise, naturally. Instead of going with a full-blown review of each movie I decided to have some morbid fun. So like the title says, I'm going to rank the kills of the various movies. It only makes sense to start with the original.

Overall, ten people meet their demise during the course of the film. However, a number of these deaths occur offscreen. Three such murders take place. Three more may as well be offscreen, as we don't actually see what the killer does (including the one at the top of this post). That leaves us with only four kills to rank. Fair warning, one of those is a spoiler.

#4

Annie

Annie barely gets into the movie, but happens to hitch a ride with the killer. While well executed from a gore standpoint, the knife goes across her throat in far too gentle a fashion.

#3

Marcie

This is the most brutal kill in the film. Usually that's enough for me to skyrocket it up the charts. What keeps me from doing so is that we don't see the deathblow making contact.

#2

Mrs. Voorhees

This is arguably the most iconic death in the franchise. It's the one that separates this movie from the rest of the series by virtue of who is doing the dying.

#1

Jack

First, it's future star Kevin Bacon that's being offed. He's by far the biggest name actor associated with the franchise. Second, and most important, it's done using some amazing practical fx. On the new scan in the box set, it looks better than ever. The gif I have here doesn't look nearly as good