When I was a kid, I thought that Freddy Krueger was the coolest horror movie villain ever. As I got older (and Freddy got a lot goofier and a lot less scary) I realized that I liked Jason Voorhees better. One of the main reasons that I decided that Jason was better was because he always took people out in a variety of gory, creative, and brutal ways. I think that the Friday the 13th movies have some of the best death scenes in the history of horror, and they are just a lot of fun in general and never disappoint. In addition to being fun, bloody, and unique, a lot of the death scenes that appear in the movies from the series look like they would be incredibly painful and involve something happening to the victim that you really wouldn’’t want to happen to you.
With that in mind I give you the most painful deaths that take place in each of the Friday the 13th films…
Friday the 13th (1980)
While most of the death scenes from this movie are somewhat tame in comparison to what happens later in the series, they are still cool and look rather painful. The one that looks like it really hurts has to do with what happens to Jack (Kevin Bacon), and it’s not something that looks like it is a lot of fun. Poor Jack is just relaxing on a bed and having a smoke after having sex with Marcie, and out of nowhere he is grabbed by someone under the bed and has an arrow shoved up into his back with such force the tip of it comes out of the front of him.
It may not sound impressive, but believe me, it is because it looks awesome and very painful. The gurgling noises that he makes are disturbing and Bacon really does a great job here making it look realistic. I know that it is quick and isn’t the most painful death scene ever, but it sure looks like it hurts like Hell. At least he never saw it coming and most likely had no idea what was happening before he died, which is probably a good thing. Still though, Ouch!
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
I almost went with Alice’s death from this movie at first because having an ice pick shoved into your temple can’t feel good at all but changed my mind and decided that Mark (Tom McBride) was the unfortunate winner of the most painful death scene from this installment. How bad would it hurt to have the blade of a machete slammed into your face/head? I hope I never find out. To add insult to injury, Jason then kicks the poor guy-who is in a wheelchair-down the stairs with the machete still firmly planted in his head! Talk about a bad way to go. I just hope that he was dead before he was pushed backwards down the stairs in his wheelchair, because that alone is scary enough without being macheted in the face beforehand.
Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
This was the first Friday the 13th movie I ever saw when I was a kid, and I loved it even though it scared the living daylights out of me. This one features some awesome death scenes, but the one that always really stood out to me was Rick’s. The poor guy has the misfortune of having his head squeezed so hard by Jason that his eyeball pops out of its socket. Since the movie was in 3D, his eyeball flies right toward the screen, making it even more awesome. This scene freaked me out when I first saw it, and I had nightmares about it for years as a result. I can’t imagine anyone squeezing my head hard enough to make my eyeball shoot out of the socket, and hopefully it isn’t something that I ever have to experience as I am sure that it is beyond agonizing.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
This is one of my favorite films from the series (and when it came out when I was in the 4th grade I was naïve enough to believe it really was going to be the last one) and it still holds up extremely well all these years later. Jason is on a tear this time around and does some very nasty things to his victims. The death that looks like it hurts the most has to be Doug’s (Peter Barton). Doug has the back of his head pushed up against the wall and his face crushed by Jason, and the worst part is that he sees it coming and there is nothing that he can do to stop it. We can hear the bones in his head and face being crushed the entire time, and he has no choice but to stand there and let it happen. It looks (and sounds) absolutely agonizing, and it helps show what a badass Jason really is because he does it with his bare hands with very little effort. At least Doug got laid before he died such a horrible death.
Friday the 13th A New Beginning (1985)
Even though Jason isn’t even in this one it still features a ton of hard-core death scenes that are still memorable after all these years. Roy-the guy who poses as Jason in this movie-doesn’t mess around and is just as brutal as Mr. Voorhees himself. When I think about painful death scenes the one that immediately comes to mind for me is what happens to Eddie (John Robert Dixon). Eddie has a belt wrapped around his head (mostly his eyes) and then tightened around the tree that is behind him, resulting in his face and head being effectively squashed in an excruciating manner. This scene always stuck with me because it is creative and looks incredibly painful. If you ask me this is one of the most unique-and painful-deaths that occur in the entire series. I know that the one greaser guy has a pretty gruesome death via road flare to the mouth earlier in the film, but Eddie’s death scene is just totally and completely ouch-worthy.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
This installment is my absolute favorite from the entire series because it’s the first time the basically unkillable, super strong zombie Jason makes an appearance, and apparently, he’s ticked off about being killed because he takes people out in some crazy ways this time around. A lot of the death scenes here look very painful (such as Sissy’s, Sheriff Garris’, and poor old Paula’s), but Nikki’s (Darcy DeMoss) really takes the cake. Jason pulls her into a bathroom of a RV and crams her face into the mirror on the wall with such force her face goes through the mirror and leaves an impression of her face on the wall on the other side. Take a second to think about what that would feel like for a second. Jesus, that would smart. Thankfully though, it is relatively quick so hopefully she didn’t have to suffer too much before she died. Ouch, though.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
This movie is a lot of fun and Jason looks the most amazing he has ever looked in it in my opinion. Like the other films in the series, Jason takes out some folks in some mighty painful ways, and if you ask me Ben (Chris Thomas) gets it worse than anyone else in the movie. While his death scene is simple, it still looks like it hurts like Hell and isn’t the way anybody would want to go. Basically, Jason just grabs him by the head and slowly crushes his head with his bare hands (there’s just something about crushed heads that gets to me I guess) until he is no longer among the living. It isn’t the most creative thing Jason has ever done, but it is effective, and you can’t help but feel for poor old Ben because it looks like it hurts. A lot (the runner up would have to be his girlfriend’s who has is stabbed in the eye with a party horn, which doesn’t seem like it would feel very good either).
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
A lot of people don’t care for this movie and will argue that it is when the series started to go downhill, but for some unknown reason I have always dug it. I think it has some fun death scenes (such as Julius getting his head literally knocked off after trying to box Jason), and the one that looks the most painful to me happens to an unnamed boxer trying to relax in a sauna only for Jason to barge in on him and cram a red-hot rock from the sauna into his chest. It looks extremely painful and is one of Jason’s most underrated kills in my opinion. Imagine having this done to you and tell me it doesn’t make you cringe. I’ve been to a sauna once or twice in my lifetime, and I couldn’t help but think about this scene while I was there. This has to be the worst case of heartburn ever (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
To be honest this is one of my least favorite entries in the series and I could just never get into it. I don’t like the fact that Jason is hopping into other bodies and is revealed to be a weird-looking worm thingie as I have always felt that it was just an odd choice and that it doesn’t work. With that being said, there are some cool death scenes that take place in it, and I think that Deputy Josh has the most painful one even though Jason doesn’t technically kill him. You see, Jason possesses his body and kills a few people while he is using it, but once he’s done with it, he pops out of it to go into someone else. As a result, poor old Josh proceeds to slowly and painfully melt into a gooey puddle once Jason leaves his body, and it looks extremely agonizing.
For me it is probably the highlight of the movie as the effects look awesome and you can’t help but feel bad for Josh as he painfully melts all over the floor. Not only does he have to deal with that, but before hand there is a weird S&M thing going on as he is strapped down to a table, shaved, and has the Jason worm thing enter his body through his mouth. Talk about having a bad day.
Jason (2001)
I know that this movie gets a lot of hate, but I have always dug it just because it is so weird and unique in its own way. I was tempted to pick Adrienne’s death via having her face frozen in liquid nitrogen and then smashed against a counter as the most painful (and awesome because it is a lot of fun) but decided that Janessa’s would probably hurt a lot more. Jason punches a hole in the wall of the spaceship that she is in which creates a vacuum effect that sucks her through the hole (and the grate that has been sucked up against said hole) and she is effectively mangled, leaving only some bloody pieces of flesh behind. It’s a Hell of a way to go, and I can’t imagine it possibly feeling good in any way. I’ve always thought that it was a cool and creative death scene, and on a scale of 1 to 10 on the ouch scale it’s an 11 for sure.
Freddy vs Jason (2003)
I’m not fond of this movie and think that it is quite lacking for the most part, but I’ll admit that it has its share of decent death scenes in it. I think that Trey’s death scene is pretty hardcore and definitely the most painful. Jason stabs him a number of times in the back with his machete and then follows this up by folding him up in his bed, basically breaking him in half. If he wasn’t dead after the several times that Jason stabs him then the bit with the bed totally d id the trick for sure. Since Trey was a bit of a jerk it’s hard tofeel bad for him and it could even be argued that he had such a painful death coming to him considering how he treated other people.
Friday the 13th (2009)
I won’t bore you with the details as to why I am not a fan of this movie and instead will just jump into what I think is the most painful-and best-death scene from the movie, which has to be poor old Amanda’s (America Olivia). Jason zips her up in her sleeping bag and hangs her from a tree branch over a campfire where she is basically cooked alive. It’s a beyond horrible way to die and her screams as it is taking place are horrifying. While I may not like this movie, I think that this is one of the most hard core and mean spirted things Jason has ever done to anyone and I don’t want to even think about how painful and terrifying it would be. Not the best way to go for sure.
There you have it friends, my list of the Most Painful Deaths in the Friday the 13th Film Series. Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.
