Summary

• The Friday the 13th franchise has seen many revisions of Jason Voorhees' iconic outfit, with each movie revealing a different stage in his character journey.
• Not every costume is created equal, with some of Jason's looks being less impressive than others. The fake Jason in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning lacks screen time and doesn't live up to the real Jason's official look.
• Some of Jason's looks, like the one in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, feature impressive makeup and visual design, showcasing a frighteningly rotten visage and distressed outfit.

In the Friday the 13th franchise, seeing the Jason Voorhees outfit in each movie reveals where he is at in his character journey. Though possessing an iconic look, no other slasher villain has gone through as many revisions as Jason. Except for the first movie, the franchise follows Jason Voorhees, who seemingly drowned as a child due to neglectful camp counselors and spent the rest of his life killing in response to that trauma. Jason first appeared at the end of the first Friday the 13th movie, although that was mostly meant as a shocking and unexpected twist ending, a trope of the slasher genre.

He officially debuted as a sack-headed slasher killer in the second movie, and eventually a hockey-masked bruiser as time went on. As the character has evolved, so has his look, leading to a bevy of diverse and interesting visual interpretations of the character. Of course, not every costume is created equal, and some of Jason's looks are less impressive than others, from the iconic Friday the 13th mask to his classic outfit.

12 Friday The 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

The biggest problem with Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is that it's not actually Jason in the movie. The film follows a group of victims targeted by an unknown killer taking inspiration from Jason. Similar to the first movie, most of these kills are done without showing who the killer is, meaning fans don't get a good look at the fake Jason until the end. His lack of screen time, the fact that it isn't the real Jason, and replacing the red markings on the mask with blue ones make it all feel like a knockoff of Jason's official look. Thankfully, the franchise found a way to bring Jason back in the next movie.

11 Friday The 13th (1980)

The jump scare that introduced Jason Voorhees is far more effective than the look of the character itself. The makeup and prosthetic work by Tom Savini are top-notch, and the young Jason is a big reason the series got a second entry, to begin with. But the appearance is incredibly brief, and nearly every other iteration of Jason's look is more iconic than this entry. However, even if it was before the time that he became an iconic masked killer in horror movies, it is a memorable appearance as he leaped out of the water to pull down Final Girl, Alice Hardy. It is still possible this was a nightmare scene, especially based on the small size of Jason in the movie.

10 Jason X (2002)

Taking Jason into space was an unexpected turn for the franchise. Jason X finds the titular killer taken out of Camp Crystal Lake by the United States government and cryogenically frozen. This changed 435 years later when some explorers found Jason and took him onboard their ship, where he was unfrozen and went on a rampage. After being brought back to life, he gets a futuristic makeover. Uber Jason looks cool, but he doesn’t feel like Jason. While Jason is an awesomely designed metallic mutant, both the film and the look lack the appeal of the character and the Friday the 13th series as a whole.

9 Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was far from the final movie in the franchise. But this fourth installment became a fan favorite and the movie that really solidified the Friday the 13th template. Fittingly for a generically “good” entry that lacks some of the charms and wild eccentricities of the series’ most idiosyncratic chapters, Jason’s costume design here is nothing special despite it being one of the most easily recognizable versions of the character. However, it is noticeable that in this, his third main appearance as a killer, he was deteriorating with his body rotting, his fingers turning black and his skin getting sickly and gray.

8 Friday The 13th: Part VI - Jason Lives (1986)

The film that introduced the audience to a re-animated, zombified version of the character was also his return after Friday the 13th: A New Beginning's fake Jason showed up for one movie. Though a cut above his appearance in the previous two entries, there’s something a tad too utilitarian about his look here. His mask and outfit are a little too clean considering that the franchise was attempting to change his physical appearance, with his increasingly rotted flesh, almost more of a zombie than a man. One thing that really hurts Jason's outfit in this movie is that he is rarely seen out of the shadows in this movie.

7 Friday The 13th: Part 3 (1982)

The first film in which Jason dons a hockey mask also gets points for containing the scariest version of the Friday the 13th unmasking scene. When Jason reaches out to the final girl Chris in the film’s closing minutes, a cruel smile lighting up his face, it’s one of the few moments in the entire franchise that the character still elicits chills from a contemporary viewer. Aside from presenting the hitherto lanky Jason as something more hulking, the overall costume is nothing special, but Part 3 was a game changer that made the hockey mask something to fear, which marks a major turning point for the character.

6 Friday The 13th (2009)

The somewhat unfairly dismissed Platinum Dunes remake of Friday the 13th re-imagined Jason as a lean, mean, survivalist machine with a new look to match. Beginning the film with an updated sack-head and gaining the hockey mask about halfway through, this look doesn’t necessarily match up to the iconic character that people know and love, even if it is the same character's journey. However, it’s slick, refined, and absolutely one of his better appearances. The burlap sack appearance was actually an improvement over Friday the 13th Part II, but the hockey mask wasn't quite as iconic as the previous masks.

5 Friday The 13th: Part VIII -- Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

One of the least critically acclaimed Friday the 13th entries also features Jason Voorhees looking his coolest. He is covered in copious amounts of pond scum and decked out in a sleek, black leather jacket, a fresh and sharp take on the typically lumbering slasher killer. Unfortunately, Jason Takes Manhattan loses points for also having the worst reveal of Jason’s bare face. When his mask comes off, he has a soggy-looking rotted skull visage that oozes green slime. Mixed with his falling into toxic waste, the practical effects in these scenes hurt Jason's appearance more than anything else.

4 Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

Jason Goes to Hell’s take on Crystal Lake’s infamous slasher killer is one of his strangest and most underrated. Taking seeming inspiration from the cancerous evil of Jason, this version of the character has a lumpy, misshapen, tumorous face that’s literally consuming his mask. The jumpsuit is fairly standard, and this is one of the character’s most divisive costumes, but for those who love it, it may be his best. The only con is that this is also the only film with a body-hopping Jason, so viewers don’t get to see enough of Jason to feel like a Friday the 13th movie.

3 Friday The 13th: Part 2 (1981)

A look that’s both effective in its simplicity, and a peek at what might have been, Friday the 13th: Part 2 threw any sort of narrative sense out the window by presenting viewers with a totally alive, fully grown backwoods Jason in overalls and a one-eyed sack mask after his appearance as a dirty kid in the first film. His unveiled face is just as effective, and though he’s a far cry from the Jason he’d become, this freakish hillbilly version of the character is masterful in its minimalism and shows where the series could have taken the character if the hockey mask hadn’t become so ubiquitous.