3. Friday the 13th: Part 2 (1981)
At the beginning of Scream – Wes Craven’s mid-90’s slasher reviver – our victim is asked who the killer is in Friday the 13th. Without thinking, she blurts “Jason, Jason Voorhees,” an answer that’s both wrong while subsequently deciding her fate. It’s an honor that belongs to its sequel, which was planned almost immediately upon Friday the 13th’s release in May of 1980. This is the film that introduces Jason Voorhees into the slasher lexicon, and he enters it with one of my favorite looks; blue plaid, overalls, and a sack over one mean mug. It’s a look that nods to The Town That Dreaded Sundown, while also giving us our backwoods hillbilly wrapped in a bow.
Where Friday the 13th gave us resilient final girl Alice, Part 2 gives us Ginny, who’s as cunning as she is resourceful. In one of the series most memorable finales, Ginny dons Pamela’s now iconic blue sweater, persuading Jason that she’s his mother. It’s an intelligent take on the battle of good versus evil that culminates in one of the series most invigorating and effective jump scares to date, proving that not all sequels are created equal.