Although the Friday the 13th franchise never hid the fact that the series was open to copying other successful slashers, the amount of genre trends that the series followed is still almost impressive. The Friday the 13th movies have never been prized by horror fans for their originality. As far back as 1980’s original Friday the 13th, the franchise’s own creators admitted that the saga of Jason Voorhees and Camp Crystal Lake began life as a knock-off of 1978’s Halloween.
After its initial success, the Friday the 13th franchise never gave up on stealing ideas from other successful series. In some cases, like Friday the 13th’s surprisingly good 2009 reboot, this approach paid off. In others, like 2001’s misguided trip into space, Jason X saw the formula almost sink the entire Friday the 13th franchise for good.
However, for better or worse, the Friday the 13th movies were at least consistent in the franchise’s creative copying. After the first few Friday the 13th movies established the basic setup of the series, almost every subsequent sequel took a leaf from other franchises and borrowed elements of other successful slashers in an attempt to cash in on their success. This resulted in viewers getting a whodunit-style sequel that dropped Jason entirely, a sequel that forced Jason to face off against telekineses, and even a truly misjudged space-set sequel.
The Whodunit Sequel
As soon as the underrated Friday the 13th Part III provided Jason Voorhees with a perfect template for future sequels, the franchise immediately threw out this formula in exchange for a more on-trend style. The Friday the 13th movies could have continued to send new camp counselors to Crystal Lake and sat back as Jason killed them off in inventive ways (and indeed, that is what later sequels did), but the fourth film in the series instead felt the need to add an element of mystery to proceedings.
Giallo-style whodunnits that kept their killer's identity a mystery like The Dorm That Dripped Blood, Happy Birthday to Me, and My Bloody Valentine had proven popular among slasher fans, so the Friday the 13th franchise was quick to cash in on this trend with Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. A flop largely hated by fans, this was the first Friday the 13th movie to not feature Jason Voorhees since the original, and the Friday the 13th sequel soon became the last to attempt this stunt.
The Magic Teen Sequel
The "magic teen” horror movie became an increasingly common sight throughout the ‘80s for several reasons. For one thing, the popularity of Stephen King’s novels Firestarter and Carrie meant that readers were blurring the lines between horror and fantasy with stories of superpowered heroines who put their telekinesis to gruesome use. For another, Freddy Krueger’s growing popularity meant that an increasing number of slasher movies were eschewing the traditional "murderous man in a mask" setup for more paranormal, supernatural spins on the "unstoppable killer hunts teen victims" premise. A few years after Freddy battled the Dream Warriors and Carrie destroyed prom night, Jason faced off against magic teens as the franchise once again chased a popular trend.
It would be a while before a later Friday the 13th movie borrowed Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge’s possession plotline, but Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood had no qualms about taking inspiration from the success of Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors' story of super-powered teens taking on a slasher villain. Pitched as “Jason Vs Carrie,” Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood was a shameless knock-off that at least fared passably with fans, although critics were unimpressed. The movie was intended to copy what made Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors successful, namely the decision to grant the teen protagonists some superhuman powers so they had at least some fighting chance against the un-killable villain.
The Space-Set Sequel
Jason X followed Leprechaun, Hellraiser, and Critters to space, and Friday the 13th’s foray into sci-fi did about as well as those earlier sequels. Although many classic horror franchises tried to pull off a sequel set in the future that cashed in on the sci-fi horror trend, none of these follow-up movies stand out as memorable entries into their respective series. If anything, space tends to be the last resort of the exhausted slasher villain—before they are inevitably traded in for a newer, slicker model.
The Inevitable Remake
Speaking of trading in tired characters, the fact that Michael Myers received a big-screen makeover in the mid-'00s meant that Jason was never going to be slow about catching up with his original inspiration. The Friday the 13th series always followed Halloween’s lead, and the inevitable 00s remake was no different, although director Marcus Nispel’s Friday the 13th reboot was shockingly better than Rob Zombie’s divisive 2007 Halloween. That said, the last thing that even a forgiving fan could call 2009’s Friday the 13th was original. The remake worked precisely because it was a greater hits reel for its iconic killer, revisiting his best kills and most memorable moments.
Friday the 13th’s One Original Idea
2003's Freddy Vs Jason remains the only major slasher crossover despite Michael Myers, Chucky, Pinhead, Candyman, and many more memorable villains being available to studios looking to cash in on slasher trends. The successful horror-comedy was the lone case of one of these fan-proposed crossovers happening, and it is one innovation that Friday the 13th has to be given due credit for. While Friday the 13th's 2009 remake may have arguably been the better movie, thanks to the lack of smug post-Scream meta-humor and some stronger suspense sequences, the very fact that Freddy Vs Jason happened was a testament to the fact that the franchise can come up with an original idea and see it through to completion. Often too comedic for its own good, marred by an uneven tone, and a little overlong, Freddy Vs Jason was far from flawless. However, the Friday the 13th franchise can still hold its head high and say that the crossover slasher face-off is an original idea and not another case of the series simply attempting to ape another, more successful set of slasher movies.