4. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

The funniest Friday the 13th (funniest on purpose, that is) offers a complete tonal shift after the grim slog of A New Beginning. In Tom McLoughlin’s 1986 film, Tommy Jarvis is recast with the far more charismatic Thom Mathews (Return of the Living Dead) and Jason, now a full-fledged supernatural being, is accidentally resurrected from his grave. He celebrates with cheeky opening credits that riff on James Bond, then the party continues as he slices his way through the population of Crystal Lake, which has been renamed “Forest Green” in a failed attempt to distance the area from its gory reputation.

The Bond thing offers an early signal that this Friday isn’t afraid to wink at its audience, which it does repeatedly, with characters deciding what to do based on their knowledge of scary movies, occasional fourth wall breaks, and a deliberate absence of nudity (notable for a series that otherwise tends to overindulge in it). The performances are also more lighthearted; there are even some genuine comic relief characters in the form of some dorky paintballers who really should’ve picked a different forest for their team-building exercise and weird/funny touches—a little kid at Camp Forest Green falls asleep reading Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit; Tommy picks up battle supplies at “Karloff’s” store; the Alice Cooper end-credits jam “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask).”

Meanwhile, Jason seems thrilled to be back in the saddle and wastes no time racking up his body count. Once you learn how to swing a machete or snap a neck, you never forget how good it feels. Jason lives!