The BEST episodes of Friday the 13th: The Series

Every episode of Friday the 13th: The Series ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Friday the 13th: The Series!

Two young antique store owners must recover cursed antiques.

Last Updated: 1/31/2024Network: SyndicationStatus: Ended
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Vanity's Mirror
star
7.50
26 votes

#1 - Vanity's Mirror

Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 3/5/1988

A homely girl, overshadowed by her prom queen sister, gets hold of a vanity which she can use to bedazzle any boy into falling in love with her. However, as soon as they do, she must then kill them. She eventually takes over her sister's boyfriend and has him hang her up by a noose. Micki and Ryan manage to save the girl, but the younger sister eventually commits suicide along with the boyfriend. The vanity is lost (although it will resurface in the second season episode ""Face of Evil"").

Directors: William Fruet
Watch Now:Amazon
Hellowe'en
star
7.36
72 votes

#2 - Hellowe'en

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/31/1987

Micki and Ryan throw a Halloween party at the shop to meet the neighbors, but two visitors inadvertently resurrect Uncle Vendredi's spirit. Now totally corrupted by evil, Lewis plans to use the energies on Halloween, the night where evil walks the earth most freely, to resurrect himself once and for all.

Directors: Timothy Bond
Writer: William Taub
Watch Now:Amazon
And Now the News
star
7.36
14 votes

#3 - And Now the News

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/14/1988

In an insane asylum, a doctor is using a cursed antique radio to enact miraculous cures on his patients. The cost, as usual, is that the radio then kills another doctor's patients, by bringing their greatest fears to life. Tracking down the radio, Micki and Ryan must break into the asylum and recover the antique.

Directors: Bruce Pittman
Writer: Dick Benner
Watch Now:Amazon
The Prophecies (2)
star
7.27
11 votes

#4 - The Prophecies (2)

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/7/1989

Micki and Ryan get word of Jack's injury at the end of the preceding episode. They travel to Marie-Mere with Johnny Ventura to investigate and try to recover Lucifer's Bible. Asteroth uses the Bible to take control of Ryan, who must then kill an innocent child to fulfill the final prophecy that signifies Satan's arrival upon Earth. Ultimately, Jack recovers and he, Micki and Johnny manage to thwart Asteroth. However, the ritual turns Ryan into a 10-year old permanently. He leaves with his mother, and Johnny takes his place.

Directors: Tom McLaughlin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Prophecies (1)
star
7.24
17 votes

#5 - The Prophecies (1)

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/7/1989

Part one of this two-parter features Jack travelling to Marie-Mere in France on the trail of a cursed tome, Lucifer's Bible. The town is a holy site, with a fountain that cures the sick and dying. However, a priest of Satan, Asteroth, has the Bible and is using it to fulfull a series of prophecies that will culminate with the arrival of Satan on Earth. Meanwhile, Ryan is re-united with his mother, and the two deal with the death of his brother years ago over which Ryan is still guilty. The episode ends with Jack knocked through a window and put into a coma after a confrontation with Asteroth.

Directors: Tom McLaughlin
Watch Now:Amazon
The Charnel Pit
star
7.09
11 votes

#6 - The Charnel Pit

Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/26/1990

Micki is sent through a two-way time portal contained within a painting and finds herself at the mercy of the Marquis de Sade.

Writer: Jim Henshaw
Watch Now:Amazon
Master of Disguise
star
7.06
16 votes

#7 - Master of Disguise

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/11/1988

The trio become involved in a movie production when they loan some (non-cursed) antiques out to a set. Handsome actor William Pratt is the star, and Micki and he soon fall in love. Unfortunately, Pratt has two secrets: he is actually a disfigured ""monster"" actor named Jeff Amory, and he owns an antique: a cursed make-up case that belonged to John Wilkes Booth. Using the case, Amory can temporarily hide his disfigurement by mixing a victim's blood in with the make-up. Unable to bring himself to kill Micki whom he truly loves, he reverts to his normal features but Micki loves him anyway. He is locked up and the make-up case returned to the Vault.

Directors: Tom McLaughlin
Writer: Bruce Martin
Watch Now:Amazon
Scarecrow
star
7.00
26 votes

#8 - Scarecrow

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/6/1988

A small farming community has excellent harvesters. Little do they realize that one of the farmers uses a cursed scarecrow. She must pin the pictures of three victims on the scarecrow's chest. When it claims all three victims, tracking them down and beheading them, the result is a good harvest. Micki and Ryan come looking for the scarecrow, but the scarecrow's owner soon realizes what they are up to and tries to use Micki's driver's license to make her the scarecrow's third victim.

Directors: William Fruet
Watch Now:Amazon
Faith Healer
star
6.95
22 votes

#9 - Faith Healer

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/13/1988

Jack is asked by a friend to investigate a ""faith healer"" who uses a cursed glove to heal one person...by transferring their ills magnified tenfold to another victim. Jack must not only recover the glove, but deal with his friend, who is dying of cancer and needs the glove to cure himself.

Directors: David Cronenberg
Watch Now:Amazon
The Inheritance
star
6.94
168 votes

#10 - The Inheritance

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/3/1987

In the opening segment (to be repeated throughout the first two years), we see Lewis Vendredi try to recover the cursed antiques, and end up condemned to hell. Distant cousins Ryan Dallion and Micki Foster find out they have inherited an antique shop from Uncle Lewis. Micki wants to simply sell off the place, and Ryan reluctantly agrees. They sell off the antiques in the store, but then are greeted by Jack Marshak, Vendredi's partner and procurer. They find out about Vendredi's deal with the devil, and realize that some of the antiques they sold were also cursed. The first antique they recover, a toy doll, comes to life and kills for its owner, a young girl. They recover the doll, and vow to recover the other antiques as well.

Directors: William Fruet
Writer: William Taub
Watch Now:Amazon
Wedding In Black
star
6.94
16 votes

#11 - Wedding In Black

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/13/1989

A mysterious snowglobe is mailed to Curious Goods. When Micki gives it a shake, an old boyfriend of hers shows up, and convinces her to join him at a bed & breakfast. Then Jack and Ryan are both visited by old friends when they shake the globe. It turns out that each of the three newcomers is working for Satan. If Micki can be tricked into sleeping with her boyfriend, then she will be considered wedded to Satan as she ""willingly"" did so. Jack and Ryan, lured to the hotel, are separated from her, able to witness what is going on but unable to contact Micki. It turns out they are trapped in the hotel within the snow globe. Ultimately, Ryan's ex-girlfriend helps them, and they manage to drive a car into the edge of the globe, knocking it off the shelf it is resting and shattering it (and freeing themselves) before Micki can consummate her wedding with the Devil.

Directors: Rodney Charters
Watch Now:Amazon
The Playhouse
star
6.93
15 votes

#12 - The Playhouse

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/28/1989

Two children trapped in an abusive home stumble upon a cursed playhouse. The playhouse lets them enter a fantastical world of clown and parties in return for them luring in a child. The trail of missing runaways attact our trio's attention. Micki and Ryan have to enter the house where they confront its sinister presence. They manage to convince the two children to reject the house, which frees the other trapped children. The missing children are returned to their homes and the two siblings are put into a foster home.

Directors: Tom McLaughlin
Watch Now:Amazon
The Quilt of Hathor (1)
star
6.89
19 votes

#13 - The Quilt of Hathor (1)

Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/7/1988

A cursed quilt, which allows the person underneath it to dream their enemies to death, finds its way into an Amish-like ""Pennitite"" community. A plain woman stumbles upon it and uses it to kill her rivals for the community leader. Ryan attempts to infiltrate the community, and the woman manages to die. Ryan decides to stay with a newfound love, believing that the Quilt of Hathor is destroyed. Little do he and the others know that the quilt was recovered by the community's leader, the father of Ryan's girlfriend, who has his own dark purpose for it.

Directors: Timothy Bond
Watch Now:Amazon
Brain Drain
star
6.86
22 votes

#14 - Brain Drain

Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/30/1988

A dim-wittedd man discovers a cursed trefinator in a museum warehouse: a guillotine-like device that transfers spinal fluid from one individual to another. The cursed item actually transfers intelligence as well, and the man uses it to make himself intelligent by preying upon doctors at the museum. Jack and the others become involved when Jack's old girlfriend and fiancee goes to work at the museum, and is the next target for the trefinator.

Directors: Lyndon Chubbuck
Watch Now:Amazon
Doctor Jack
star
6.85
59 votes

#15 - Doctor Jack

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/14/1987

A doctor has obtained the cursed scapel used by Jack the Ripper, and discovers he can use it to kill one victim and miraculously heal one of his patients. His reputation as a miracle worker soon spreads, bringing him to the trio's attention. However, when Jack is injured, the doctor must choose whether to heal his enemy, or ruin his reputation.

Directors: Richard Friedman
Watch Now:Amazon
Bedazzled
star
6.80
25 votes

#16 - Bedazzled

Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/27/1988

Jack and Ryan recover a cursed lantern from two treasure hunters who use it to recover lost treasure by killing their divers with it. They take it back to the vault and then head off for a convention. The two crooks follow them to the shop and try to recover the lantern from Micki and the neighbor boy that she is babysitting. Micki manages to kill the two, and when Jack and Ryan return and ask what she did, she nonchalantly replied, ""Not much.""

Directors: Alexander Singer
Watch Now:Amazon
Mesmer's Bauble
star
6.79
14 votes

#17 - Mesmer's Bauble

Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/6/1989

A homely record-store clerk is obsessed with pop diva Angelica, and happens to stumble upon a jewelry robbery where the thieves drop one of the items: a cursed pendant that first belonged to Dr. Mesmer. The curse lets the clerk fulfill his every wish by mesmerizing a victim into doing whatever he wants them to. He wishes first for attractiveness, and then for the diva's love and the chance to be close to her. Ultimately, however, none of this is good enough for him, and his final wish is to _be_ Angelica. The wish is successful, but Micki and Ryan, close on his trail, manage to intercept him/her at a concert and grab the necklace, undoing all the benefits it bestowed.

Writer: Joe Gannon
Watch Now:Amazon
Coven of Darkness
star
6.77
13 votes

#18 - Coven of Darkness

Season 2 - Episode 26 - Aired 6/17/1989

The trio attempt to recover a ""witches' ladder"", a beaded necklace that can greatly enhance a witch's power. It is in the safekeeping of a coven of white witches. Unbeknownst to them, a coven of black witches, led originally be Lewis Vendredi and then by his female lieutenant are also trying to get the ladder. They cast a spell on Ryan, turning him into a mindless slave who brings them the necklace from the Vault. Jack and Micki, tapping into Micki's latent occult powers, manage to break the spell on Ryan, recover the witches' ladder, and destroy the coven.

Directors: George Blomfield
Watch Now:Amazon
A Cup of Time
star
6.77
98 votes

#19 - A Cup of Time

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/24/1987

An antique tea cup decorated with ""borrowers' ivy"" lets the user borrow youth and talent from a victim by taking their life. A senior citizen uses the cup to reinvent herself as a young rock singer, ""Lady Die,"" but a young girl whom the cousins befriend witnesses her kill one of her victims, and is at risk herself.

Directors: F. Harvey Frost
Watch Now:Amazon
The Great Montarro
star
6.75
57 votes

#20 - The Great Montarro

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/7/1987

A magician creates a new death-defying act using a pair of cursed antique ""magic boxes"" created by the famous magician Houdin. Anyone placed in one box can survive any danger...because someone placed in the second, hidden box suffers all the harm. Jack, a magician himself, enters a magic competition as the trio try to ferret out who is using the magic boxes.

Directors: Richard Friedman
The Tree of Life
star
6.73
11 votes

#21 - The Tree of Life

Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/19/1990

An exclusive fertility clinic is much mroe than it seems. It is run by a cult of female Druids who use a cursed fertility statue to expand their numbers. When infertile couples come to them, they use a ritual that kills the husband and results in the birth of twins: a boy and a girl. They only tell the mother that one child was born, and turn over the boy. They keep the girl to raise as a Druid priestess. A friend of Micki's is undergoing treatment, leading the trio to the clinic. They manage to break up the statue before the Druid priestesses can use a ritual to cause the fertility statue to replicate. The head Druids die, and the trio manage to reunite the young girls with their true mothers.

Directors: William Fruet
Watch Now:Amazon
The Poison Pen
star
6.70
63 votes

#22 - The Poison Pen

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/10/1987

The cousins and Jack track an antique quill pen to a monastery famed for its mysterious prophecies. The pen can be used to make anything written with it come true...at the cost of a human life for each ""wish"" granted. However, the identity of the monk using the pen, and the location of the pen, isn't known. The trio must solve the mystery before it's too late.

Directors: Timothy Bond
Watch Now:Amazon
Double Exposure
star
6.68
19 votes

#23 - Double Exposure

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/21/1988

Winston Knight, a TV anchorman, gains great fame because a serial killer, the Machete Killer, will only contact him. What no one knows is that Knight is using a cursed camera that lets him create an exact duplicate of himself that goes out and kills for him, providing him with an ironclad alibi and great ratings. As long as he destroys the negative within the allotted time, Knight is fine. Unfortunately, Ryan's new girlfriend Cathy witnesses one of the murders and realizes Knight is somehow the Machete Killer. One of Knight's photo-duplicates kills her, but the trio are close on Knight's trail. Knight eventually fails to destroy one of his indestructible duplicates in time, and disintegrates. However, the duplicate has little time to savor its new life before it dies of previously inflicted wounds.

Directors: Neill Fearnley
Watch Now:Amazon
The Baron's Bride
star
6.68
22 votes

#24 - The Baron's Bride

Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/20/1988

A cursed broach possesses several strange abilities, including the ability to transform its wearer into a vampire and the ability to, when daubed with blood, let its wearer travel through time. Micki and Ryan find that the broach's owner, a female vampire, is trying to transform her new male tenant into a vampire. They manage to kill the female, but the transformed tenant, Frank, uses the broach to travel back into time to London in the late 19th century. Micki and Ryan managed to follow him. Befriended by a destitute writer, Abraham, and his fiancee, they manage to track down the vampire and kill him, but not before Abraham's fiancee is killed. They return to their own time, and Jack can only speculate that ""Abraham"" may have been Bram Stoker.

Directors: Bradford May
Writer: Larry Gaynor
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Pirate's Promise
star
6.65
20 votes

#25 - The Pirate's Promise

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 7/2/1988

Tracking a cursed foghorn, Micki and Ryan arrive at an isolated community. Initially unbeknownst to them, the local lighthouse keeper is using the foghorn to summon up the ghost of pirate Angus MacBride, who kills his descendents in return for revealing more and more of his hidden treasure to the keeper. Ultimately the keeper discovers that he is the last descendent of MacBridge, and the pirate captain completes his crew at last.

Directors: Bill Corcoran
Writer: Carl Binder
Watch Now:Amazon