The Worst Episodes of Friday the 13th: The Series

#1 Worst Episode
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5.5/10(164 votes)
#1 - Bottle of Dreams
S1:E267/30/1988
A mysterious messenger brings a Coptic urn to the store, which bursts open when Micki and Ryan take it to the Vault. The gas from the jar puts them into a trance where they are forced to relive their most horrifying moments over and over until they die. Jack calls upon his friend, a fellow mystic named Rashid, to help him enter their trance and free them. To do so, Jack must both overcome the spirit of Lewis Vendredi, who arranged for the urn's delivery to gain revenge, and confront the spirit of his deceased son.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
6.1/10(386 votes)
#2 - Cupid's Quiver
S1:E310/17/1987
An unattractive low-life gets hold of a cursed statue of Cupid that allows him to turn women into loving worshippers who fall at his feet. However, he is compelled to kill them in hideous ways once he has his way with them.
Director:Atom Egoyan
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Atom Egoyan
Writer:Unknown
6.2/10(171 votes)
#3 - Badge of Honor
S1:E237/9/1988
An old boyfriend of Micki's, Tim Ayres, shows up in town, and immediately begins acting suspiciously. Ryan, somewhat jealous, believes that Ayres is working with local counterfeiters. It turns out that Ayres is an undercover cop. Unfortunately, the crook he is tracking killed the wife of Russ Sharko, who has the cursed sheriff's badge of Wyatt Earp, and is using it to kill off criminals vigilante-style. In the end, Ayres and Sharko are both killed and the badge is recovered.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
6.4/10(315 votes)
#4 - The Poison Pen
S1:E210/10/1987
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.
Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
6.4/10(241 votes)
#5 - The Great Montarro
S1:E611/7/1987
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.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
6.4/10(160 votes)
#6 - Doorway to Hell
S2:E19/30/1988
Lewis Vendredi was defeated in the previous episode Bottle of Dreams, but he has another plan. Vendredi is using a mirror that he prepared before his death, hidden away in an old home that the cousins were unaware their uncle owned. The mirror will open a doorway to hell, and let Lewis escape. Vendredi possesses the body of one of two escaped convicts who has fled to hell. Jack must enter the doorway and destroy it from within, which he manages to do.
Director:William Fruet
Writer:Jim Henshaw
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Director:William Fruet
Writer:Jim Henshaw

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6.4/10(124 votes)
#7 - Demon Hunter
S3:E310/14/1989
A close-knit family, the Cassidys, had a daughter who was kidnapped by a cult of demon worshippers. They used her to summon a demon. The daughter escaped, and now the family huts the demon. The cult was connected with Lewis Vendredi, and used a secret cavern beneath Curious Goods for their rituals. The paths of the Cassidys and our intrepid trio cross when they track the demon to the store. The demon must be killed by midnight on a particular day, or it will remain on Earth forever. Ultimately, the demon is destroyed and the trio use the expanded space from the cavern to store more antiques, as the Vault was filling up.
Director:Armand Mastroianni
Writer:Jim Henshaw
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Director:Armand Mastroianni
Writer:Jim Henshaw
6.5/10(283 votes)
#8 - Hellowe'en
S1:E510/31/1987
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.
Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
6.5/10(198 votes)
#9 - Bedazzled
S1:E142/27/1988
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.""
Director:Alexander Singer
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Alexander Singer
Writer:Unknown
6.5/10(148 votes)
#10 - The Voodoo Mambo
S2:E210/7/1988
During a local voodoo celebration, Jack meets an old friend, Hedley, who is a voodoo houngan, and the ""Keeper of Fire"". Hedley's granddaughter Stacey is to be initiated as a priestess. However, the other three priests of the other elements are being killed off by Cole, a rich young man using a cursed voodoo mask. He is working for Laotia, a priestess who has promised him power but plans to take it all for herself once Cole has killed the priests. We eventually find out that Laotia and Hedley were married, and that Hedley had killed his wife years ago when she turned to evil. The cousins, Jack, and Hedley must defeat Laotia once and for all.
Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
6.5/10(130 votes)
#11 - The Maestro
S2:E235/27/1989
A famous dancer, Anton Pascola, is crippled in an accident before completing his masterpiece, ""Shiva."" He obtains a cursed symphonia (music box). Using it, he can have students dedicate themselves to the dance, and they then begin to enact the parts of the dance. However, each one dies shortly in a frenzy of dancing. A daughter of one of Jack's friends is enraptured by Pascola. Ultimiately, knowing of the curse, she herself takes on part of the dance to help Pascola but it's still not enough. Ultimately, Pascola himself takes on the curse, which allows him to dance despite his crippled legs and give his greatest performance even though he dies in the process.
Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
6.5/10(75 votes)
#12 - The Prophecies (2)
S3:E210/7/1989
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.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
6.5/10(116 votes)
#13 - The Tree of Life
S3:E195/19/1990
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.
Director:William Fruet
Writer:Unknown
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Director:William Fruet
Writer:Unknown
6.6/10(237 votes)
#14 - Shadow Boxer
S1:E811/21/1987
A cursed set of boxing gloves makes their owner unbeatable in the ring...while his shadow goes out and beats an innocent to death. The trio manage to recover the gloves, but the boxer they stole them from breaks into the shop and hold Micki at knifepoint until he gets them back. To beat him, Ryan has to beat Jack with the gloves so his shadow can defeat the boxer.
Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
6.6/10(205 votes)
#15 - Tattoo
S1:E163/12/1988
A young man, Tommy Chow, gets hold of a set of tattoo needles. He tattoes an innocent victim, and the tattoo then comes to gory life and kills the victim. In return, Tommy, a compulsive gambler, gets good luck in the games. The trio team up with Tommy's grandfather, Lom, a Chinese medicine man, and try to save Tommy's sister, the next victim, before the snake tattoo kills her. Unfortunately, Tommy is playing a game of high-stakes Russian Roulette when they save his sister.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
6.6/10(141 votes)
#16 - Symphony in B#
S2:E511/4/1988
Jack is a fan of deceased violinist, Janos Korda. Ryan's new girlfriend Leslie, a violinist, is Korda's widow. Each year a new album of Korda's ""lost"" music is mysteriously released. Also initially believing that The trio find out that Korda is still alive, but horribly disfigured and crippled by the car crash it was believed he was killed in. Only by using a cursed violin, and killing a victim with its razor-sharp bow, can Korda temporarily gain enough control of his hands to produce new music. Upon seeing his ex-wife Leslie, he becomes obsessed with her and tries to steal her away. Leslie sacrifices herself rather than let Ryan become Korda's next victim, and Korda kills himself in despair at her loss.
Director:Unknown
Writers:Carl Binder, Peter Mohan
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Director:Unknown
Writers:Carl Binder, Peter Mohan
6.6/10(147 votes)
#17 - Night Hunger
S2:E101/14/1989
A young hot rodder is given a gift by Lewis Vendredi: a silver key chain that lets him win car races. However, he has to kill those he races against to get the curse to work. His ultimate goal is to beat his rival, Deacon, and show he's worthy of his abusive father's respect. Micki and Ryan try to get the key chain away from him, but only succeed in crashing the rodder's car...and causing the key chain to enter his heart! Ultimately, the boy's father sacrifices himself to stop his son by ramming him head-on during the final race.
Director:Martin Lavut
Writer:Jim Henshaw
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Director:Martin Lavut
Writer:Jim Henshaw
6.6/10(146 votes)
#18 - Face of Evil
S2:E142/11/1989
The compact lost in last season's ""Vanity's Mirror"" is found by the dead girl's sister, who is now working as a make-up artist. Inadvertently, the aging starlet she works for gets hold of it, and discovers it has a new ability: by flashing light from the compact into a victim's eyes, they die a horrible, disfiguring death but the actress looks are rejuvenated. Our intrepid trio manage to get hold of it, leaving the actress to suffer all the disfigurements she inflicted on others as the curse snaps back.
Director:William Fruet
Writer:Jim Henshaw
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Director:William Fruet
Writer:Jim Henshaw
6.6/10(129 votes)
#19 - Midnight Riders
S3:E132/10/1990
Micki, Johnny, and Jack are taking a break, and star-gazing in Jack's old hometown. However, a ghostly biker gang, the Midnight Riders, rolls into town. At the same time, Jack's father Cawley, who has been gone for ten years, also shows up. The gang is out for revenge, as they were falsely accused of raping a girl who lied to protect her reputation and explain the fact she was pregnant. Jack's father was one of the ones who killed the gang and hid the secret. It turns out that Jack's father is also a ghost: he died at sea, but has returned on the anniversary of the gang's death. The girl and the others who participated in the gang's death are killed, and after a brief reunion with his son, Cawley's ghost disappears as well.
Director:Allan Eastman
Writer:Jim Henshaw
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Director:Allan Eastman
Writer:Jim Henshaw
6.7/10(294 votes)
#20 - A Cup of Time
S1:E410/24/1987
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.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
6.7/10(238 votes)
#21 - Doctor Jack
S1:E711/14/1987
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.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Marc Scott Zicree
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Marc Scott Zicree
6.7/10(227 votes)
#22 - Root of All Evil
S1:E911/28/1987
A gardener's assistant gets hold of a cursed mulcher. The more wealthy and valuable the person you feed into it, the more money that comes out. The trio manage to feed the assistant into the mulcher, and nothing comes out. Meanwhile, Micki's fiancee Lloyd tries to convince her to give up the antique business, but at the end she declines, feeling obliged to continue recovering the cursed antiques.
Director:Allan King
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Allan King
Writer:Unknown
6.7/10(128 votes)
#23 - Year of the Monkey
S3:E111/27/1990
The trio track a cursed tea set to a samurai, Musashi: an honorable man, but one who refuses to give them the antique unless they aid him in recovering a mystical set of oriental monkey statues (which represent See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil). A wealth Japanese industrialist, Tanaka, has them, and they reward his honorable behavior with success in business. Now he is almost ready to die, and the magic of the statues require that he use them to test the honor of his three children to see which one will inherit. Each monkey gives a child magical powers, but the two sons abuse their power and fail to act honorably. Forced to choose seppuku (ritual suicide) they refuse, and the monkey statues then kill them. each death further reinvigorates Tanaka. The daughter passes her test, but is then required to use the statues to kill her father. She refuses, and kills herself. Musashi then confronts his old friend Tanaka and tricks him into killing the unarmed samurai. Having acted dishon
Director:Rodney Charters
Writer:R. Scott Gemmill
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Director:Rodney Charters
Writer:R. Scott Gemmill
6.8/10(184 votes)
#24 - The Electrocutioner
S1:E174/23/1988
An innocent man is condemned to the electric chair, but manages to survive. Embittered, the man buys the electric chair from Lewis Vendredi. A dentist, he takes a job in an orphanage and disguise it as a dentist's chair. He then kills the orphans and covers up their disappearance by claiming they are runaways. The killings let him electrically charge himself into a living dynamo, so that he can go out and kill those responsible for finding him guilty at his trial. The trio must ground him before he can kill again.
Director:Rob Hedden
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Rob Hedden
Writer:Unknown
6.8/10(128 votes)
#25 - The Mephisto Ring
S2:E174/15/1989
A World Series ring for the infamous Black Sox game allows its owner to predict winning games to gamble on...if the owner puts the ring on a sacrificial victim and condemns them to a gory death. A three-time loser gets hold of the ring left to him by his deceased father, and tries to use it to gain wealth.
Director:Bruce Pittman
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Bruce Pittman
Writer:Unknown