The Best Episodes of Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

#1 Fan Favorite
7.7/10(258 votes)
#1 - Vanity's Mirror
S1:E153/5/1988
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"").
Director:William Fruet
Writer:Unknown
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Director:William Fruet
Writer:Unknown
7.7/10(200 votes)
#2 - Double Exposure
S1:E215/21/1988
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.
Director:Neill Fearnley
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Neill Fearnley
Writer:Unknown
7.5/10(255 votes)
#3 - Scarecrow
S1:E112/6/1988
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.
Director:William Fruet
Writer:Marc Scott Zicree
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Director:William Fruet
Writer:Marc Scott Zicree
7.4/10(220 votes)
#4 - The Baron's Bride
S1:E132/20/1988
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.
Director:Bradford May
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Bradford May
Writer:Unknown
7.4/10(172 votes)
#5 - Pipe Dream
S1:E247/16/1988
Ryan's father Ray, a small-time inventor, rolls into town and announces that he's achieved great financial success and is planning to finally marry. Ray's managed to do so with the aid of a pipe given to him by Lewis Vendredi, which allows him to totally disintegrate first the young inventor whose ideas he stole, and then his rivals in the company he's working for. Eventually Ryan and Micki discover the truth. When Ray tries to kill Micki with the pipe, Ryan throws himself in the way. Ultimiately reconciled with his son, Ray then takes the blast of smoke for himself, dying to save his son.
Director:Zale Dalen
Writer:Marc Scott Zicree
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Director:Zale Dalen
Writer:Marc Scott Zicree
7.2/10(240 votes)
#6 - Tales of the Undead
S1:E101/30/1988
A old and embittered comic book writer, Jay Star, gets hold of a cursed comic book that allows him to transform into Ferrus the Invincible and take vengeance on the individuals who stripped him of his legal rights to the superhero character he created.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Marc Scott Zicree
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Marc Scott Zicree

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The 20 BEST Episodes of Friday the 13th: The Series

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7.2/10(324 votes)
#7 - Faith Healer
S1:E122/13/1988
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.
Director:David Cronenberg
Writer:Christine Cornish
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Director:David Cronenberg
Writer:Christine Cornish
7.1/10(178 votes)
#8 - What a Mother Wouldn't Do
S1:E257/23/1988
Two desperate parents were given an antique cradle by a symathetic Lewis Vendredi. The cradle belonged to a female passenger aboard the Titanic. Trying to rescue her child, she accidentally capsized a lifeboat that killed seven passengers, but her child floated to safety. Now, the curse of the cradle lets the parents cure their ailing baby if they kill seven people by water while the baby is in the cradle. However, they must do so before the anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. Ultimiately, trying to kill the child's babysitter, the parents themselves both manage to die by water, inadvertently giving their lives to save their child. The babysitter ends up with the cured baby, and the trio recover the cradle.
Director:Neill Fearnley
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Neill Fearnley
Writer:Unknown
7.0/10(444 votes)
#9 - The Inheritance
S1:E110/3/1987
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.
Director:William Fruet
Writer:Bill Taub
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Director:William Fruet
Writer:Bill Taub
7.0/10(196 votes)
#10 - Brain Drain
S1:E184/30/1988
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.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.0/10(184 votes)
#11 - The Pirate's Promise
S1:E227/2/1988
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.
Director:Bill Corcoran
Writer:Carl Binder
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Director:Bill Corcoran
Writer:Carl Binder
6.9/10(204 votes)
#12 - The Quilt of Hathor (1)
S1:E195/7/1988
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.
Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
6.9/10(188 votes)
#13 - The Quilt of Hathor: The Awakening (2)
S1:E205/14/1988
Jack and Micki, depressed because Ryan stayed with the Pennitites, learn that the Quilt of Hathor they have is a forgery when they are able to harm it (all of the cursed antiques are indestructible). They return to the religious community to discover that Reverend Josiah, Ryan's father-in-law to be, is using it to destroy his enemies in their dreams. Josiah, unhappy with an outsider romancing his daughter, has framed Ryan for the deaths. Ryan must fight in an old Testament-style trial by combat while the others recover the Quilt.
Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Timothy Bond
Writer:Unknown
6.8/10(186 votes)
#14 - 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
6.7/10(295 votes)
#15 - 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(239 votes)
#16 - 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(228 votes)
#17 - 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
6.6/10(238 votes)
#18 - 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(206 votes)
#19 - 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
6.5/10(284 votes)
#20 - 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(199 votes)
#21 - 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
6.4/10(316 votes)
#22 - 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(242 votes)
#23 - 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
6.2/10(172 votes)
#24 - 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
6.1/10(388 votes)
#25 - 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