Looking Back At The Sleeping Bag Death In Friday The 13th Part 7: The New Blood

Ranked as one of the most popular kills in the Friday The 13th franchise, the sleeping bag death of camper Judy in Friday The 13th Part 7: The New Blood is still talked about and debated to this day. Funny enough, our Ranking The Franchise series did not even rank the death in the Top 3 of the film itself let alone the entire franchise. Maybe the overall scene is not the reason why fans enjoy the death so much. Perhaps our readers can identify more with the experiences of using a sleeping bag and fears of someone picking them up and slamming them around.

Writer Daryl Haney even mentioned during an interview in Crystal Lake Memories that the idea for the sleeping back kill came from his childhood and memories of shoving his brother into a sleeping bag. He posited that the fear of being wrapped up in a sleeping bag is frightening. So we understand that claustrophobic fear is identifiable throughout the fanbase, but why does the actual death itself resonate with fans?

Director John Carl Buechler mentioned the original idea for the death scene would have Jason Voorhees slamming Judy multiple times against the tree, with some swipes being shown in slow motion. There is low quality video of the original death included on certain DVD releases of The New Blood and while watching the scene, it seems to lose some of the "wow" factor. Apparently, I wasn't the only one to sense this as during editing, Buechler made the decision to cut the amount of sleeping bag swings to one.

The fear associated with being enclosed in a sleeping bag coupled with one fatal swing up against a tree has elicited cheers for nearly thirty years. The sleeping bag kill is not a gory scene and not necessarily one of the best staged, but Jason actor Kane Hodder's self proclaimed favorite kill will live on in Horror film infamy forever. Where does this kill rank for your in the film as well as the franchise? What about the kill makes it memorable for our readers personally and as well as part of the series?