The MPAA cracked down on violence in '80s slasher horror movies, but this kill in Friday the 13th Part 7 was actually improved by the censors.

The Friday the 13th franchise fell victim to rampant censorship by the Motion Picture Association of America throughout the '80s, but one kill from Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood was actually improved by the censors' limits. The original Friday the 13th pioneered the slasher horror sub-genre that was most popular in the early to mid-80s, but as the slasher grew, the more over-the-top the blood and gore became. Eventually, the MPAA made it harder and harder for slashers to get an R rating, as they demanded violent sequences to be cut beyond recognition.

The Friday the 13th series was hit hard by this sort of censorship, particularly in the franchise's later entries. As the movies moved further from realism, the kills became more elaborate and creative, forcing the filmmakers to create unique murders to keep audiences coming back for more. The normally machete-wielding Jason Voorhees began using different types of weapons to dispatch the growing number of young victims. However, the growing concern about the violence in these films from the MPAA made the filmmaker's efforts all but pointless. As the series was reaching the end of its life, the films were so watered down that they would likely garner a PG-13 rating today due to the lack of any on-screen violence.

Related: Friday The 13th: How The New Blood Confuses Tina's Powers

Friday the 13th Part 7 was one of the most bloodless films in the franchise, but a kill involving Jason hitting a woman in a sleeping bag against a tree was accidentally improved by the MPAA's censorship of the series. The kill originally called for Jason to hit the sleeping bag against the tree multiple times, but it was cut down to a single hit to achieve an R rating. While the other kills in the film frustratingly cut away from the violent payoffs, this kill was made more brutal through editing. Having Jason hit the tree a single time made him scarier by showing how much sheer brute strength he has, and the quickness of the kill came as more of a shock, as opposed to showing him hitting the tree multiple times.

The sleeping bag kill is the most memorable kill in Part 7 and went on to become not only a fan-favorite kill but also the favorite kill of Kane Hodder who played Jason in Friday the 13th Parts 7-10. This anomaly of a kill benefited from scaling back from its original intended execution and stood out among the sea of watered-down kills from the rest of the film. This kill became so popular that Kane Hodder was able to re-create it in Jason X when Jason is fooled by a Camp Crystal Lake hologram. This sequence has him killing two faux campers, and this time he swings the sleeping bags multiple times in a sly reference to the originally intended kill and its history with censorship.

In a time in slasher horror movie history when the blood and gore of the extensive Friday the 13th franchise were being edited into oblivion, the sleeping bag kill from Part 7 stands out as an instance in which cutting it down made the kill more impactful. By stripping away the excess of the kill, Jason became a more brutal villain, showing that he is powerful enough to kill someone with a single swing against a tree. The later entries suffered from censorship, but this kill was made more famous by leaving most of it on the cutting room floor.

Next: Jason Was Never Supposed To Be Friday The 13th's Villain (Why It Happened)

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