Alternate versions

There's a slightly more graphic death of one of the officers. In the original, Jason squeezes the officer's head until you hear it crunch, but in the alternate death you see some blood gush from his head also.

The film faced censorship problems in Ontario, Canada. For a restricted rating the Ontario Film Review Board required cuts to three scenes, a metal object being thrown at a policeman, an object in forehand with blood dripping, and zooming flashback to closeup.

German VHS version was slightly cut for violence in some of the death scenes by approx. 42 seconds to secure a "Not under 18" rating; nonetheless, the BPjM put this film on the index list from 1987-2009. Since being removed from the index list in 2009, the uncut version has since been granted a "Not under 18" rating, waiving the censorship altogether.

The following scenes were cut to avoid an "X" rating:

• Allen's insides were ripped out of his body by Jason. He dragged the guts and heart out; he dropped them on the ground where his heart lay steaming.
• The triple decapitation of the three paintball players. The first print showed their bodies and heads dropping to the ground.
• The two camp counsellors in the car's deaths were also trimmed: The part where the woman is speared in the water originally showed a close-up shot of blood coming to the surface of the water with the air bubbles. The man was speared, lifted into the air, and then slid down the spear, leaving his insides on it.
• Jason shoved the broken bottle into the caretaker's neck and he falls to the ground as the camera gets a close-up of the blood coming out of the bottle.
• Cort's death originally was not as quick-cut and you could actually see the knife going into his head before he falls over.
• The wall-to-wall blood cabin originally had a lot more blood and guts in it. There were shots of livers and hearts running down the walls, but it was all thought too graphic to have in the film.
• The backbreaking sheriff's scene had more to it. There were more screams, more bone crushing, and his legs began to kick.
• A scene at the very end was cut. In it, a red-haired Elias Voorhees walked to his son's grave. Knowing he wasn't in the casket, Elias gives the camera a wicked glare.
• Sissy's death was toned down. Originally, you could see her head torn off and dropped.

In the script, a shot of Mrs. Voorhees' grave appeared next to her sons' grave in the opening sequence. Later, there was some dialogue in the police station where Tommy asked why Jason wasn't cremated, and the sheriff responded by saying "We were gonna, but some asshole paid to give Jason and his mother a proper burial." "Some asshole" is revealed in the script's final scene to be Jason's father.

In the original script, the deaths of both Jill and Officer Pappas were more graphic. Instead of Jason pushing Nikki's face into the wall, as we see in the wide release, Jason squeezed her throat until blood spurted out. In Officer Pappas' death, Jason originally tore off his face (literally), leaving a faceless corpse staring ahead before falling down. However, veteran Friday The 13th producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. advised director Tom McLoughlin to tone down these scenes for the film, stating that the MPAA would never give the film an "R" rating with these scenes intact.

The workprint version, currently circulating as a bootleg, contains the sheriff's backbreaking death in its entirety. The ending is also slightly altered; it excludes the profanity Tommy spouts at Jason, and the ensuing fight between Tommy and Jason both above and below the lake's surface is longer. After Megan rescues Tommy and shoves the boat's propeller into Jason's neck, the shot of the gore spilling into the water is eliminated.

The Norwegian video-version is uncut with an 18 rating.

In the Malaysian VCD version, the shot of the three paintballers having their heads severed and their bodies falling is edited, now just showing Jason slash the screen. The sex scene between Nikki and Cort is also edited to the point where it shows the first shot of the RV shaking and cuts to Jason popping up and finding it.

An additional scene that has occasionally made its way onto television airings features deputy Rick locked in the jail cell, banging on the cell window, calling for help, and struggling to reach for the keys left on the floor.