Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Rated R
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Score: 4 out of 5
Jason's back, and he's in three-dee! Given the brazenly commercial nature of this series, the fact that the third movie wound up being in 3-D should come as no surprise, and neither should the fact that this film exploits the hell out of the third dimension to throw everything it can at the viewer, as the poster above demonstrates. Actually, this is a big part of the reason why I liked this film so much more than the prior two. This is where the Friday the 13th series truly began in my book, and not just because it's the film where Jason got his hockey mask. It has a sense of fun and self-awareness that the first two films lacked, while also giving me reason to care about the characters by letting them develop personalities and fleshing out some of their backstories. The body count is higher, the kills are bloodier, Jason is a tougher and more credible threat, and on the whole, it's easily the best film in the series up to this point. Hell, even the 3-D effects still hold up decently despite all the advances made in the technology since.
Picking up right where the second film left off, Part III starts with Jason Voorhees getting up from the beatdown he took at the end of that film, killing a pair of local shop owners before going after a group of co-eds vacationing at a house on Crystal Lake. One of them, Chris Higgins, the daughter of the house's owners, was violently attacked there by a mysterious deformed man some time prior, and is understandably reluctant to go back, only being brought there by her friends to help her overcome her fears. Unfortunately, given who is on the loose, they picked the worst possible time to do that, especially since it turns out that Jason was the man who attacked her in the first place. Throw in some bikers that they manage to piss off, and you've got a recipe for a rampage.
This was probably the first ensemble of characters in a Friday film that I actually managed to care about, and let me tell you, it elevated the film substantially. All of the archetypes are represented here: the obnoxious nerd and prankster Shelly, his blind date Vera, the young lovers Andy and Debbie, and the stoners Chuck and Chili, all of whom get some development to flesh them out beyond which role they play as sacrifices to the Ancient Ones. It's not much, granted, but it's better than what we got in the last two films, and enough to make me care about them when they died. The only characters who felt like cheap cannon fodder were the bikers Ali, Loco, and Foxy, but even they made for entertaining minor villains. At the center, we have the final girl Chris and her boyfriend Paul, the former of whom actually gets an arc pertaining to her past and her quest to overcome her fear. Chris was an immediately likable heroine, her relationship with Paul felt real and authentic, and I was rooting for her to succeed during her final knock-down, drag-out fight with Jason across the house and the barn, one that clearly takes a lot out of her both physically and mentally even though you know she's going to win. As far as final girls go, while I'm admittedly only three movies in, she's probably the best that this series has had so far.
Also the best was the killer. Jason has taken a level in badass after his frankly underwhelming show in the second film, dishing out brutal kills with everything from farm implements to a spear gun to his trusty machete to his own bare hands. The filmmakers were eager to show off the 3-D effects here, and they let the blood flow in ways that the prior films were never able to. No longer making the dumb mistakes he did before, he now feels like a credible threat, elevating both his menace and the demonstration of Chris' resourcefulness as she fights back against him. Pacing is still an issue here, unfortunately, though this time, most of the problems are front-loaded. We get not one, but two openings that have little bearing on the rest of the movie, one of which is just the ending of the last film replayed to serve as a recap, and while the film really starts to move forward after around the fifteen-minute mark, it takes a couple of false starts to get there. That said, once it got rolling, it rapidly grabbed my interest, working its magic with Harry Manfredini's score (including a disco version of the main theme played over the opening credits) and a mix of fun times and tense moments. Everything from the acting to the special effects felt like it had more effort put into it than before, coming together into a film that knew what it was and what it wanted to be.
This was probably the first ensemble of characters in a Friday film that I actually managed to care about, and let me tell you, it elevated the film substantially. All of the archetypes are represented here: the obnoxious nerd and prankster Shelly, his blind date Vera, the young lovers Andy and Debbie, and the stoners Chuck and Chili, all of whom get some development to flesh them out beyond which role they play as sacrifices to the Ancient Ones. It's not much, granted, but it's better than what we got in the last two films, and enough to make me care about them when they died. The only characters who felt like cheap cannon fodder were the bikers Ali, Loco, and Foxy, but even they made for entertaining minor villains. At the center, we have the final girl Chris and her boyfriend Paul, the former of whom actually gets an arc pertaining to her past and her quest to overcome her fear. Chris was an immediately likable heroine, her relationship with Paul felt real and authentic, and I was rooting for her to succeed during her final knock-down, drag-out fight with Jason across the house and the barn, one that clearly takes a lot out of her both physically and mentally even though you know she's going to win. As far as final girls go, while I'm admittedly only three movies in, she's probably the best that this series has had so far.
Also the best was the killer. Jason has taken a level in badass after his frankly underwhelming show in the second film, dishing out brutal kills with everything from farm implements to a spear gun to his trusty machete to his own bare hands. The filmmakers were eager to show off the 3-D effects here, and they let the blood flow in ways that the prior films were never able to. No longer making the dumb mistakes he did before, he now feels like a credible threat, elevating both his menace and the demonstration of Chris' resourcefulness as she fights back against him. Pacing is still an issue here, unfortunately, though this time, most of the problems are front-loaded. We get not one, but two openings that have little bearing on the rest of the movie, one of which is just the ending of the last film replayed to serve as a recap, and while the film really starts to move forward after around the fifteen-minute mark, it takes a couple of false starts to get there. That said, once it got rolling, it rapidly grabbed my interest, working its magic with Harry Manfredini's score (including a disco version of the main theme played over the opening credits) and a mix of fun times and tense moments. Everything from the acting to the special effects felt like it had more effort put into it than before, coming together into a film that knew what it was and what it wanted to be.
The Bottom Line
If you're just getting into the Friday the 13th series, I recommend starting with this one and maybe going back to the first two later, as this was the point where all the iconic elements of the series really coalesced into something great. At last, I understand why this series was so iconic, and not coincidentally, it's with the film where Jason first put on a hockey mask.
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