Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982) Paramount Pictures/Horror RT: 95 minutes Rated R (language, graphic violence and gore, nudity, sexual content, drug use) Director: Steve Miner Screenplay: Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson Music: Harry Manfredini Cinematography: Gerald Feil Release date: August 13, 1982 (US) Cast: Dana Kimmell, Paul Kratka, Tracie Savage, Jeffrey Rogers, Catherine Parks, Larry Zerner, David Katims, Rachel Howard, Richard Brooker, Nick Savage, Gloria Charles, Kevin O’Brien, Cheri Maugans, Steve Susskind, Perla Walter, David Wiley. Box Office: $36.9 million (US) Body Count: 12
Rating: *** ½
Friday the 13th Part 3 marks a few milestones in the series. First, it’s the one where deformed killer Jason Voorhees first dons his trademark hockey mask (about an hour into it). Second, it’s the one where he decides that his preferred weapon is a machete. Third, it’s the only one to be released in 3D. I saw it twice in theaters that summer and thought it was way cool. I loved it when Jason squeezed a guy’s skull so hard his eyeball came flying off the screen. I’ve always wanted to see it again in 3D and was delighted when I found a DVD copy that offered the gimmick. Alas, it’s the cheap polarized kind (one red lens, one blue) that offers little more than a headache and strained eyes. Luckily, I caught it at a 3D film festival in 2022 along with Jaws 3D and Amityville 3D.
All in all, Friday the 13th Part 3 is a pretty good entry in the series. I probably would have liked it better if the heroine (Dana Kimmell) wasn’t so damn annoying. Also, and I know I’m going against what I pointed out in my review of the first movie, some of the acting is terrible; in particular, Kimmell (Lone Wolf McQuade) and Paul Kratka. Listen to how he reads his lines. Watch how he carries himself. He’s pretty stiff. She fares a little better, but still sounds like she’s merely reciting dialogue. All that aside, I do like Friday the 13th Part 3. The storyline is pretty good and the characters are an odd assortment. Plus, it has a few cool kill scenes. Isn’t that what the F13 movies are all about?
It picks up right after the events of the previous installment with Jason (Brooker) showing up at a convenience store and murdering the husband (Susskind) and wife (Maugans) owners. He also kills the husband’s pet rabbit. Meanwhile, Chris (Kimmell) and her friends are heading off to her childhood home (Higgins Haven) for a weekend in the country. Her companions are pregnant best friend Debbie (Tracie Savage) and her boyfriend Andy (Rogers), fat practical joker Shelly (Zerner), a beautiful Latina girl named Vera (Parks) and stoner couple Chuck (Katims) and Chili (Howard). They meet up with Chris’ old boyfriend Rick (Kratka), a farmhand who can’t understand why she left home so abruptly two years earlier. Uh huh, something traumatic happened to her. And yes, it involves a frightening encounter with a certain deformed maniac in the woods. She freaks out when Shelly plays a morbid joke. Additional danger rears its head in the form of a motorcycle gang that Vera and Shelly encounter at a local convenience store. After Shelly runs over their bikes with Rick’s car, they show up at the house to exact revenge. Jason makes quick work of the trio- Ali (Nick Savage), Fox (Charles) and Loco (O’Brien). Rick and Chris go for a drive, leaving the others at the house. So begins the slaughter! As expected, Chris is the lone survivor and must overcome her trauma if she wants to live.
What are the methods of murder in Friday the 13th Part 3? Jason comes up with some good one this time around. A guy gets it with a meat cleaver to the chest, a girl gets shot in the eye with a harpoon gun, two people die by pitchfork, a guy gets cut in half, a woman has a knife shoved through her chest while she lies on a hammock and another guy gets electrocuted. One poor chap has the misfortune to be killed twice. Then there’s the flying eyeball scene. LOVE IT!
One of the coolest things about Friday the 13th Part 3 is Harry Manfredini’s opening theme. It’s a bit different this time. It sounds like something the progressive rock band Goblin would compose for an Italian giallo film. The 3D effects looked good on the big screen, but we’re talking 80s 3D. As long as a lot of stuff came at me, I was satisfied. The gore effects are nicely done. Unfortunately, the MPAA struck again and demanded cuts before allowing it to be released with an R rating (as opposed to X). It’s fairly bloody as is, but I subscribe to the theory of “the more, the better” when it comes to gore. Such is the curse of the gorehound. We always want more.
What’s good about the F13 flicks is that they’re old school splatterfests. I prefer good old fashioned stage blood over the CGI gore that shows up in today’s super-violent movies (e.g. Machete Kills). On that level, Friday the 13th Part 3 delivers. It’s a good movie that doesn’t quite measure up to its two predecessors. It’s still very watchable, but stick with 2D when you watch it at home.
