Friday the 13th Part III (1982 film)

Copyright: Paramount Pictures

So, we have here the third installment of the Friday the 13th series, and was one of the earlier films in the short-lived 1980s 3-D boom that took advantage of third installment titling (Friday the 13th 3-D, Jaws 3-D, Amityville 3-D, etc.).  From what I've read, the original idea for the film was to have the survivor from the second film check herself into a mental institution, only to have Jason, who survived his injuries, stalk her through the building, killing anyone in his way.  This was somewhat complicated, though, by the fact that the plot is very similar to Halloween II's, and the fact that the actress, Amy Steele, didn't want to come back.  So, they changed the storyline to focus more on the area around Crystal Lake.

Following the events of the second film (not shown in 3-D), Jason ends up walking through some laundry outside a grocery store near Crystal Lake.  The owner's wife sees him, thinking it's her husband, and calls out for him.  Her husband surprises her, knocking over one of the posts the clothesline is hanging on, then picks it up (giving us our first 3-D trick) and sets it right.  Then, he heads to the store, finds a pet rabbit in the produce and scolds it, then starts opening products and helping himself.  His wife catches him in the act, scolding him for eating more than he should (instead of, y'know, eating the profits from the grocery), then tells him to take the rabbit back to its cage.  The grocer finds the rabbits dead in their hutch, then almost gets attacked by the culprit... a snake strikes.  The guy runs back to the house and straight to... the bathroom?  Needless to say, shortly after this sequence of events, Jason makes short work of the grocer and his wife, then moves on.

The rest of the film is about a group staying at a cabin on Crystal Lake, with the lead girl, Chris, coming back for the first time after two years.  Everyone seems to be having a good time... not realizing that, from a nearby barn, Jason Voorhees is watching them.

As I mentioned, this film has a few of the old 3-D "tricks" that you come to expect.  Stuff comes flying at the screen, or lifted into shot, or just stuff flying or dropping into your face.  We get the laundry pole, the snake strike, some popcorn, some yo-yos and juggling balls, plus a few more macabre items.  The tricks do work, for the most part (though I still sometimes have difficulty with the snake when watching the 3-D version).

This also marks the first occasion that Jason starts wearing his hockey mask.  Before this, we had the "fashionable head bag" (so named in Horror Hound Magazine and I still like using it).  We also get a looks change of a different sort... in the second film, under the head bag, we saw that Jason had a lush, full head of red hair.  Probably realizing that his hair didn't match that of the child Jason we saw in flashbacks and at the end of the original Friday the 13th, they decided to give Jason a bit less hair here... quite a bit less, actually, as he's completely bald behind the mask in 3.  This was also, originally, intended to be the last film of the series, at least until they decided to do an official send-off in part 4.

A pretty fun ride, with some interesting effects, especially considering the 3-D stuff.  I give this one a 4 out of 5.  I'm going to try to bring you Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter next, but I might have to jump ahead to Halloween and come back to that one later on.  Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!