| Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982) 95 min |
| I've always had mixed feelings for Friday the 13th Part 3. I've always thought it was hands down the weakest of the first 4 'darker' films, but to be honest I've always found the other three films to be exceptional. So where does that leave this one? Despite some of the shortcomings, I think this is still one of the better entries in the long running series overall. |
| The big gimmick here was that the film would be presented in 3-D at the height of the short lived 3-D ressurgence in the 80s. Unfortunately, the copies of the film readily available to people watching over 20 years later are all flattened out 2-D prints. Much of the impact is lost, it's obvious watching the movie that virtually every scene was shot around the idea of making it a thrilling 3-D experience. It seems that the producers were more concerned with making a big splash at the box office rather than the still young home video market of the time. Whatever their plan, it seemed to work well for them. This was one of the highest grossing entries in the series, producing much higher reciepts than my favorite entry, Part 2. |
| We return to the same tried and true formula that supports the theory that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We pick up right at the end of Part 2 as Jason makes his escape. Surprisingly enough, it turns out he wasn't dead! Anyway, after we annoyingly rewrite a little bit of history from Part 2 (why do they need to show Jason remove the machete from his shoulder when we know he didn't do that in the previous entry?) we meet some local entreprenuers from the Crystal Lake area. After a brief news report from returning director Steve Miner in a cameo as the news reporter, Jason gets down to business. The first order of this particular business would be to steal some clothes from a man who is obviously shorter and fatter than him. After Jason gets his new duds, he gets down to what he does best and offs the older couple running the Crystal Lake Variety Store. Well, now that Jason's wardrobe crisis has been taken care of, he returns to the woods. Fortunately for everyone watchin, a group of teenagers also go to relax in the country near what appears to be a much smaller Crystal Lake. Even better, the fat kid brings a hockey mask with him (why is this particular Jason so hellbent on robbing every fat guy he runs into?). Anyway, the kids are all standard Friday the 13th fare, which in my opinion isn't a bad thing. One of them though, apparently has a history with Jason. A confusing and somewhat incoherent history, but a history nonetheless. |
| In order to pad the running time and body count a little, we are also introduced to three motorcycle gang punks. Well, thanks to some good scripting and performances, the punks bring a good deal of enjoyment to the movie. They're a little pissed at the main group of teenagers because the fat kid backed into their bikes and threatenend to run them over. Motorcycles gang code of honor says that the humiliated must now drain the guilty party's van of gasoline and blow up their barn, possibly bringing harm to any serial killers who might also call the land home. Jason isn't too keen on this idea though, and does his best to preserve to beautiful landmark that is the hold run down barn on the Higgins Estate. |
| After he takes care of these nogoodnicks, Jason brings his focus back to the main group of teenagers. Most of the murders are pretty fun, but would be greatly enhanced by a 3-D presentation since they were obviously designed that way. Anyway, Jason whittles the characters down until he's left alone with the girl who remembers him from a few years ago. The standard chase scene is executed rather nicely, as our heroine gets in a few good blows before the memorable climax. What follows can only really be described as stupid. I've read of several alternate endings that are supposed to take place after the main action, and the producers seemed to have picked the dumbest of them all. |
| Although the ending and the corny music over both the opening and closing credits make a valiant effort, they don't sink the film. There's still more good here than bad. To this day, Steve Miner is the only director to helm to Friday the 13th outings. He doesn't hit the mark quite as solidly as he did the year before with Part 2, but he does have some good stuff here. Richard Brooker does a good job bringing Jason back for another round, and of course we are introduced to the now famous hockey mask that will be forever associated with the Friday the 13th series. Special mention should also go to Larry Zerner who put in an all around good performance as the fat prankster, Shelley. The way he ran to the car when Vera was going to the store was truly remarkable! |
| Like all the other entries in the series, Friday the 13th Part 3 has had a pretty successful life on home video. Most of the early VHS copies looked okay, but suffered from being rentals fro too long and just getting worn out. In the mid 90s they were released as cheap-o EP recorded VHS tapes that claimed to be superior quality because they were transfered digitally. I sincerely hope noone was buying this shit for a second, these video copies looked dreadful! They easily made these movies look far cheaper than they were. Like all the Paramount entries in the series, this one has already hit DVD twice! The first release was pretty exciting and disappointing for fans at the same time. The good news was most important, the transfer looked fantastic (the only one to be shot 2.35:1). This is probably the one that had the biggest difference between VHS and DVD. The packaging was nice and included the original VHS artwork and it sported the trailer as the sole extra feature. The bad news that it wasn't presented in 3-D, which was the film's major drawing card initially. Other disappointments include the complete lack of deleted or extended scenes...they have to be out there, let's see 'em! |
| Paramount has also released a poorly received box set of the first 8 films that promised to be the ultimate editions. In some respects this box set was very exciting, but in others it just didn't appear to go far enough. As for the film at hand, the major new extra is an entertaining commentary track with cast members Richard Brooker (english accent and all!?), Larry Zerner, Dana Kimmel, and Paul Kratka moderated by Crystal Lake Memories author Peter Bracke. The commentary is lively and pretty informative, Bracke is an excellent moderator and the cast all seem to be fantastic sports. Still, many fans are justifiably disappointed by the lack of deleted scenes (there are some for some of the other films) and 3-D presentation. |
| I give this one 3 and 1/2 resurrected bikers out of 5 |
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| Review by Joe Canistro 11/10/04 |