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With Steve Miner’s Friday the 13th, Part 3 3-D (and after two other installments), we at last achieve the iconic image of Jason Voorhees with that creepy-ass hockey mask. Before this, Jason has worn a less intimidating sack with an eye hole cut out. And while menacing, that’s not quite what we expect from our Jason.
The story follows directly after the events in Part 2, which Jason has survived to continue his bloodthirsty rampage.
And so, right on cue, we get another bunch of young, vacuous protagonists, ripe for the picking (or slicing and dicing, as the case may be). Chris (Dana Kimmell) and a group of her other non-descript friends are taking a small vacation to Crystal Lake. We’re given an inkling that something in Chris’s recent past has left her with disturbed memories of Camp Blood: she’s jumpy and short-tempered about people playing innocent tricks like jumping out of closets with fake hatchets in their noggins, etc.
Pretty soon, as you’ve probably guessed, Chris and her friends are stalked by a barn-dwelling Jason. The writers (Martin Kitrosser and Ron Kurz) and director Miner pepper the narrative with some inventive ways of slaughtering the unsuspecting vacationers, so there are still some nicely handled moments of cringe. But the addition of a band of embarrassingly attired bikers, clad in leather and ‘80s bandanas, doesn’t add much to the story.
By 1982, Steve Miner had the pattern and the clichés down. The narrative, of course, has no surprises, and while the first and second acts are a little less suspenseful than they were in Parts 1 and 2, the final act is Jason at his hulking best, complete with borrowed hockey mask. Jason’s spine-tingling “ki, ki, ki, ma, ma, ma” theme certainly contributes a lot to the unnerving atmosphere, but one can’t help but think that we’ve seen it all before. And we have—in Parts 1 and 2. The acting is uniformly horrible—even worse than in the other entries—and the dialogue is so inane it all sounds like a bad French translation. Nevertheless, for all its unoriginality, there is definitely some perverse satisfaction in watching this franchise, even when it ultimately disappoints. As for the 3-D effects, well, they don’t work as well as one would have hoped. The technique comes across as self-conscious, as we have spear guns shot at the screen, popcorn bursting from pots, et cetera. On the other hand, to be cognizant of the fact that we are at all times watching one-dimensional characters being hacked and slashed in three-dimensions makes the process a little more entertaining. The glasses (two free pairs are included with the re-issue) get a little annoying, but they’re worth at least one screening.
Overall, the third movie, by virtue of the fact that originality is getting a little thin, lacks the impact of the first two. However, the deaths are more inventive and entertaining (sounds sick, I know—but let’s be honest...) and that ‘80s synth soundtrack is too groovy to pass up. Besides, the last 25 minutes are pure classic Jason, and that’s really what we (and he) come back for.
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