Friday the 13th Part III in 3D (1982) poster

Friday the 13th Part III in 3D (1982)

Rating:

aka Friday the 13th Part III


USA. 1982.

Crew

Director – Steve Miner, Screenplay – Martin Kitroesser & Carol Watson, Producer – Frank Mancuso Jr, Photography (3-D) – Gerald Feil, Music – Harry Manfredini, Makeup Effects – Allan Apone, Frank Carriosa, Fred Olen Ray & Doug White, Art Direction – Robb Wilson King. Production Company – Paramount.

Cast

Dana Kimmell (Chris), Richard Brooker (Jason Voorhees), Paul Kratka (Rick), Jeff Rodger (Andy), Tracie Savage (Debbie), Catherine Parks (Vera), Rachel Howard (Chili), David Katims (Chuck), Steve Susskind (Harry), Nick Savage, Kevin O’Brian & Gloria Charles (Bikers)


Plot

Jason Voorhees emerges to kill a group of teenagers as they come to party at a farm.


This was the third of the films that began with Friday the 13th (1980). Friday the 13th was fairly forgettable and the rest of the series quickly degenerated into a formula wherein a group of teenagers gather around a particular location for no discernible reason, where they screwed, smoked dope, parties, where women took showers, people wandered into dark rooms alone, got butchered, where the practical joker was not believed when he tried to raise the alarm and so on ad infinitum.

The formula was conducted with so few variations throughout the Friday the 13th series that most of the films become difficult to tell apart. Friday the 13th Part III in 3-D is just the same formula as before and is conducted with crude and style-less suspense by Steve Miner, who had directed the previous entry Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981). Friday the 13th Part III in 3-D, along with Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985), vies for being the worst entry in the series.

Dana Kimmell attacked by Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) in Friday the 13th Part III in 3D (1982)
Dana Kimmell attacked by Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker)

The one difference between Friday the 13th Part III in 3-D and the other entries is that this one was made in 3D to exploit the short lived 1980s 3D revival fad begun with the truly atrocious Comin’ at Ya (1981). Thus there are an endless number of scenes where the audience gets various objects thrust into their faces – snakes, tv aerials, bats, mice, a doobie, a wallet, a fist with a chain wrapped around it, a yoyo, juggled fruit, popped popcorn and of course various novelty killings – a pitchfork coming out of the screen and then jabbing someone in the throat, one victim’s blood dripping out of the screen and into the audience. There is one physiologically ridiculous scene where Jason squeezes a character’s head and the eyeball goes popping out of the screen. It is sad when one realises that this is the highlight of the film.

The other Friday the 13th films are:– Friday the 13th (1980), Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985), Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986), Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), Jason X (2001) and Freddy vs. Jason (2003). The original was remade as Friday the 13th (2009). In a trivia note, this is the film where Jason adopted his trademark hockey mask.


Trailer here


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