Emma Talks Nerdy About: Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)

The theatrical poster showcases the awesome 3D

This review previously appeared on my other blog "When Franchises Attack!" 

After another enormous box office success in Friday the 13th Part 2 the inevitable decision to make a second sequel was made, keeping the same director and kicking off a mere day after the latest massacre at Crystal Lake Friday the 13th part 3 tells the story of Final Girl Chris dragging her mates to the location where she was nearly killed by Jason once already to be horribly massacred along with a couple of hippies and the worlds most ineffectual biker gang. Nice one Chris.

eye popping FX at work there

In the hallowed tradition of many of its horror fellows the third installment of the Friday the 13th series is filmed in glorious 3D, watching the film 30 years on most of the pleasure in this comes only from spotting where the filmmakers chose to exploit the chance to have things pop out at the audience. For that statement read "every damn time they could find even the most tenuous excuse to do so". You are treated to such delights as a washing line pole, a yo-yo and even a joint flying out of the screen however its in the kills that the 3D proves most entertaining, Rick's eye being crushed out of his skull and flying out at you must rank as one of my favourite Jason maneuvers of the series.

You may detect from the tone of my review thus far that I'm not overly enamored of this movie, and you'd be correct, in comparison to its predecessors Friday the 13th Part 3 is a much more generic piece of work, the kills, apart from the use of the 3D, have stopped being innovative and interesting and slipped into being workman like. Characters like the aforementioned silly biker gang, the random religious nutter and the pair of hippies are there just to be chopped up by Jason instead of being a sympathetic and likable bunch of youngsters like in the previous films. For the first time in this franchise you get served up characters who you think "oh my God I can't wait until Jason kills you dead!" rather than "oh my God I hope they get away from him!" The acting by the entire cast is poor and Chris in contrast to her Final Girl compatriots is just downright dislikable and dumb as a post, why on Earth would you go back to a place where not only were you were nearly murdered but where a mass killing literally just happened and for all you know the killer is still on the loose in the area?

It's at this point where the films begin to resemble what the critics always said they were, gruesome for the sake of being gruesome, overly sexualised and mean spirited. The kills stop being scary and instead become laughable, unlike the previous two films where the violence, although it was explicit or unpleasant drove the plot and was there for a reason, in Part 3 the set piece kills seem to have been dreamed up first and then a film filled in around them. There is virtually no tension to be had, the direction is very flat in comparison to the director Steve Miner's work on Part 2, he seems to be bored of the whole enterprise and his film reflects that.

well... ow

Despite this there are some positives to take away from this film, Jason finally gains his hockey mask and is quite physically intimidating, although I've complained about the kills they are fun to see and if you want to just sit and enjoy a silly horror movie in the wee small hours with a group of mates, this is the one of the series I'd pick. I mean come on, Andy being cut in half while doing some hand walking and stuck in the rafters is silly but pretty awesome.

EMMA'S SCORE: 35 out of 100