Friday the 13th part 3 is one of my favorites of the entire franchise.
My wife and I watched this in glorious 3D with the little cardboard glasses, and were having a laugh a minute.
This movie has a lot of firsts for the series. Most iconically, it is the first film to have the killer dawn the legendary goalie’s mask. I say the killer because, and this may have just been an oversight, he is not named as Jason anywhere in the movie, (spoiler alert) although unlike part five, it is generally accepted canonically speaking to be Jason, and not some impostor.
This is also the first movie in the series to realize that this whole deal is a big farce and begin to have fun with the idea. Everything from the thumping 80s techno music, to the 3D gimmickry including eyeballs popping out and scenes where the hockey masked killer appears to be reaching right through the screen to grab you.
The teenagers this time around are slightly more memorable, if only because they are such blatant stereotypes. There’s Shelly, the prankster, who is probably the best put together character of the movie and the easiest to relate to on a personal note. He’s the unpopular but sympathetic chubby guy with the collection of horror movie masks that (had he survived!) would have probably grown up to make movies like this.
There’s also a couple obviously modeled from Cheech and Chong; oh, and there’s a biker gang as well. The ending of this movie is also a nice callback to the original.
All in all, this one is just good goofy blood soaked fun. And you’ll have the theme music stuck in your head for days. I personally imagine old hockey puss moon-walking to it for hours on end.
Friday The 13th Part 3 gets a three out of five: GOOD.
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