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| From http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fridaythe13th/images/ 4/44/Friday3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151028234428 |
Director: Steve Miner
Screenplay: Martin Kitrosser, Carol
Watson and Petru Popescu
Cast: Dana Kimmell (as Chris
Higgins); Paul Kratka (as Rick); Tracie Savage (as Debbie); Jeffrey Rogers (as
Andy); Larry Zerner (as Shelly)
A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) # 28
[Warning - Contains Plot Spoilers for Friday the 13th Part 2 and Part
3]
Regardless of this review, Friday the 13th Part 3 is part of one
of the most memorable viewing experiences when Channel in the UK did a season
of 3D programming on television in 2009. Three dimensions were being
reintroduced to cinema at this time for the noughties but it used the old red
and blues glasses, distributed for free from any Sainsbury's supermarket chain store. Most of it was far removed
from cultish - an old 3D document of the Queen restored with a documentary
surrounding it, a Hanna Montana concert
film before Miley Cyrus even thought
about climbing a wrecking ball, but there were two retro film screenings of
interest. One I still to this day regret missing was the Andy Warhol produced Flesh
For Frankenstein (1973), a film dying to be released again on DVD or
Blu-Ray for many fans. The other was Friday
the 13th Part 3, fun back when I saw it with the three dimensions for how
silly it was and the effects being so blatant. Seeing it again in two
dimensions, 3D films if they can't be seen in their original form really feel
like they've been mutilated. The price of three dimensional capabilities for
TVs, for a niche market, is problematic alongside the variability of theatrical
screenings, schlocky films like this just as undermined without the dimensions
they were created to have as would a deliberate art film like Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye Language (2014), in this case wanting to poke yo-yos into
the viewers' faces rather than Godard's
musing on the 21st century and sexual politics.
Beyond these found memories, crystallised
in precious thought of Dad trying the glasses on and me finding the infamous
eyeball pop-out moment hilarious, this is exactly what I dreaded when I planned
to go through the Friday the 13th
films in order. Director Steve Miner
dropping the ball from Part 2, as if apathetic or compromised, makes this
experience even worse. Part 2
(nearly) extracted itself from the bland original film and became an admirable
gothic rural slasher with a heroine you actually had any interest in, Amy Steel with literal steel to her
personality, and side characters you felt sadness for in their deaths. Come Part 3 and this is all gone and all
that's left if a threadbare dead teenager movie. Teenagers go to Crystal Lake
to party, two of them stoners who look more like the group's hippie aunt and
uncle, and Jason Voorhees starts killing them off, somehow lasting for ninety
minutes for an inexplicable reason despite the real lack of grit to the
proceedings.
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| From http://crypticrock.com/wp-content/ uploads/2016/08/friday-3-3-1024x439.jpg |
3D is the main selling tool for
this film. An end of a baseball bat sticks out as do hands and blades, meant to
make the film a ghoulish tactile ride, but sadly none of the film cares to be
as three dimensional as these shots. Steel
leaves the series a nervous wreck only to be replaced by Dana Kimmell in the terrible
position of being a literal black hole, a figure who has little of interest in
her. The one thing that counts as an actual personality is a flashback to Jason
having attacking her that, by accident to how its presented, inadvertently
evokes the idea of Voorhees as a rapist or leaves such a giant plot whole in
the back-story to wrap one's head around. Surrounding is a dearth of the
interesting, fun characters of the last film, strange caricatures lacking
anything of interest, particularly a group part of a peculiar obsession in
American eighties cinema of a progressive, multi-ethnic gang who merely exist
for as fodder for being killed. All of them are mere meat for the grinder, the
only interesting character found in Shelly (Larry
Zerner), a sad chubby horror fan who openly hates himself and expresses his
sadness by playing tricks on others. His short story, including one of the
girls liking him in spite of his prickly personality, is the sole thing that actually
stood out as interesting, and its sadly cut down by the nature of this being a
slasher film needing a body count.
Most of the film is merely for
elaborate ways for people to die but it sacrifices any sense of style from the
last film in favour of someone getting a harpoon to the eye, not interesting
for me unless its the most inventive type of ridiculous kills in a film and/or
if there's some emotional incentive to care. Even Jason here is a non-entity
rather than a present, disturbing threat. Only the fact he gets the hockey mask
finally here is of interest, none of the threat of a bumbling giant hulk from
the last film who was yet vicious and resourceful. Scares are cheap jumps
telegraphed and piled on top of each other and Harry Manfredini's score assistance from Michael Zager is just as overbearing as before, only redeeming
himself here a little with the disco funk title theme.
It even rip-offs off the twist
ending of the first film in shameful cannibalism, worse knowing another ending
was scrapped beforehand which was original. As much as slashes are meant to be
fun for the most part, they're visible mirrors of real life serial killings, if
they're based over a set time period like a month, or horrible real life
killing sprees if set within only a few hours. An overtly American sub-genre,
slashers should be a safety net to tackle these above subjects in a way that's
both to have tension as much as cause someone to throw their popcorn in the air
with a shriek. How bland Friday the 13th
Part 3 is shocks me. I don't find chase scenes without an emotional
connection to them or if they're the best chase scenes ever conceived for
cinema from someone like Brian De Palma.
I also find that, if I want ridiculous deaths and strange characters, Italy in
particular around this time went carte blanche in this area of cinema to delirious
levels. Part 4 with Joseph Zito in the director's chair
couldn't come quick enough and considering how long it took just to see Part 3, its going to be a miserable waiting
period if another delay occurs.
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| From https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w1280/ 4L1MSZo8dQ20x4AhBDKfDs1cOjs.jpg |
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