Known as the famed chapter in which Jason gets his iconographic mask (and the film in which benefit of the doubt can no longer be issued the plot’s incongruities), Steve Miner returns, with three novice screenwriters in tow–Martin Kitrosser, Petru Popescu, and Carol Watson, with a total of two scripts under their collective belts–in order to concoct a scenario devoid of originality, wit, or even energy (something which most every slasher film, praiseworthy or no, innately possesses). Sadly, with karma no longer on the filmmakers’ sides and despite the fact that the feature was shot in 3-D, Friday the 13th Part III deprives itself of any dignity, value, or even entertainment value as it unrepentantly becomes an inferior effigy of a copy.
After slaying eleven at Packanack Lodge, Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) proceeds to a nearby getaway resort, Higgins Haven, where Chris (Dana Kimmell) has returned after a traumatic experience two years prior at the hands of a stranger. As such, Chris cannot shake the ominous feeling that someone is watching, and perhaps stalking, her and her friends.
Minor’s film–a guiltless, rote slasher par excellence–was shot in 3-D. Considering the cinematographic format has never in the history of cinema rendered a noteworthy product due to the audience demand that objects be poked and prodded at the screen at every turn, thus contrarily forcing the photography as well as storyline, a gratuitous slasher feature is the perfect venue for such for little is to be lost (considering its agenda does not harbor anything of value) and immense amounts of consequential fun to be had for, given the forum, there exists an almost limitless cache of items in which to visually violate the audience. Unfortunately, though Minor is aware and cognizant of his itinerary and, fortunately, does not attempt to proffer his film as anything but shameless fun, he still misses his mark.
Minor’s previous effort, Friday the 13th Part 2 was, at its core, an imitation of Sean Cunningham’s blockbuster effort a year prior, sans the mystery component which made the original, aside from its perhaps coincidental (though perhaps not) speculative ambiguities during its epilogue, fun and inviting. Thus, a remake of a remake, Friday the 13th Part III makes the horror sequel faux pas of “homaging” the murder sequences of its predecessor, thereby depriving the work of its requisite throwaway pleasures (even given its cinematographic venue). After removing the trademark lake from the storyline and inserting a rockabilly biker gang into the proceedings, Friday the 13th Part III quickly lapses into much of the same (as horror sequel decree demands, i.e. an inundation of “boo” moments and plus-one kills from the previous outing), without so much as an attempt at sugarcoating the fact via excess or audience appeasement, to say nothing of engagement, as sex, drugs, and a poor disposition guarantees death via Puritan ethos goaded by Murphy’s Law.
The most disturbing aspect of the film is debatable. Though, as promised, item after item comes pummeling toward the viewer, for a quarter of the film the audience’s preoccupation is not that it might be poked in the eye but, rather, what the strange obstruction is on the lens. The film’s climax–a poor, poor allusion and attempt to capitalize upon the finale of its paterfamilias–is shameful for, with the seemingly arbitrary inclusion of Jason’s reemergence in Part 1, the segment lends the film a speculative possibility that had been previously absent (which Minor seems to hint that he might attempt to rival via an early flashback in which Jason, uncharacteristically, leaves a victim). With Part III’s charter bookend, the director doesn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that the same logistics cannot be applied in that we personally witness the killer in action during the duration of the tale, thereby making such so unrepentantly exploitive as to be insulting. Moreover, though we could–though stretching plausibility at every turn while somehow barely maintaining an iota of intellectual integrity–argue for previous chapters’ inconsistencies, we can no longer issue the newest installment of Friday the 13th benefit of the doubt. Sure, though Jason is seen at the climax of Part II with a blade embedded in his collarbone while the weapon is A.W.O.L. in the opening recap of Part III, we can dismiss the non sequitur as being part and parcel to Ginny’s stress-induced hallucinations (also the argumentative reason why Jason appears dramatically different in respect to appearance between the two chapters). However, we cannot overlook the fact that–in a flashback sequence in which Jason accosts our newest heroine, Chris–he is already wearing the clothes which he will don two years later, that is, at the beginning of Part III. Neither does it aide the film in that it hosts a rap-sheet of continuity errors. Lastly, and perhaps most unsettling, is the suspicious number of individuals whom we witness, not within the near proximity, but on a toilet during the proceedings, all of which says nothing of the filmmakers refusing to even, however vainly, try to expound upon characterization beyond that of a supporting figure or attempting, as Minor had previously, at expanding the mythos of his notorious killer, lest, of course, one considers that the typecast loser, Shelley (Larry Zerner), parallels the killer, not one, but twice-over in that he performs an “ax-in-head” gag before Jason assumes the prankster’s guise by claiming the hockey mask of his young victim as his own, which Shelley had previously been brandishing in an attempt to scare his cohorts prior to his death.
However, despite its many, many flaws, the film’s director is to be credited for giving a “face” to his famed antagonist as, interestingly, a character is witnessed in a very early instance of self-awareness as she is seen thumbing through an issue of Fangoria. What’s more and as if, after being hung, Jason pulling himself upon the noose wasn’t intimidation enough, the dominating, ever-present stature of Jason is exquisitely, subtly hinted at via the killings in Part III beginning the day–not year or even month–following the events in Part II. Nonetheless, Steven Minor’s attempt at revisiting his previous instance of plagiaristic exploitation backfires on him as sadly, his poor, poor B-movie not only shattered all sequel sales at the time of its release, but nearly outsold Sean Cunningham’s original, which becomes even more paradoxical given the opening disco score, in all places, a horror film. As the American novelist, Henry James, reminds us, “There’s no accounting for taste.” However, as Minor is obviously aware, one can account for the demand for baseless pleasures.
Conversation piece: Make-up effects wizard Stan Winston did uncredited work on Friday the 13th Part III.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
