FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 (1982)

I have suddenly realised how hard it is to continue to discuss a series of films that has gone on as long as the Friday films did without repeating oneself. I will endeavour to do so.

The Friday the 13th films are staples of the horror diet, along with Halloweens, A Nightmare on Elm Sts and even Saws and The Conjurings (even though I don’t rate any of the films in The Conjuring universe, I appreciate how important they are in the horror genre) and you can almost guarantee that any horror fan with have seen one of each of the franchise, and even may like at least one as well.

Friday the 13th Part 3 was a victim of the success of the first two films though they needed a gimmick. Unfortunately, it was decided to make a 3D film rather than to make a film with a good story. For me this is an immediate drawback as I detest 3D films, mainly due to my eyesight not being fantastic and preferring not to wearing the stupid glasses, and in that preference, having to watch a film in 2D where the actors spend the whole time stick things into the camera lens to give the 3D fans something to gawk at.

Friday the 13th Part 3 was written by Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson and was directed by Steve Miner, who also directed Part 2, and takes place the day after the events from Friday Part 2… so I guess this is ACTUALLY a Saturday the 14th film…

Anyway, the story tells of Chris (Dana Kimmell) who is returning to her family’s country home after an absence of two years due to some trauma she encountered… which will get revealed later!

She is joined by a bunch of friends as support, but they are also secretly joined on her property by a biker gang that friends Shelley (Larry Zerner) and Vera (Catherine Parks) accidentally cross when getting some groceries for the weekend. Her country love interest, Rick (Paul Kratka) also meets up with them.

The problem is, though, that Jason Voorhees, fresh off the massacre at Camp Crystal Lake, is still hunting through the woods for more prey, and when he comes across the farmhouse, he’s ready to create more carnage.

The story is so generic it’s almost parody, but this film does have the honour of being the film that gave Jason his iconic hockey mask look, which no doubt has made the owners of the licence millions of merchandising cash over the years, not to mention the NHL-affiliated companies probably scored some extra sales as well with sports gear.

Unfortunately I actually don’t rate this Friday very high because of all the distracting 3D rubbish. I means it’s an 80s slasher so high production values and academy award winning acting are less a priority over boobies and blood, and the story really isn’t any worse or better than any other slasher, but the fact the film almost comes to a complete halt every time someone wants to poke something at the camera. What makes it worse is that this Bluray doesn’t have a 3D option so it’s literally just a 2D version of a 3D film.

I still rewatch it regularly, but only as the pathway to part 4.

Extras:

Fresh Cuts: 3D Terror looks at the reasons why they decided to go 3D with this film, with various comments from Peter Bracke, the author of Crystal Lake Memories and people who worked on the film. With the Crystal Lake Memories doco and book being such a definitive guide to the series, a twelve minute peek is barely scratching the surface.

Legacy of the Mask is about the look of Jason Voorhees, and how it evolved over the film series, including the origins of the infamous hockey mask.

Slasher Films: Going for the Jugular has a bunch of movie industry people discussing the key ingredients for a slasher film.

Lost Tales of Camp Blood Parts 2 and 3 is a couple of amateurish ‘further tales’ of Jason. Skip this junk.

There is also the trailer for the film.

Film: 3/10

Extras: 5/10

Rewatchability: 5/10

This Bluray was purchased from JB Hifi

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

Film: So here’s the thing. I have always tried to make my reviews at minimum 500 words long so that at least there appears to be some kind of substance to my writing, but what does one write about a film that had SO much written about it over the years, not to mention countless YouTube videos and Instagram posts. I basically have two choices: start with a long preamble about what new could be written about a 45 year old horror classic to get to the hundred word mark, or just reflect on my thoughts in the film, and how much it means to me, not just as a singular film, but as a series.

Or I could do both!

As you well know, Friday the 13th was released in 1980, was written by Victor Miller and directed by Sean S. Cunningham and is one of the early slashers that spawned not just hundreds of imitators, but a load of sequels, merchandise, and most of all, horror fans.

Now I always do a plot synopsis at this point of the review and I shall here again, just in case there is that single person who has never seen Friday the 13th though i wonder why you would be here on this mainly horror and cult movie website.

(It has since been pointed out to me that this review, even though it is for a horror classic, is actually 45 years old, and how many films did I watch as a young horror fan that were 45 years old. My answer to that was bloody heaps of them, because 40 odd years before when I first became a horror fan was the 40s, when a shed load of amazing horror and sci-fi came out so there’s no excuse.)

Friday the 13th tells of Alice (Adrienne King) a young woman helping to get a new summer camp open at Crystal Lake, run by her maybe boyfriend Steve (Peter Brouwer), and the other councillors (including Kevin Bacon before he was cured properly).

The final councillor who is supposed to arrive, Annie (Robbie Morgan) has disappeared on her way to the camp though, and we, the viewers, know that she has been murdered by an unidentified assailant who picked her up as she was hitchhiking on her way there.

Steve disappears into town to collect supplies after Annie is a no-show, and very quickly, the workers start getting picked off one by one. As the body count rises, we are left to wonder… who is the murderer? Is it one of the councillors? Could it be Steve? Maybe Ralph (Walt Gorney), the town crazy… who knows?

I can’t express just how important this film is too me. I have so much Friday the 13th stuff in my house: board games, soundtracks on vinyl, action figures of multiple characters, my first Fright Rags tshirt was a Jason one, and the thing that got me interested in vinyl model kits as a teen was a really cool one from the Japanese company Billiken, and then one from Screamin’ soon after.

This is the thing, though: most of that stuff is of Jason Voorhees… and not of the killer in this film. This is it, this is an important film and it launched a whole pile of stuff that i love… but it is not my favourite Friday the 13th film. It is violent and exciting and the cast in it are fine, the soundtrack is amazing and the gore effects are heaps of fun, but its a low budget film and it does show.

Just to clarify I do not thing this film is bad or worthless as it is not, but what it is is the beginning of something that i came to love as a horror fan.

If I am to criticise this holiest of holies in the horror genre, it’s just for a few things. The acting is quite horrible here and there, not all the cast, but a few of them have a very low score in the skill marker for this. That’s ok though, it’s a cheap horror film from the 80s and realistically, we don’t always expect too much and it adds to the charm.

My second criticism is I feel the film occasionally, in my mind anyway, posits itself as being a whodunnit insomuch as I feel like we are supposed to be guessing who the killer is, like an Argento film or even a Hitchcock, but even though we are introduced to a bunch of weird characters in town with Annie, including crazy Carl, and even have a few moments where some of the councillors seem a bit off, like after one of them kills a snake and there is a lingering look at him musing on the creatures execution, when the reveal happens, everyone goes ‘who the hell is this?’ I keep coming back to this and looking for some kind of a clue but either it’s not there or I am simply a freaking idiot.

The latter is infinitely possible.

I have a lot of affection for this film, but if somebody said to me “want to watch a Friday the 13th film? Your choice!’, this would not be my go-to flick. That’s not to say it’s not a horror classic or it deserves to be rewatched regularly either.

Disc: There is a huge bunch of extras on this disc and whilst I appreciate the volume of content, I must admit that any extra on a Friday the 13th film is overshadowed by the amazing Crystal Lake Memories documentary and accompanying book (or vise versa). These extras are good ON THIS DISC but that doco offers so much more behind the scenes stuff that without plumbing that well, its hard to have original stuff.

Theres a decent Commentary by Sean S. Cunningham but its most of the same anecdotes you’ve heard before: hosted by Peter M. Bracke.

Return to Crystal Lake: The Making of Friday the 13th is fine, but as I stated previously, watch Crystal Lake Memories instead.

A Friday the 13th Reunion is a reunion from 2008 at a convention of Tom Savini, Ari Lehman, Victor Miller, Betsy Palmer, Harry Manfredini and Adrienne King. It’s a cute piece but it’s all the anecdotes you’ve heard before.

The Man Behind the Legacy: Sean S. Cunningham is a short interview with Cunningham on his work.

Lost Tales from Camp Blood Part 1 was written and directed by Andrew Ceperley and it’s an amateurish take of the Friday the 13th movies: I have no idea why it’s on here.

The Friday the 13th Chronicles is more of the same with the same anecdotes but was probably of a previous DVD release.

Secrets Galore Behind the Gore is a very Quick Look at the for through the eyes of Cunningham and Savini.

Fresh Cuts: New Tales from Friday the 13th is again, interesting but not a great deal of fresh material.

There’s also a trailer.

Film: 7/10

Extras: 10/10 (with the aforementioned caveat)

Rewatchability: 10/10

This film was reviewed with the Australian Bluray release, purchased from JB Hifi.