Friday the 13th Part 3

I think Friday the 13^th Part 3 was the film that sort of set up the formula that all others in the franchise would emulate. Sure, in the first two films, young adults (or others that happen to be around at the wrong place at the wrong time, preferably anywhere near Crystal Lake), separated from their party, would succumb to whatever weapon either Jason or his mother had at the time, but there still was a definable reason behind the murders. In this sequel, however, these people aren’t camp counselors who represent the symbolic trauma of the child drowning in Crystal Lake. 

Let’s face it, this is definitely not the same Jason Voorhies as we see in Friday the 13^th Part 2. Part of what made the franchise intriguing to me was seeing how each stunt man took to the role of Jason, how they made him walk, behave, react, that has always been part of what made these movies fun to me. 

Richard Brooks has a kind of lumbering quality, his arms too long for the shirt sleeves, now looking more like a lumberjack than some backwoods hick who found some sack laying in a field and decided to cover his wretched face with it. Yes, one of the most topical aspects of this sequel is the hockey mask, an identifiable marker that gave the character of Jason the iconic look that has made him such a pop culture figure, the machete also put to use here in grand fashion as he mimics how his mama killed Bacon in the first film by impaling a pregnant girl (reading a Fangoria mag; nice plug there Miner..) through the back (it tears through her chest as she opens mouth agape; brief but quite the grabber because of its savagery and location: it happens on a hammock!) and chopping a biker punk’s arm off. Yes, we get three bikers with spiders on their jackets (their moniker might be the Tarantulas or something, I don’t know, and really didn’t care..) who pick on a couple of the party (Larry Zerner’s chubby practical joker, Shelly, and his “date”) who arrive at the cabin of our heroine, Chris’s (Dana Kimmel) boyfriend, Rick (Paul Kratka) for a weekend getaway and get a lot more than they bargained for…they get dead. 

I guess of the characters, Shelly is the most memorable and relatable to us misfits who tried to fit in to some social circle despite our weaknesses (looks and inability to talk to chicks with confidence). Still, he’s ultimately just a character with a few scenes that establishes who he is before, like so many others in the film, gravitating to the barn, getting his neck slit from ear to ear (his character is right out of the ‘boy who cried wolf’ story where he uses morbid sight gags to elicit a response of horror, and afterward outrage, such as a fake ax to the forehead (this, I’m not particularly happy about because it felt like the filmmakers was giving away one of the tricks of the trade..), because when he is in fact killed a character believes he’s playing a joke). 

Speaking of the barn, this is the most used location in the film. Sure Jason loves to catch his victims off guard in Rick’s house, like the guy who can walk on his hands (I think most of us expected this character to get it while in such a prone position since he walks this way so much in the film), but the film keeps heading back to the barn over and over. And this is the movie that pretty much establishes Jason as an unstoppable killing machine with an overpowering strength (if a man can take a machete buried in his shoulder and still squeeze a victim’s head till it pops like a balloon, an eyeball flying at the screen, then you know he’s not exactly the typical human) and dutiful dedication to his mission of destruction. He is stabbed by a knife right above the knee (sunk in deep, I might add) and in the hand, but neither deters him from trying to catch and kill Chris. 

The screenplay, though, adds an interesting layer to the story that leaves me kind of curious: Chris is trying to overcome a trauma deriving from Jason’s “attacking” her. She had a fight with her parents, fled home after mama slapped her, fell asleep under a tree, and was assaulted by Jason. I think many have theorized the possibility that Jason was attempting to catch and rape her, but it seems against his impotent character. He is often symbolized as a peeper who waits until kids get done screwing before dispatching them in quick order, but could this be the one time where his lust got the best of him? She says she woke up in a different place as if blacking out, but not too many details after Jason’s descending upon her are revealed. It’s a sketchy story where it proposes something that could have happened, an event that really never arises again. 

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After watching it last night, I was further mulling over the film and thought Jason was very similar to Michael Myers. There’s even a scene at the beginning where sheets are drying on lines in the wind and Miner’s group even has Jason come out of the corner of the screen, just a bit of his figure shows, so familiar a shot that also established Myers’ presence when peeping on folks. Brooks’ Jason kind of has that emotionless, personality-vacant, kill-them-when-it-feels-like-it Michael Myers type of psychopath. Part 3 has some interesting things that caught my attention: was it Miner’s intention to have Jason kind of moving about in the distance, his figure established briefly, making his presence felt out of nowhere when the time comes. The way each kill is built even feels similar to other Halloween movies, but I’m not sure if that was or was not Miner’s intention.

 And, what was up with Mommy springing from the lake to drag Chris under? And the nightmarish vision of a mask-less Jason, with a devious smile, kicking open Rick’s cabin door, then vanishing, with it later portrayed that Chris is gone into insanity. I actually dug all of this, for some reason, as this girl (when she is just flabbergasted that Jason still isn’t dead after all of the abuse she serves his torso, it speaks volumes, Dana Kimmel laying on an epic freak out) is put through the ringer, man, and is resilient, just taking it to Jason with whatever weapon she can find. When she lynches Jason from a hay rope from her barn’s loft, that was pretty cool and then burying that ax to his head, through the hockey mask, just aces. There’s some fun here, if you like this sort of ridiculous nonsense.

I didn’t think the eye-popping-out-of-the-head gag works at all now, prior to its effect on audiences in the 80s, but I can’t say I didn’t mind some of the other gore gags like the harpoon arrow in the eye, blade bursting from chest, and throat slicing. I know this is of special interest to those specifically involved with watching the film for its “money shots”. I also could take or leave the 3 D effects on 2 D for us who don’t have glasses, the obvious, rather bland items sticking out like wooden handles and a yo-yo. 

The Ultra Violence in Image

 

I wouldn't want to fail to mention the disco tune that gets this flick kicking off; it is definitely of its time and dates Friday the 13th Part 3. And the Tom Savini plug in the Fangoria magazine...nice.