Though it can't enhance the one-dimensionality of some of the actors, there is childlike fun to be had revelling in the crowd-pleasing gimmickry if you can see the film in 3D (The 2017 Region 1 U.S. box set I have features it in both 2D and this reviewed 3D version)
In CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES, the sequel's contributors recalled how painstaking it was to shoot scenes specifically for the 3D format. To work effectively, any time a prop is aimed at the audience it must be pointed precisely toward the camera and kept in sharp focus; this is not as easy as it sounds especially since you're constantly having to break the fourth wall of suspended disbelief as an actor to pull it off. Examples where both elements are lacking include the boys juggling balls (shot from overhead) and the hippy making popcorn, with the camera also aimed down at the popping kernels. In each case the projectiles fire to the sides of us and are too hazy to read effectively.
When the format works though, it pays off thrillingly. The opening's store owner plunging his laundry pole through the clothes lines right at us plays well, as does the roadside kook dangling a loose eyeball toward us like a sideshow barker. Each of Jason's kills also makes the most of the form but let's not get too far out in front, if you'll pardon the pun, just yet.
After a cheeky padded prologue featuring roughly the entire last seven minutes of PART 2, the usual motley assortment of Equity minimum teens show up. We can largely treat them with the same disrespect as Mrs Voorhees' pride and joy does. In particular there is Larry Zerner's Shelly who to be fair does well considering in real life he was a non-actor literally spotted on the street as a jewfro'd instant oddball type. He is cast however as the tiresome joker who whines about his loser self-image so much that you want him shish-kebabbed almost immediately. Worse is Dana Kimmell's final girl Chris who can't even be given depth by three dimensions.
Brief amusement can be had by looking at the three gang members Ali, Fox and Loco whom Shelly and Vera (Catherine Parks) tangle with. They're dressed in that hilarious off-the-peg look of eighties gang-bangers - cut-off denim jackets, bandannas, detachable sneer - that belongs in an episode of THE A TEAM not an adult horror movie. Mercifully they don't last long.
On the plus side, we do get some threat level supplied by the corrective casting of a more intimidating Jason this time (Richard Brooker). He is taller, broader and attempts postures and gutteral sounds more befitting of an unstoppable, indeed supernatural, serial killer.
Equal kudos is due to Harry Manfredini's excellent soundtrack; the string cues are lush and more prominently placed than in PART 2. Play it loud through headphones for maximum effect.
The score coupled with Jason's well-targeted 3D kills do make this a sequel worth seeing. I defy anyone not to flinch when the speargun arrow fires straight at you, and I'm sure the popped eyeball squeezed out of a later victim's crushed head delighted gorehounds in theatres on its release.
Nevertheless, despite these bids for entertainment value the ending once again sinks into the depths of previous illogicality. Chris dreams of escaping an unmasked Jason in a canoe, only to be grabbed from the lake by an uprising Mrs Voorhees - who somehow now has a re-attached head! (This lake needs serious investigation for its unearthly rejuvenation properties). The awoken Chris is led away by the Sheriff's men suffering what is meant to be PTSD but is played as woeful cackling am-dram. She's clearly convincing enough to distract the cops as the dim-bulbs have ignored the macheted body of Jason lying in the open doorway of the barn!
Miner's gamble worked though. Made for double the budget of the last one, this threequel grossed $36.7m, even dethroning E.T. from the top spot to become 1982's second highest grossing film.
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 was originally designed to finish the franchise as a trilogy, and would have finished on a high of sorts, yet the box office persuaded the makers into one more go at what would surely be the final chapter....?
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