Friday the 13th Part 3 1982 - Review

Imagine you are taking a vacation in the middle of nowhere.  Nothing to worry about except the fact that you have to sleep in a hammock.  Those worries all turn to fear and anxiety as you are being stalked by a killer who does not want you on his lake and will not stop till everyone is dead.

A group of young adults are traveling by van to a remote getaway for the weekend.  It's understood that the driver Kris Higgins' ( Dana Kimmel) family owns the cozy spot around a lake that includes a small cabin like house, a barn and plenty of scenery.  Kris has driven up here with her friends to get away and face the reality of the awful attack that happened to her in the woods a year earlier.  Waiting at the cabin is her "friend" Rick ( Paul Kratka).  The group settles in and decides to go swimming, except for Shelly  (Larry Zerner), because they are all going skinny dipping and he "is not skinny enough".  As they all get settled in this cozy place Shelly decides to pull a prank on everyone by screaming and letting Rick  and Kris find him with an ax in his head.  Everyone comes to the aid and Shelly's best friend Andy ( Jeffery Rogers) see right through it tickling him till he jumps up.  Visibily angry at this and shaken, Kris, goes for a walk.  Later that night while Kris and Rick are out on their own in the woods an unmasked killer stalks the property  ready to maim anyone he finds.  The killer is Jason and he is ready to pick up were he left off.  Will anyone make it out alive?

Friday the 13th Part 3 was originally filmed in 3D which was relatively new at the time.  It proved to be a task that took them more time to film than anticipated.  Having said that with everything on the set have such close detail paid to it, the finished product turned out great.  The acting is nothing short of great for a group of 19 and 20 year old actors and actresses who really did not have much experience.  Dana Kimmell took the lead role of Kris.  Being supported by Tracie Savage, Paul Kratka, Larry Zerner, and Richard Brooker took on the roll of Jason.  Part 3 does have the same director as the previous installment did, Steve Miner.  He again does a bangup job with this installment in 3D no less.  With effects that will jump out at you with no warning, and a few that you can see coming from a mile away.  The movie was filmed at Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio in Newhall, CA with a miesly budget of just 2.5 million.  Part 3 is most notably the film were Jason gets his signature hockey mask from an unsuspecting Shelly meets his demise while wondering around in the barn.  This year marks the 30th anniversary of this film that came out in August of 1982.

If i had to put the installments of the Friday series in order from best to worst i would have to rank Part 3 as number 3.  The fact that it was in 3D was really unimportant to me.  I am not really a fan of the whole 3D thing.  I watched the 3D edition once and I got a headache halfway through and had to watch the rest of it in 2D.  This film has alot of young love in the storylines which is one of the things that makes this movie so enjoyable.  Its nice when a script has more than just blood splattering and bodies being tossed out of windows.  It makes the viewers want to  be young again, without the whole killer on the loose of course.  The death scenes are all great with my favorite being Andy being cut in half while walking in a full handstand down the hallway.  I wish later installments of the Friday the 13th series could be as enjoyable as this was.  Once you get past part 7 it gets a little iffy after that.  Stay twisted everyone, and Happy Friday the 13th!