Friday the 13th Part III

“
A New Dimension In Terror...

”— Tagline
***Friday the 13th Part III*** (also known as ***Friday the 13th Part 3***) is a 1982 slasher horror film and the third entry in the *Friday the 13th* franchise, directed by Steve Miner. Originally released in 3-D, it is the first film to feature antagonist Jason Voorhees wearing his signature hockey mask, which has become a trademark of both the character and franchise, as well an icon in American cinema and horror films in general. As a direct sequel to *Friday the 13th* (1980) and *Friday the 13th Part 2* (1981), the film follows a group of co-eds on vacation at a house on Crystal Lake, where Jason Voorhees has taken refuge.

When first released, the film was intended to end the series as a trilogy. However unlike its sequel *Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter* (1984) and the later film, *Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday* (1993), *Friday the 13th Part III* did not include a moniker in its title to indicate it as such.

Despite poor reviews from critics, *Friday the 13th Part III* was released to commercial financial success, bringing in over $36.6 million at the domestic box office on a budget of $2.25 million. The film was the first to remove *E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial* (1982) from the number-one box office spot and became the second highest-grossing horror film of 1982, behind *Poltergeist*. The film has also obtained a cult following within recent years, with many fans celebrating the introduction of the hockey mask, the over-the-top characters, use of 3-D, and disco soundtrack. Jason's look in this film, which varies greatly from its predecessor, became the look to which the character was modeled after in later incarnations.

## Plot

Picking up one day after the events in the previous film, Jason, severely injured after his encounter with Ginny Field, goes to a lakefront store to find clothes and a replacement mask. While there he kills owners Harold with a meat cleaver to the chest, and Edna with a knitting needle through the back of her head before moving on to Higgin's Haven, a local farmhouse. At the same time, Chris Higgins returns to the property for the first time in two years, following a traumatic event. With her is her best friend Debbie, who is pregnant and her boyfriend Andy, stoners Chuck and Chili, prankster Shelley and his love interest Vera, who does not reciprocate his feelings. When they get there, they meet Chris' boyfriend Rick, who agrees to give his and her relationship a slow revival.

Shelley and Vera inadvertently come afoul with a biker gang; Ali, Loco and Fox at the local store. After being wronged, Shelley stands up for himself by running over their motorcycles, impressing Vera, but not changing her opinion of him as a romantic interest. Rick loses his temper after seeing the window of his Volkswagen Beetle smashed in and leaves with Chris. Meanwhile, Jason has hidden in the barn to recover, and when the bikers show up to siphon their gas with the intention of burning down the barn to get even, he kills Loco and Fox with pitchforks, he bludgeons Ali into unconsciousness. As night falls, Jason dons a hockey mask he stole from Shelley after a prank he pulled on Vera and shoots her through the eye with a speargun. He moves into the house where he kills Andy by bisecting him as he walks on his hands, then Debbie by stabbing her through her neck in the hammock she is laying on. He turns off the power in the house, prompting Chili to send Chuck down to check on the power. Jason throws Chuck into the electric box and kills him, severing power to the house. Shelley appears to Chili with a slashed neck, but she ignores him, thinking he's pulling a prank and he dies. She discovers Shelley is dead, then discovers her friends' bodies upstairs. As she tries to escape, Jason kills her by impaling her with a fireplace poker.

Chris tells Rick about a time she was attacked by Jason two years earlier, which was the reason she moved away. Rick's car dies and they have to walk back to the Haven, which they find in disarray. Rick steps out to search the grounds, but Jason grabs him just beside the cabin. As Chris calls out to him from the front door, Jason holds him back just out of sight and keeps one hand held over his mouth. With no response from Rick, Chris goes back inside, leaving his life in Jason's hands as he crushes Rick's skull with them. Chris discovers bloody clothes in the overflowing tub upstairs. She runs outside to find Rick and Loco's corpse drops down from a rope on a tree limb. Chris runs back inside, and Jason throws Rick's corpse through the window. Terrorized and panicked, she fends Jason off and hides upstairs in a hall closet. She discovers Debbie's body, and narrowly escapes the house and tries to escape in her van, which breaks down after having been siphoned by Ali and the others. She makes her way to the barn where she tries to hide and is attacked again by Jason. She lures Jason up to the loft and sends him through the window, hanging him, but he breaks free, much to Chris' horror. Ali recovers and attacks him, but he is brutally butchered as Chris finds a felling axe and strikes Jason in the head with it, having him collapsed. Exhausted, Chris pushes a canoe out into the lake and falls asleep, wakening in fright the next morning. She sees Jason in the barn and tries to escape as he comes after her, but it all turns out to be a hallucination. As she calms down, the decomposing body of Pamela Voorhees emerges from the lake and grabs her, dragging her into the water, which turns out to be another hallucination.

Later, police are escorting a clearly disturbed and hysterical Chris from Higgins Haven, stating that she was deeply shaken by the deaths of her friends. As she is driven away, Jason's body is shown lying in the barn and the lake seems to be once again at peace.

## Cast

* Richard Brooker as Jason Voorhees
* Dana Kimmell as Chris Higgins
* Paul Kratka as Rick
* Tracie Savage as Debbie
* Jeffrey Rogers as Andy
* Catherine Parks as Vera Sanchez
* Larry Zerner as Shelly
* David Katims as Chuck
* Rachel Howard as Chili
* Marilyn Poucher as Pamela Voorhees
* Amy Steel as Ginny Field (flashback from *Part 2*)
* John Furey as Paul Holt (flashback from *Part 2*)
* Nick Savage as Ali
* Gloria Charles as Fox
* Kevin O'Brien as Loco
* Cheri Maugans as Edna
* Steve Susskind as Harold
* Perla Walter as Mrs. Sanchez
* David Wiley as Abel
* Steve Daskawisz (also known as Steve Dash) as Jason (flashback from *Part 2*)
* Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees (flashback from *Part 2*)

## Production

Initially, one of the earlier drafts for *Part III* was Ginny (Amy Steel) from the previous film being sent to a psychiatric hospital and confined there. Suffering from the events of *Part 2*, she eventually finds out that Jason Voorhees survived from his wound and tracks her down to the hospital, murdering the staff and other patients at the hospital. At the time, Steel turned down the role due to her involved in other projects, and the draft was presumably changed due to *Halloween II* having a similar approach.

The script for *Part III* called for Jason to wear a mask to cover his face, having worn a bag over his head in *Part 2*; what no one knew at the time was that the mask chosen would become a trademark for the character, and one instantly recognizable in popular culture in the years to come. During production, Steve Miner called for a lighting check, but none of the effects crew wanted to apply any make-up for the light check, so they decided to just throw a mask on Brooker. Martin Jay Sadoff, the film's 3-D effects supervisor, kept a bag with him full of hockey gear, as he was a hockey fan, and he pulled out a Detroit Red Wings goaltender mask for the test. Miner loved the mask, but during test shots it was too small. Using a technique called VacuForm, Doug White enlarged the mask and created a new mold to work with. After White finished the molds, Terry Ballard placed the new red triangles on the mask to give it a unique appearance. Holes would be punched into the mask, and the markings were altered, making it different from Sadoff's mask. There were two prosthetic face masks created for Richard Brooker to wear underneath the hockey mask. One mask was composed of approximately 11 different appliances, and took about six hours to apply to Brooker's face; this mask was used for scenes where the hockey mask was removed. In the scenes where the hockey mask is over the face, a simple head mask was created. This one piece mask would simply slip on over Brooker's head, exposing his face but not the rest of his head.

This was the first Paramount Pictures film produced in 3-D since *Ulysses* in 1954. The film was shot with the Arrivision "over and under" 3-D camera, the same that was used with *Jaws 3-D*. It was also the first film in the series to be presented in Dolby Stereo upon its theatrical release.

Some of the deaths in the film were edited in order to avoid an "X" rating, including: Andy's death, which showed his right leg being cut off and his stomach being torn open; Vera's death was cut of bloodshed and her subsequent reaction (this was cut for supposedly looking "too good"); Edna's death was cut for excessive blood flow; Chili's impalement with the red-hot poker was cut of steaming blood hitting the floor; Debbie's original death showed blood spraying across her chest and face.

### Music

The film's music was composed by Harry Manfredini, who previously composed the scores of the series' first two installments. Upon the release of the third film in 1982, Gramavision Records released a LP album of selected pieces of Manfredini's scores from the first three *Friday the 13th* films. On January 13, 2012, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 6-CD boxset containing Manfredini's scores from the first six films. It sold out in less than 24 hours.

## Reaction

### Box office

The film opened in 1,079 theaters in 3-D taking in $9,406,522 its opening weekend. Domestically, the film made a grand total of $36,690,067. It placed number 21 on the list of the top grossing films of 1982, facing strong competition from other high-profile horror releases such as *Poltergeist*, *Creepshow*, *The Thing*, *Halloween III: Season of the Witch*, *Visiting Hours*, *Amityville II: The Possession*, *Silent Rage*, *The Beast Within*, *Cat People* and *Venom*. As of 2014, it still stands as the fourth highest grossing film in the *Friday the 13th* series. The movie also stands as the tenth highest-grossing R-rated film of 1982, the second-highest grossing horror film of 1982, the sixth largest box office opening of 1982, and adjusted for inflation it is the ninth highest-grossing slasher film of all time.

### Critical response

*Friday the 13th Part III* received generally negative reviews from critics upon its theatrical release. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 13% of 22 film critics have given the film a positive review; the average rating is 3.5 out of 10.

Janet Maslin of *The New York Times* gave the a mediocre review stating that it "would be a little better than *Part I* or *Part II* even without 3-D." In continuing to compare the film to its predecessors, Maslin commented that "it's a little more adept at teasing the audience." The entertainment-trade magazine *Variety* provided a general consensus stating, "*Friday the 13th* was dreadful and took in more than $17 million. *Friday the 13th Part 2* was just as bad and took in more than $10 million. *Friday the 13th Part III* is terrible, too." The magazine added, "There are some dandy 3-D sequences, however, of a yo-yo going up and down and popcorn popping."

Jason's mask in this film became the molded appearance of Jason in *Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter* and in later installments. For his appearance in the film, Jason Voorhees was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains as one of the Top 50 Villains.

## Home media

*Friday the 13th Part III* was first made available on home video on VHS, Betamax, Capacitance Electronic Disc, and LaserDisc and later on DVD, with the film presented only in 2D form. There was also a VHD release for Japan (*Part IV* and *Part V* would follow). The 3-D version of the film was eventually released as a part of the film's DVD "Deluxe Edition" on February 3, 2009. The "Deluxe Edition" and eventual Blu-ray release include both the 2D and 3-D versions of the film, as well as two pairs of blue and red 3-D glasses designed to look like Jason's mask.

**Films:** *Friday the 13th* • *Part 2* • ***Part III*** • *The Final Chapter* • *A New Beginning* • *Jason Lives* • *The New Blood* • *Jason Takes Manhattan* • *Jason Goes to Hell* • *Jason X* • *Freddy vs. Jason* • *Friday the 13th* (2009)
**Characters:** Jason Voorhees • Pamela Voorhees
**Comics:** *Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash* • *The Nightmare Warriors*
**Games and TV:** *Friday the 13th* (1985 game) • *Friday the 13th* (NES game) • *Mortal Kombat X* • *Friday the 13th: The Series*
**Related topics:** *A Nightmare on Elm Street* • *Mortal Kombat* • *Evil Dead*