Friday the 13th: Part III

The Friday the 13th saga continues with this typically underwhelming entry, with the storyline following Richard Brooker’s Jason as he once again stalks and kills a group of young adults. (It’s worth noting that none of Jason’s victims in the film are actually camp counselors, which is a little jarring, to put it mildly.) It’s ultimately clear that Friday the 13th: Part III suffers from some seriously prominent instances of padding, far more so than either of its predecessors, with the best and most obvious example of this a continuing emphasis on the exploits of three laughably out-of-place thugs. (At the very least, the trio meet a grisly end at Jason’s murderous hands.) The less-than-terrifying atmosphere is compounded by the film’s far-from-subtle use of 3D effects, with filmmaker Steve Miner thrusting an object to at the camera with woeful frequency. (There are a few entertaining examples of this, admittedly, including a detached eyeball that’s propelled to the forefront of the screen.) Friday the 13th: Part III‘s deliberate pace ensures that its opening hour is essentially a total wash, and it goes without saying that the movie doesn’t improve until Jason embarks on his inevitable killing spree in the movie’s latter half. It’s worth noting, too, that the film’s final girl climax is actually somewhat better and more entertaining than one might’ve anticipated, which ultimately does ensure that the movie, while ineffective as a whole, fares slightly better than either part one or part two.

** out of ****