Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Friday the 13th, Part 3 (Blu-ray)


The thing is, I always feel sorry for poor old Jason by the end of these movies. I mean, he goes around all through the stories omniscient and omnipotent, killing off people right and left, and then he gets his comeuppance when he confronts one last, helpless, screaming young female, who does him in. Seems kind of unjust.

After Paramount found two low-budget gold mines in "Friday the 13th" (1980) and "Friday the 13th, Part 2" (1981), they decided to give it another try in 1982 with "Friday the 13th, Part III," this time in 3-D. Apparently, the studio remembered all those three-dimensional pictures from the 1950s, like WB's "House of Wax" and Universal's "Creature from the Black Lagoon," and decided to adapt the process for their own modest little movie. Fortunately, on this Blu-ray disc Paramount offer the film in both versions, 2-D and 3-D, so if the 3-D approach and the 3-D glasses bother you, as they did me, you can watch the film in a more traditional format.

"Part III" is pretty much the same as its predecessors: At a remote, woodsy location on Crystal Lake, a maniacal killer, Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker), murders a group of young people in various gruesome ways. Director Steve Miner, who helmed the previous film, adds nothing new or innovative to the formula. We start with a flashback to the ending of "Part 2," and then we move on to a new batch of youngsters spending the weekend at a small ranch on the lake, apparently near the campgrounds where the two earlier slaughters took place. The bunch includes the all usual stereotypes we've come to expect: the two leads, a girlfriend and boyfriend (Dana Kimmell and Paul Kratka), a designated nerd (Larry Zerner), a pair of hippies, and several other beautiful people. The faces change; the characters remain the same. In the movie's only meager attempt at diversity, there is also a trio of biker hoods who momentarily terrorize the youngsters (Nick Savage, Gloria Charles, and Kevin O'Brien). Guess who gets it first?

Also as usual, we get a slew of red herrings, a common trait of Miner and his screenwriters in these films. They fake us out so many times with false scares that when they actually want to frighten us, we're immune. Composer Harry Manfredini replays his anticipated "Psycho" and "Jaws"-inspired soundtrack music, which by now has become trite but remains one of the best parts of these things. And the casting director continued to find young performers who were wonderfully cute people and woefully bad actors.

Random questions: Didn't Volkwagens have safety glass by the 1970s and '80s? Doesn't Jason have anything better to do than lurk around other people's cabins? Is an old country barn really the best location for a killing spree? If the filmmakers were going to tone down the blood and gore, as they did here, shouldn't they have replaced it with greater tension and suspense? If they were going to rip off other horror movies like "The Shining" and their own "Friday the 13th," shouldn't they have done it more creatively?

Well, at least Jason gets his hockey mask in this one and doesn't have to wear that silly sack on his head anymore. And, as in all good horror movies, you can't keep a good monster down. Shoot him, stab him, hang him, burn him, or bury him, he always comes back for more. It doesn't mean we have to come back, though.

The thing is, I always feel sorry for poor old Jason by the end of these movies. I mean, he goes around all through the stories omniscient and omnipotent, killing off people right and left, and then he gets his comeuppance when he confronts one last, helpless, screaming young female, who does him in. Seems kind of unjust.

After Paramount found two low-budget gold mines in "Friday the 13th" (1980) and "Friday the 13th, Part 2" (1981), they decided to give it another try in 1982 with "Friday the 13th, Part III," this time in 3-D. Apparently, the studio remembered all those three-dimensional pictures from the 1950s, like WB's "House of Wax" and Universal's "Creature from the Black Lagoon," and decided to adapt the process for their own modest little movie. Fortunately, on this Blu-ray disc Paramount offer the film in both versions, 2-D and 3-D, so if the 3-D approach and the 3-D glasses bother you, as they did me, you can watch the film in a more traditional format.

"Part III" is pretty much the same as its predecessors: At a remote, woodsy location on Crystal Lake, a maniacal killer, Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker), murders a group of young people in various gruesome ways. Director Steve Miner, who helmed the previous film, adds nothing new or innovative to the formula. We start with a flashback to the ending of "Part 2," and then we move on to a new batch of youngsters spending the weekend at a small ranch on the lake, apparently near the campgrounds where the two earlier slaughters took place. The bunch includes the all usual stereotypes we've come to expect: the two leads, a girlfriend and boyfriend (Dana Kimmell and Paul Kratka), a designated nerd (Larry Zerner), a pair of hippies, and several other beautiful people. The faces change; the characters remain the same. In the movie's only meager attempt at diversity, there is also a trio of biker hoods who momentarily terrorize the youngsters (Nick Savage, Gloria Charles, and Kevin O'Brien). Guess who gets it first?

Also as usual, we get a slew of red herrings, a common trait of Miner and his screenwriters in these films. They fake us out so many times with false scares that when they actually want to frighten us, we're immune. Composer Harry Manfredini replays his anticipated "Psycho" and "Jaws"-inspired soundtrack music, which by now has become trite but remains one of the best parts of these things. And the casting director continued to find young performers who were wonderfully cute people and woefully bad actors.

Random questions: Didn't Volkwagens have safety glass by the 1970s and '80s? Doesn't Jason have anything better to do than lurk around other people's cabins? Is an old country barn really the best location for a killing spree? If the filmmakers were going to tone down the blood and gore, as they did here, shouldn't they have replaced it with greater tension and suspense? If they were going to rip off other horror movies like "The Shining" and their own "Friday the 13th," shouldn't they have done it more creatively?

Well, at least Jason gets his hockey mask in this one and doesn't have to wear that silly sack on his head anymore. And, as in all good horror movies, you can't keep a good monster down. Shoot him, stab him, hang him, burn him, or bury him, he always comes back for more. It doesn't mean we have to come back, though.

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