Cast:
Dana Kimmell (Chris Higgins), Paul Kratka (Rick Bombay), Tracie Savage (Debbie Klein), Jeffrey Rogers (Andy Beltrami), Catherine Parks (Vera Sanchez), Larry Zerner (Shelly), David Katims (Chuck Garth), Rachel Howard (Chili Jachson), Richard Brooker (Jason Voorhees), Nick Savage (Ali), Gloria Charles (Fox), and Kevin O'Brien (Loco) Directed by Steve Miner (#761 - Friday the 13th Part 2, #1148 - Halloween H20: 20 Years Later)
Review:
Maybe someday I will be generous to the Friday the 13th series. Honestly, it has been so long since I saw the first movie that I only remember the lack of interest I had in the characters before they got killed in various ways involving blades and other things, although at least the first movie had Betsy Palmer for some sort of chance at respectability. No I don't care, the movie is not a quality slasher in enjoyment for me. Sorry. Of course, the second movie now was a Jason movie, complete with rushing it like it was a conveyor belt, with the first three movies coming out within a year of each other. There were a few changes from the second movie. There were a few changes from the second movie. Sure, Steve Miner would return to direct, but they could not recall the services of (final girl) Amy Steel due to an apparent issue with her agents. Scriptwriter Ron Kurz also turned down the project. Apparently there were ideas floated around about setting it in a psychiatric hospital or involving a final confrontation. Instead, Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson were hired to write for the movie; Petru Popescu provided significant re-writes that ended up in the final script, but he was not given credit. Apparently, the real focus of the film was to make sure the 3D (as assisted with 3-Depix cameras from Marks Polarized Corporation) would look good on screen, with Popescu claiming that the casting sessions were targeting actors for their looks rather than their acting ability and David Katims was once quoted as saying "the writing and the acting didn't matter at all." With a budget of $2.2 million, the movie was a substantial success, making fifteen times its budget with audiences. In 1984, the intended final film of the series was released by Paramount. It may interest you to know that this is the first movie of the series to feature its killer with a hockey mask, since you might remember the last movie had a sack over his head.
Sure, you could watch a character play with a yo-yo that could make you remember the days of 3D. Or you could watch something that is not so needlessly padded. Sorry (not sorry), this movie sucks. I don't care if someone finds it goofy, this is just a boring film in the long run, and it isn't even because of the violence. It is as paper thin as the other two movies, and if I don't care one iota about the people in the film before they get turned into eye-popping targets for death, why should I care about the movie as a whole? What, is seeing an annoying character like Shelly get bounced supposed to be a highlight? (he starts out by faking that he is dead only to later on in the film actually get killed only for no one to believe him HAHAHAHA GET IT?). The final girl setup is unbelievably stupid, mainly because it lacks definition. You're supposed to believe that two years prior, the character ran into the woods, was attacked by Jason, had a struggle...and woke up right in her bedroom with no memory of what happened after being in the woods. Yes, Jason Vorhees, famously remembered for attacking folks in the woods without killing them (apparently, one idea floated by Popescu was that actually Jason raped her, which makes even less sense). Kimmell just can't sell it anyway, because everyone just seems to be on autopilot mode, where you just hear the lines and then you forget about it just as quickly. In general, there is nothing particularly appealing about the characters that makes me want to stick with them besides wondering what stupid 3D thing is going to happen next, but Jason is just going around killing people just...because. You could see that done better with Halloween II (1981), for crying out loud. As a whole, with middling characters that pad out a 95-minute runtime with lazy ambition and lame 3D ideas, the third movie manages to do exactly nothing fresh or interesting with a series that had little innovation in the first place.
Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.
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