Friday the 13th Part III

Friday the 13th Part III
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Steve Miner
Produced by	Frank Mancuso Jr.
Written by	Martin Kitrosser Ron Kurz (characters) Victor Miller (characters) Carol Watson Petru Popescu (uncredited)
Starring	Dana Kimmell Paul Kratka Tracie Savage Jeffrey Rogers Catherine Parks Richard Brooker Amy Steel John Furey
Music by	Harry Manfredini Michael Zager
Cinematography	Gerald Feil
Editing by	George Hively
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	August 13, 1982
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,500,000 (estimated)
Box office	$36,690,067 (domestic)

Friday the 13th Part III is the third film in the Friday the 13th series. The 1982 movie was the first film in the series to feature Jason Voorhees wearing the hockey mask that has become his prominent trademark. The film was released theatrically in 3-D, and is notable as the first Paramount Pictures film produced in 3-D since 1954. Much like its sequel Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, this film was intended to end the series. Unlike its sequel and the later film, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, this film did not include a moniker in its title to indicate as such.

Plot

Picking up one day after the events of Friday the 13th Part 2, the horribly deformed mass murderer Jason Voorhees has survived his attack at the hands of Paul Holt and Ginny Field and has migrated to a store where he steals new clothes. He then murders the store owners, Harold Hockett with a meat cleaver slammed into his chest, and his wife, Edna Hockett with one of her own knitting needles through the back of her head, before moving on to a nearby lake front property named Higgins Haven.

At the same time, a girl named Chris Higgins, who was attacked by a mysterious, disfigured stranger in the woods near Crystal Lake two years earlier, returns to the property with her friends Debbie, Andy, Shelly, Vera, Chuck, and Chili. After meeting Abel, an inebriated, religious fanatic who warns them to turn back, the gang meets Chris' boyfriend Rick at their destination (Higgins Haven). Chris intends to face her fears; however, none of her friends know that an unmasked and reclusive Jason has taken refuge in the barn to recover from his battle wounds. The gang run into trouble with some local bikers, Fox, Loco, and Ali, who then try vandalize the property. However, they are dispatched one by one by Jason before they can do any real damage - except for syphoning gas from Chris's van. One biker (Fox) is impaled through the throat by a pitchfork, the next (Loco) gets another pitchfork through the stomach, and a third (Ali) is clubbed.

When Chris and Rick go out for a drive, Jason emerges. He slashes Shelly's throat and takes his hockey mask. Now with a mask to cover his hideously deformed face, he then proceeds to murder the rest of the gang. He shoots Vera in the eye with a speargun. While Andy is handstand walking, he looks up as Jason slashes him with a machete, splitting him in half. Debbie has a knife shoved through her neck while she rests on the hammock. Chuck enters the basement when the power seems to die and is thrown on a fusebox and electrocuted. Chili then gets impaled through the stomach with a red hot fire poker.

Chris and Rick return to find the place empty. Rick goes outside to look around while Chris remains inside. Chris goes to the door to call out to him, but Jason holds him and keeps his hand held over his mouth just a few feet away. After no response, Chris goes back inside. Then, Rick is killed by Jason who squeezes his head until one of his eyeballs pops out. Jason then attacks Chris, chases her around the property, and into the barn. Chris hits Jason in the head with a shovel which knocks him temporarily unconscious, long enough to place a noose around his neck and roll him off outside the barn, hanging him. When Chris goes back down and opens the barn door, to her surprise, Jason has survived the hanging. Jason raises his mask up so he can take the noose off of his neck, thus showing his real face to Chris, at which point she recognizes him as the man who attacked her two years earlier. As Jason proceeds to attack Chris, one of the bikers: Ali, who survived his clubbing earlier, attempts his revenge, but Jason cuts off his hand and proceeds to hack him. With Jason distracted, Chris picks up an axe and strikes him in the head, apparently killing him. Chris then wanders over to the lake and falls asleep in a canoe that drifts into the middle of the lake.

The next morning, Chris wakes up and sees Jason unmasked and alive staring at her through an upstairs window in the house. When he spots her, he runs out to attack her but as Chris tries to escape, she is grabbed and taken into the water by a decomposing Pamela Voorhees (Marilyn Poucher). It is revealed that this was all a nightmare and at some point later, the police take a clearly mentally disturbed Chris off the property as the camera shows Jason's supposedly dead body. The final shot is of the lake finally at peace.

Cast

• 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
• Richard Brooker as Jason Voorhees (Steve Daskawisz appears as Jason during flashback from Part 2)
• Marilyn Poucher as Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer appears as Mrs. Voorhees during flashback from Part 2)
• 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

Production

Jason's original hockey mask was molded from a 1950s Detroit Red Wings hockey mask, and would become a staple for the character for the rest of the series.

The script for Part 3 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 3D 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 substance 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.

Some of the deaths 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;^{[citation needed]} Vera's death was cut of bloodshed and her subsequent reaction (this was cut for supposedly looking "too real");^{[citation needed]} Edna's death was cut for excessive blood flow;^{[citation needed]} Chili's impalement with the red-hot poker was cut of steaming blood hitting the floor;^{[citation needed]} Debbie's original death showed blood spraying across her chest and face.^{[citation needed]} The film was shot with the Arrivision "over and under" 3D camera, the same that was used with Jaws 3-D.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

The film opened in 1,079 theaters in 3D taking in $9,406,522 its opening weekend. Domestically, the film made $36,690,067, a greater figure than the $21,722,776 of the second film.

For this film in the Friday the 13th franchise, Jason Voorhees was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains as one of the Top 50 Villains.

3-D DVD release

When originally released on VHS and later on DVD the film was released in regular 2-D form.

The 3-D version of the film was released for the first time officially as a Deluxe Edition DVD on February 3, 2009.

The Deluxe Edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc includes the 2-D and 3-D versions of the film and 2 pairs of blue and red 3-D glasses designed to look like Jason's mask.

Soundtrack releases

In 1982, Gramavision Records released a LP album of selected pieces of Harry 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.

External links

• Friday the 13th Part III at the Internet Movie Database
• Friday the 13th Part III at AllRovi
• Friday the 13th Part III at Rotten Tomatoes
• Friday the 13th Part III at Box Office Mojo
• Film page at the Camp Crystal Lake web site