Dissecting Slashers - Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

Cody celebrates Friday the 13th (Part III).

BACKGROUND

The 1980 slasher movie Friday the 13th had told a complete, contained story: a young boy named Jason Voorhees had drowned at Camp Crystal Lake in 1957. Blaming his death on inattentive counselors his mother, Pamela Voorhees, returned to the camp to kill a couple of them the following year, resulting in the place being closed down. When they attempted to re-open the place decades later, she went on a major killing spree that didn't end until the last surviving counselor sliced her head off with a machete.

This caused some trouble when the movie was a big enough hit to warrant a sequel, as the filmmakers had to figure out who the killer should be. It was investor Phil Scuderi who made the call: Jason Voorhees would be the killer in Friday the 13th Part 2. This was such a baffling concept that some of the creative team - like Friday the 13th producer/director Sean S. Cunningham, screenwriter Victor Miller, and FX artist Tom Savini - distanced themselves from the follow-up. But director Steve Miner and writer Ron Kurz, under the guidance of Scuderi, made it work. An adult Jason, wearing a sack over his head, showed up at a counselor training camp across the lake from Camp Crystal Lake and wiped out a bunch of people himself, with his return brushed off with a campfire story, an urban legend that Jason has been surviving in the wilderness and witnessed his mother's decapitation.

Friday the 13th Part 2 was a hit. Another sequel was given the greenlight. And there were no creative hurdles to overcome this time. The head of Friday the 13th distributor Paramount at the time was Frank Mancuso, and his son - Frank Mancuso Jr. - had been an associate producer on Part 2. For Part III, Mancuso Jr. was promoted to producer and Scuderi let him call the shots on this one. Anxious to make another movie, Part 2 director Steve Miner (who had been an associate producer, production manager, and second unit director on the first movie) signed on to direct the new sequel as well: and this time, the slashing was going to be presented in 3-D. Many of the people working behind-the-scenes had fond memories watching 3-D movies like Fort Ti, House of Wax, and Creature from the Black Lagoon in the '50s, and they were excited to bring 3-D to a new decade.

That decision caused a lot of trouble, because they were working with a new type of 3-D that didn't require the blue and red glasses but did require theatres to have the correct screens and projectors, all of which Paramount paid for when releasing the movie, but it did make the movie more of an event. And, since Miner had a feeling this would be the last Friday the 13th movie, it needed to be an event.

The screenplay was written by Martin Kitrosser and his wife Carol Watson. Kitrosser had been the script supervisor on the previous movies and has gone on to have that job on all of Quentin Tarantino's films. Uncredited rewrites were done by author Petru Popescu, who hadn't seen part 1 or 2, so he drew inspiration from a popular horror movie that he had seen: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). You can see some touches of TCM in the film, some of which may just be coincidences. But there is a group of youths travelling in a van, a country setting, and an ending where the heroine acts in a similar way to how Sally Hardesty ended up in TCM '74.

SETTING

Unlike the first two entries, which were shot in the Eastern United States (New Jersey and Connecticut, to be exact), Part III was filmed in California. Mainly because Mancuso didn't want to be too far from Paramount's home base while they were conducting this 3-D experiment. 

The primary location is a lakeside cabin and an accompanying barn on a property called Higgins Haven. This place was portrayed by the Valuzet Movie Ranch in Saugus. The barn remains standing today, but the cabin was tragically destroyed in a fire years later - an extension of the curse that has taken most of the Part 2 locations from us. 

Some fans weren't impressed by the look of Part III's locations, as the lush greens of the East were left behind for dusty California countryside and the piece of Crystal Lake the cabin sits beside was a patch of dry ground that the production team flooded, so it looks a bit strange and dirty. But I've always been fascinated by this place. I think the cabin is a really cool location, and since a lot of other movies have been shot at the Valuzet Movie Ranch, I enjoy seeing Higgins Haven show up in things like Meatballs Part II, The Zero Boys, and Twisted Nightmare.

It also proved to be a great setting for a climactic chase sequence.

KILLER

Jason's not stalking and slashing counselors this time around. In fact, he was just trying to mind his own business. Since he was wounded at the end of Part 2 and his makeshift shack in the woods was discovered by outsiders, he has wandered over to Higgins Haven to take refuge in the barn. Sure, he kills a couple of people on the way there, but that's just because he needed to make a wardrobe change. He grabs some clothes off their clothesline, then kills them and goes off to hide in the barn. It's just bad luck for everyone involved that a group of vacationers show up on the property soon after he gets there.

Part III is the film where Jason becomes Jason. This is where his iconic look is completed. Not only does he change into the clothes he's best known for wearing, but he also replaces the sack he was wearing over his head with the iconic hockey mask.

The production's most famous creative decision came almost by accident. When they were trying to figure out what Jason should wear over his face, crew member Martin Jay Sadoff supplied a Detroit Red Wings goalie mask, which was then modified by effects artist Martin Becker. That customized hockey mask would become one of the most famous images in horror history.

Under the mask is former trapeze artist Richard Brooker, whose imposing stature and physical performance makes this one of the best portrayals of Jason. He's strong, aggressive, and fast, as this was still the era when Jason would run after his victims. The look of Jason in the final 30 minutes of this film is the best I think he's ever looked, with his undamaged and clean hockey mask paired with his new clothes.

FINAL GIRL

Our heroine is Chris Higgins, played by Dana Kimmell. I've always really liked Kimmell in this role. She's cute and likeable, and she handles herself well when things go bad. The set designers added an element to a character that I really like, as there are band stickers and pins all over Chris's Dodge Ram van. Apparently she's a big fan of Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, and my personal favorite, Led Zeppelin.

Kimmell got a bad rap from fans for several years, as she was perceived to have gone on to be very against the film, with rumors that she had even morally objected to moments in the script during filming. She managed to clear things up a bit and get back into good graces when she participated in the audio commentary for the DVD and gave an interview for the Crystal Lake Memories book. According to her, the only script change she asked for was to drop a reference to Chris having a sexual history with Rick, the local guy she reunites with at Higgins Haven. Not a big deal, and Kimmell seems like a nice, friendly person.

Chris was given a mysterious backstory. She is clearly nervous to be returning to Higgins Haven after two years away, and we eventually learn that this is because, for the first time in the series, the heroine has previously encountered Jason. She ran off into the woods after an argument with her parents and was attacked by him. He dragged her off into the woods and she blacked out... She woke up in the morning in her own bed. She doesn't know what happened and her parents act like nothing ever did happen. It's a strange story that's purposely left ambiguous. We never do find out what went on while Chris was unconscious that night.

But when she crosses paths with Jason again, she runs and fights for her life in what I think is the best chase sequence in the franchise.

VICTIMS

The friends Chris brought to Crystal Lake with her fit many of the usual slasher types while still being a likeable, fun, quirky bunch to spend some time with.

As far as oversexed couples go, Debbie and Andy (Tracie Savage and Jeffrey Rogers) are rather levelheaded. Andy makes an impression just by the fact that he's always acting like he's performing in a talent show. He can yo-yo, he can juggle, he can walk on his hands. Debbie seems like a good, caring friend to Chris. There is an unusual aspect to Debbie in the fact that she mentions a couple times that she's pregnant. This is odd and rarely done in a slasher, because of course this character is also set to be murdered. When I watched this as a kid with my grandmother, she replied to my incredulous "She's pregnant?" by saying, "That's what she says," in a tone that implied that Debbie was lying, I guess to ease my mind. This did put a seed of doubt in my mind for many years, but there's really no reason to question her word in the film. Debbie says she's pregnant, she is pregnant, Jason kills a pregnant girl. That's a pretty disturbing element.

I'm not quite sure how spaced out, humorous stoner couple Chuck and Chili (David Katims and Rachel Howard) ended up in this group. Maybe Chris met them at one of the concerts she attended. They were clearly inspired by the popularity of Cheech and Chong.

Andy's roommate Shelly (Larry Zerner) has also come along, with hopes of being hooked up with pretty single girl Vera (Catherine Parks), but he blows it by being a really annoying prankster dweeb. Still, Shelly does leave a mark on the franchise that lasts to this day. Trying to scare Vera after she (understandably) rejects his advances, Shelly pulls a mask from his bag of tricks. A hockey mask.

Rick (Paul Kratka), Chris's love interest, is a bit of a jackass for most of the movie, as it takes him a long time to become kind and considerate toward Chris. Rather than showing concern for her and the fact that she's worried about returning to Crystal Lake, he spends most of his time trying to pressure her into bed with him and cracking jokes at her expense.

The clothes Jason gets belonged to Harold (Steve Susskind), the rabbit-tending owner of a small country market. That market doesn't seem to be the best place to shop at, because odds are that Harold has taken swigs from the beverages and samples from the food. He'll even give pet food a try. The set design adds a character element to make it appear that Harold is also a massive railroad enthusiast. There's a "Watch out for the locomotive" sign in his backyard, a train set in the store, pictures of trains and tracks on the walls, a small crossing sign by the register, a train car in the fish bowl with his fish Lionel. Harold and his nagging wife Edna (Cheri Maugans), who he often ignores and never speaks to, are very entertaining to watch.

At Higgins Haven, the filmmakers weren't content to just knock off the group of youths, as a trio of bikers also get involved. (Nick Savage as Ali, Gloria Charles as Fox, and Kevin O'Brien as Loco.) The bikers first antagonize Shelly and Vera at a store. Shelly retaliates by driving over their motorcycles, so the bikers follow them back to Higgins Haven to get revenge. They siphon the gas out of Chris's van, and their plan seems to be to use the gas to set the barn on fire... We know Jason's in that barn. The bikers' plans fall apart as soon as they enter it. It's a fun interlude that bumps the bodycount up higher than the previous two films'.

DEATHS

The kills in the first movie featured some incredible blood and gore effects, thanks to Savini. Unfortunately, the MPAA ratings board forced 48 seconds of the FX that Carl Fullerton provided for Part 2 to be cut out before the film could earn an R rating. That was a warning that the sequels couldn't be bloodbaths on the level of the first film - but we still get some good, memorable kills from Part III.

In fact, this has one of the best kills in the series. When Andy is walking on his hands down a hallway, Jason steps out in front of him and slams his machete right down into the guy's groin. His body is found later, cut in half.

We also get a meat cleaver to the chest, a knitting needle to the back of the head, a couple of pitchfork impalements, a severed arm, a bludgeoning, a knife impalement, a fireplace poker impalement, a throat slitting... and two more kills that I rank as some of the best we've ever seen in this series: a speargun bolt shot through an eye, and a scene where Jason crushes someone's head in his bare hands, causing one of their eyeballs to pop out.

And since this was shot in 3-D, that eyeball pops out right into the camera, and Jason tends to shove his weapons into the camera.

CLICHÉS

Part III adheres closely to slasher conventions, and purposely so. There was no thought of trying to reinvent the wheel here. As Popescu said in Crystal Lake Memories, "I was never under any pressure to flesh out the characters, only to work on the circumstances of how the next kid gets slashed. There was definitely a discussion of types: 'This guy has to be a good guy. This one has to be a bad girl. This one smokes. This one is sexually experienced.' Those decisions were made very quickly. Nobody agonized over any of this."

So, we get the usual types of characters on an ill-fated getaway together. Some of them have sex, some of them do drugs, most of them meet an untimely death.

There's a recap opening to remind us what happened in the previous movie. Even though doomsayer Crazy Ralph was killed in Part 2, we get a new "crazy old doomsayer" in this one.

There's a prankster character. A Final Girl endurance trial. And things get freaky in the end with a fake-out nightmare sequence.

POSTMORTEM

Friday the 13th Part III was released on August 13, 1982, and became a major box office success, the most financially successful installment in the franchise until Freddy vs. Jason came along two decades later. It deserved that success. 

This is my favorite slasher movie. My favorite installment in my favorite franchise. It has what I consider to be the perfect Jason, a great location, likeable characters, fun situations, cool kills, a good heroine, and then it's all topped off by the best chase sequence in the entire series, with Jason chasing Chris all around the Higgins Haven property. They go throughout the house, there's an escape through a second story window, the van is used, a rickety old bridge hinders things... The chase lasts around 13 minutes, is full of confrontations as Chris fights her heart out to get away from Jason, and it all ends in that creepy old barn.

If there is a 3-D screening of F13 III near you, I highly recommend that you check it out. On home video you can see the remnants of the obvious effects, people sticking objects out into the screen, but this was also a 3-D that added a depth to the whole picture, so seeing the movie projected and presented in the right way turns it into an immersive experience.

Miner thought this would be the last Friday the 13th movie, even though Jason isn't stopped in a particularly spectacular way. Once the film became a hit, it was clear to Paramount that they needed to make at least one more of these... but they were cheap enough to make and the return-on-investment was good enough that we got several more.

And the continuing success of the franchise had a lot to do with the decisions that went into Friday the 13th Part III, the film where Jason Voorhees truly reached horror icon status.