There were many different ideas about where to take Part III. One of the initial ideas was to follow Ginny and see how the first night with Jason had so deeply affected her, which would have made for a fantastic Part III (much better than what we have right here), however that is not the direction the producers chose because they felt it wouldn't give the fans what they wanted. A good assumption too. The producers were happy with the first two films and decided it might be time to close out the franchise as a trilogy. I don't know if Part III wasn't the way it is now if we would still be discussing Friday the 13th today. In many ways, apart from the original, this is the most important entry in the entire franchise. However, it is also one of the poorest films in the franchise as well.
Concerning the trailer...it just sucked. I'm sorry it was by far the worst trailer of the first three. They did count again...at the end and it was just so fast. The trailer also promised something that was impossible that the film would scare you, they even told us to count on it! Wow...the tagline for the film itself is also very weak: a new dimension in terror. Oddly enough, I think JAWS 3D stole this tagline...strange. The trailer focuses on the 3D element to Part III way too much and doesn't let the movie sell itself.
What is good about Part III, or at least what is interesting is that it shows us how Jason survived and is literally a day after the events of Part 2. If Part 2 took place on Friday the 13th, this film took place on Saturday the 14th. Having such a short time in the timeline between films with such different stories shows the depth and scope of the impact of the Jason character, but more on that in later entries.
Chris, as a heroine, is another fine entry for the series. Chris had a previous run in with Jason and she fought him off both times! She blacked out the first time, but the second time, she put an axe into his head! She's the first heroine to be haunted the entire film. She pays attention and is easily jumpy the whole time. This is much like the survivors in the Halloween series. This is quite new for Friday the 13th, I don't know if I like it or not, but it's different at least. I love Chris's back story with Jason. It's fantastic! It's one of the few events we hear about what Jason did between killing Alice and killing the second batch of campers at the counselor training center. The unfortunate reality is that Dana Kimmell, the lead in the film, is the weakest actress of the three so far. She did a lot of other stuff, however, she doesn't seem quite right for a horror film. She's got a great scream, but doesn't seem natural in a role like this.
As far as the 3D goes, I didn't watch the 3D version this time. I have watched the red/blue 3D before and it was great to see somewhat what it was supposed to look like. However, that's not the original 3D it had and I didn't feel like watching a desaturated version of the film this time. I hope to see it in a screening with the original 3D at some point in my life, but only time will tell.
The hockey mask. I know, I know this is HUGE for this series of films. The hockey mask was the smartest decision any of the crew members ever made on any of their previous films. It created a movie monster and is now irrevocably iconic. I love the fact that Jason steals it from a victim. I, however, do not like the way that Shelly dies. It seems too dull.
This is a major problem with this movie. Although, it's incredibly well paced, much more so than Part 2 was, the death scenes are immensely boring and predictable in this one. Far gone is the shock value to the deaths of the first film. What we have in its place is a bunch of nods to the first film that come across and cheap knock offs. Particularly the ending. The end 'jump' scare, if it's even worthy of being called that...sucks. There's no way around how horrible that jump scare scene is. Mrs. Voorhee's comes up way too slow and the slow mo doesn't work when it's not sudden and then slowed down, like the first two.
There are 4 good death scenes I can think of out of a total of 12 kills in the movie. The first one is Andy's death. Cutting him in half is more graphic than any of the other two films. It's a great scene and discovering his body works nicely too. Vera's death is iconic, solely for the fact that it's the first death where Jason wears the hockey mask. It works every time for me. It's just that cool. Chili's death with the poker, again great idea and execution. Finally, Rick's death, the ejecting eye, fantastic. I can't even imagine how audiences would have reacted in the theater initially to that scene.
Overall, Friday the 13th Part III is a very poor film without the original 3D element to view it in. Yes, it does add the hockey mask into the equation, but overall, it's not nearly as affective as the first two. The chase is ok, but nothing great. Just a disappointing film altogether.
Friday the 13th Part III was released on August, Friday the 13th, 1982. It was ranked number 1 at the box office it's opening weekend. The film was rereleased on May, Friday the 13th, 1983. On a budget of $2.5 million, the film made $36,690,067. With such a huge profit margin, the trilogy idea was tossed out the window. The producers wanted to put the final nail in the Friday the 13th coffin and kill Jason off for GOOD! How they went about it, well, we'll discuss that next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment