Dan Abel’s review published on Letterboxd:
31 Days of Horror 2020 - Film 4
The debut of the iconic hockey mask!
Immediately after the events of Friday the 13th: Part 2, an injured Jason Vorhees pulls the machete out of his shoulder and gets back to his killing spree. Chris and her friends take a vacation to "Higgin's Heaven", a beautiful house owned by her parent's on the shore of Crystal Lake. After encountering a motorcycle gang the friends all start to settle in. It's then that Chris tells her love interest Rick a story. A story about why she left Crystal Lake two years ago and hasn't returned until now. She was chased through the woods by a horribly disfigured man with a knife and barely managed to survive. She left in fear. What she doesn't realize is her and her friends are about to come face to face with that same man. Jason Vorhees.
The third Friday the 13th film in as many years with Steve Miner returning to the director's chair, Friday the 13th Part III is one of the many "Part 3s" to get the 3D treatment over the years. Expect tons of scenes where something is placed way too close to the camera for the effect and a few that must have been great to see in theaters in 3D. Probably my favorite cast of characters thus far in the series and I'm not sure why considering how much Shelly the David Berkowitz lookalike and the emotionally manipulative sex starved Rick annoy me. Harry Manfredini may possibly be at his best with this musical score and Steve Miner seems to have learned from his mistakes with pacing from the sequel. The gore is kicked up here the way I like it as well. Another shoutout to the FX team.
The plot is what has come to be expected from these films. The formula is simple. Teens show up at Crystal Lake for one reason or another and they all die aside from "the final girl". Speaking of the final girl, Dana Kimmell as Chris is by far the best in the series at this point and the same goes for Richard Brooker's performance as Jason. In the first five minutes, Jason pulls the machete out of his shoulder from the end of the last film and establishes the immortal monster he is today. He isn't a normal man with a disfigured face, he is something else. Something that refuses to die and has enhanced physical abilities to boot.
Excellent intro/outro theme music as well. Cheesy but excellent. Thanks, Harry! My favorite film in the series at this point and possibly my favorite one of them all. We get more gore, a great body count, and the most action from the most menacing looking Jason thus far. There are at least three scenes that make absolutely no sense in the last ten minutes but I don't even care. This film still rules even if you haven't seen the first two. A must see slasher. IT RULES!
