Review of Friday the 13th Part III (1982) by Jeremy K — 23 Feb 2009

Perhaps sensing that audiences wouldn't cough up for yet another tiresome rehash of the same story a third time, the makes of "Part 3" dish out a new gimmick in the form of watching personality-challenged slasher Jason hack his way across the screen in 3-D.

Unfortunately, the novelty of having knives and hatchets waving around in your face wears off pretty quickly, not least because once again there's virtually no plot... Jason pretty much just shows up and starts killing folks at random.

Fortunately, returning director Steve Miner must have also been getting bored with the formula, so he peppers the flick with knowing winks at the audience (one of the characters literally passes a joint to the audience in one inspired gag), while the script attempts to flesh out its cardboard characters a little before they get hacked.

Most of the kills are fairly uninspired, but at least this one (unlike "Part 2") fitfully kicks to life now and again.