Review of Friday the 13th Part III (1982) by Clem666 — 18 May 2021

I guess we never change a 'winning' team huh? Since the beginnings and the credits we definitely know it is going to be cheesy as hell. The characters are really stupid, some way more than others. At some point I just couldn't stand the face and voice of the famous Shelly, the so-called funny guy of the band. He contributes to induce many unnecessary and terrible scarejumps throughout the film to the point where everything becomes either honestly laughable or excessively boring.

Once again these teenagers are full of invasive sexual hormones pushing them to jump on each other like rabbits. The importance of consent is clearly not as strong as it is today. Some scenes would make some feminists scream (and not only because of fear). We are too often on the verge of voyeurism when the camera languidly follows the long legs of these naked young women. By the way Shelly doesn't manage to find his own place just because he is fat and 'ugly'. The only people of color in the film are dumb thugs, thank you the 80's.

If I always enjoyed sound effects and music of the series I have to admit this movie pushed things a bit too far. Jason, the music and the sounds he provokes are omnipresent, so that the tension can never subside. This fact just makes music silly and misused.

The overall acting is emotionless, not good. Flashbacks are mind-numbing and unattrative. Turns of event are far too often incoherent. Every single murder is committed without any noise. Blood never leaves marks and is rarely saw by the protagonists. Special effects are particularly awful. Jason is overpowered, superhuman, overskilled and overly fast. It is like he can fast-heal the few wounds he has! Especially at the end (without spoiler), things get really over the top and you can really feel Steve Miner's intention to force us to create an irrational fear in ourselves. Personally I couldn't retain a laugh for the heroine who will surely survive with an incurable post-traumatic syndrome. As always the end is tricky, blurred and incomprehensible. But we will remember this movie as the birth of the famous masked Jason.