Day 13: Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)

A Month of Horror

I have always wanted to do a marathon of "HORROR" throughout the month of October, one where I would revisit a new horror movie every day from the first to the thirty-first.  I will revisit the classics as well as new entries into the canon.  There are many movies that define this time of year, and I hope to showcase 31 of them this month...

October 13: Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

Ch-ch-ch-ka-ka-ka...  "Friday the 13th" aimed to capitalize of the success of other "holiday" themed horror movies and it became a perennial sequel-generator in doing so, with ten official entries between 1980 and  2001, a spin off that pitted Jason against Freddy Krueger in 2003, and a remake in 2009.  The entire series is a tribute to what came before, right down to Harry Manfredini's score that is evocative of Bernard Herrman's score for "Psycho", yet also a definitive product of the '80s.

It wasn't until the third installment in the franchise that Jason officially became the hockey mask sporting killer that most know and love (in the original, it was his mother who was the killer, and in Part II, he wore a cloth sac over his deformed head) so I decided to focus on this installment.

Originally filmed in 3-D, the movie is full of obvious "gimmick" shots, but it is also the film that firmly cemented the rules that the series would grow to follow.  A group of horny teens ends up on a weekend getaway to get high and have sex, and by the end, only the "final girl" remains, the rest having been dispatched by the murderous Jason Voorhees.

There is no real motivation to the story.  The lore is set up in the first movie that Jason drowned at the hands of a group of neglectful counsellors at Camp Crystal Lake, but it is never really solidified beyond that.

As much as I revere the Halloween series, the motivations of Michael Myers remain equally ambiguous, as are those of Freddy Krueger, and the countless slashers in their vein that have appeared throughout the years.  It is the formula that continually draws audiences in.

For whatever reason, people like watching nubile teens get  their rocks off before getting systematically dismembered at the hands of an unstoppable force of killing destruction.

"Friday the 13th" remains one of the perennial slasher films (and it does illicit a fear of the wilderness if you are susceptible to such frights) and Jason will always remain one of the true icons of horror.

Tomorrow, I plan to get a little misty eyed for Thomas Jane...