Blu-ray Review
Friday the 13th: Part Three 3D
Directed by: Steve Miner Cast: Dana Kimmell, Larry Zerner, Richard Brooker Running Time: 1 hr 32 mins Rating: R
Plot: Jason Voorhees returns to Crystal Lake to stalk and kill almost-victim Chris (Kimmell) and her friends.
Who's It For? Horror fans might enjoy renting this digital update. But moviegoers relatively new to Jason should check out Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan and even Jason X.
Movie:
This may not be Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, but Friday the 13th: Part Three is surely not one of Jason Voorhees' better days. Sure, the film introduces the iconic hockey mask, and even has the 3D gimmick (more on that below). But as far as classic moments go (by that I basically mean murders), this one doesn’t offer too much gruesome goodness, its thrills flat lining because of redundancy and (gasp) predictability. Of course Jason's every step is determined by some type of formula, but the best moments are the ones that do the math a bit more creatively. Here, the machete and pitchfork are used repetitively, and more than half of the carnage occurs in a barn. Not helping Part Three's sameness is its ending, which has - you guessed it - someone popping out of the water during a dream sequence, which is similar to the how previous two concluded.
Note: The 3D glasses hurt my head, in an "axe to Jason's head" way. First of all, they fit awkwardly over my glasses (which I do need to wear). Then, the red and blue filters made the images on the screen appear in funky colors. It sort of helped to close my left eye and look through the blue filter - but doing this reduced the 3D aspect enhanced by the red side. After about 15 minutes of struggling to find a comfortable setting, my partner turned the lights on and we noticed a bit of improvement. Five more minutes later, we gave up and switched to the standard 2D presentation. It felt like it wouldn't have been fair to the movie to watch it in such a chaotic situation.
The 3D isn't entirely necessary. Even in 2D, everything is directly in front of the camera. The in-your-face camera technique is a nice touch, but it doesn't need glasses to be enjoyed.
Score: 5/10
EXTRAS
Fresh Cuts: 3D Terror: Apparently, the implementation of 3D added a lot of technical work to the production. It's interesting to hear about how much the film used a crane for its consistently moving camera. But all of this, along with a couple of stories about make-up, is told in a too brief 12-minute extra.
Legacy of the Mask: Hear the story on how a random hockey mask in a crew man's bag assisted in creating a horror icon.
Slasher Films: Going for the Jugular: Various members of slasher film history speak up about the fascination of horror movies. The man who played boy Jason in the first Friday the 13th makes a very interesting point that "[Jason is] a child trapped in an indestructible monster's body."
Theatrical Trailer - Movie trailers will just not be the same without the almighty voice of Don LaFontaine.
The other extras:
Tales from Camp Blood Part 3
Extras Score: 4/10
OVERALL
There aren't any audio commentaries, and the extras on this Blu-Ray are few and short. More than likely they're borrowed from the DVD release of the same film from the past January. This doesn't assist in the overall package of this Blu-Ray, which contains a mediocre horror film that can't truly be enjoyed in its proposed 3D fashion.
Final Score: 4/10