Which leads us to today's review.
Gawrsh, don't you just love these movie posters? I remember being a kid wondering through the video store while my mother was grocery shopping, and I always looked at the horror tape covers to determine what the plot of the movie was about. I also remember seeing a really nasty looking Jason on the back cover of one of them reaching in through a window, but I can't remember which one it was.
When this movie was first released, it was made to be watched in 3D. 3D, surprisingly, has been around for nearly half of the 20th century, and it seems to fade in and out of popularity. Recently, however, it has made a comeback, and this time it seems to be more than just a fad, as companies like Nintendo are making games and systems that support 3D, there are TVs that have 3D capability, its crazy.
Back then, of course, 3D was just a fun little fad. Along with Friday the 13th Part 3, Jaws was in 3D, Amityville was 3D, Captain Eo was 3D (and thanks to the death of the beloved and reviled Michael Jackson, Eo is back at Disney World.)
Now, I do believe that there is an edition of Friday part 3 released recently with the option to turn on the 3D effects, but since I was on Netflix I only got the standard version. By the by, most, if not all of the Friday the 13th films are on Netflix as we speak. You should definitely go check them out right now!
The film begins a day after the massacre around Crystal Lake in part 2. Right off the bat, this film gives off that great '80s vibe I love about these old slasher films. Kinda makes me nostalgic for my childhood for some reason.
A couple of kids are going to a summer cabin they rented out around the Crystal Lake property. Since its a day after the events of the first film, and word hasn't really gotten out yet about the madman wondering around Crystal Lake, its excusable for these kids to be completely oblivious. When they arrive at their summer cabin, the clothes come off, the drugs come out, and the guts start flying.
Once again, the characters here have just enough characterization to familiarize with them, and that's not a bad thing. In these types of films serious characterization isn't really needed, aside from the Final Girl. In this movie, the final girl, Chris, had a run in with Jason a few years before this film, frightening her away from the property. Now, however, she comes back to face her demon, literally.
Besides Chris, you have Shelly, the token prankster, yet I think he's the only prankster character in this series so far that has made me largely sympathetic for him. There are two hippies who act as chaperones to the kids who do nothing but smoke pot and make 3D popcorn, there are three bikers who literally look like extras from Michael Jackson's Beat It music video who make trouble for our young teens.
Higgen's Haven, the summer cabin property, serves as the setting for our characters American Pie-ish exploits. Most of the secondary cast are people who are trying to get laid (Maybe that's why I was confused when no one started dying in American Pie.) Higgen's Haven is a beautiful and highly atmospheric location, possibly the best of the series thus far.
The kills are fun and take advantage of the 3D effects. The most memorable in this movie is when one of the characters gets their head crushed in and one of their eyeballs pop out towards the screen. Even though it wasn't in 3D, it still made me say "Whoa" aloud when it happened.
Overall, this film was better than the second in terms of overall quality, atmosphere, and kills. It really feels like in this film, the film makers found their niche.. Unfortunately, this film also suffers the same criticism I gave the last film. Why is Jason still alive and why didn't he go look for his momma when she was still around?
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