Product Details

• Actors: Dana Kimmell, Tracie Savage, Richard Brooker, Paul Kratka, Jeffrey Rogers
• Directors: Steve Miner
• Writers: Carol Watson, Martin Kitrosser, Petru Popescu, Ron Kurz, Victor Miller
• Producers: Frank Mancuso Jr., Lisa Barsamian
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: September 28, 1994
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (326 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300214311
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,674 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The tender, tragic saga of Jason Vorhees, the world's unhappiest camper, continues when yet another batch of hormonally advanced teens decide to ignore past history and spend some time at the woodsy, pine-scented slaughterhouse known as Camp Crystal Lake. It may be a bit of a stretch to describe any of the entries in this interminable series as "good," but this creatively grotesque installment manages to come surprisingly close with a welcome sense of humor and some quick glimmers of real menace (courtesy of director Steve Miner, who would later go on to helm the far more accomplished Halloween: H20). Originally presented in 3-D, which explains the never-ending slew of objects (knives, pitchforks, yo-yos, cats, eyeballs, etc.) that are repeatedly thrust in the viewer's general direction. --Andrew Wright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This time Jason will come to YOU!, October 10, 2000

By 

Inspector Gadget "Go Go Gadget Reviews" (On the trail of Doctor Claw) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friday the 13th, Part 3 (DVD)

If Paramount's A-movie franchise was Star Trek, then their B-movie franchise would definitely be Friday The 13th. A total of eight were made and, with the exception of '83, there was a Friday The 13th for every year in the Eighties, with the TV series debuting in '87.

They were tacky, badly made and infrequently showed any professionalism, or dynamic filmmaking. But they sure had their moments and Part 3 is definitely the best of the first four, Part 5 being the joker in the pack and 6-8 the second instalment of the Jason Voorhees legacy.

Apparently, not getting enough of butchering teenagers with the first sequel, director Steve Miner returns for more unlucky day murders. While his first outing was almost the exact same as the original, only with a different killer, Part 3 reinvents the franchise and totally solidifies Jason as a horror movie icon.

Chris (Dana Kimmel) has had a difficult past few years and she decides to spend a long weekend at Higgins Haven with her friends. Too bad for them that Jason (Richard Brooker) is lurking in the woods. He and Chris have had a scuffle in the past and she's afraid to go out there alone.

Her friends are an unusual bunch. There are a couple of stoners, Shelly, a fat kid who just wants to be loved (Larry Zerner), a pregnant friend (Tracie Savage) and her hunky squeeze (Paul Kratka). These are not the typical goofball sex-mad teenagers of the early Eighties. For some reason, the writers have made them somewhat subdued and realistic. They seriously want a quiet weekend - no partying, no loud music. It helps that we like them, because in most other occasions we can't wait for them to get slaughtered.

And they aren't the only ones in trouble. A non-threatening biker gang plan to cause havoc at Higgins Haven, because Shelly knocked over their scooters, and end up regretting it. If anything, they make for some light comedy - intentional, or not.

Halfway through, Shelly pulls a joke on the girl he fancies. He leaps out of the water wearing a hockey mask and brandishing a harpoon. Five minutes later Jason gets his hands on them. And ever since, the image of the hockey mask has been the trademark of the series.

In every other sequel, Jason is a walking monolith. [...], show Michael Myers a thing or two about the art of teenage massacre and somehow be able to maintain his cool and make it all seems effortless. This is the only time you will see him for what he really is - a retarded hillbilly. He evens smiles! Twice!!

Miner would return later to the same location in Lake Placid. Here, he successfully portrays Crystal Lake as a tranquil, peaceful place and manages, in the final scenes, to infuse it with atmospheric excitement, all without the use of rain, or lightning.

It wouldn't be hard to make a sequel superior to the original Friday The 13th. Miner failed with Part 2, but excels in Part 3. It has a lighter tone and different feel from the others. In fact, it shouldn't be viewed as a horror film at all. It's an adventure movie, set in the woods, with one of the best villains ever.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Widescreen & Chili's uncut death, October 24, 2000

By 

Justin Wayne Morris (Fayetteville, AR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friday the 13th, Part 3 (DVD)

What I felt before was a quite mediocre entry in the series(speaking relatively, of course), I now feel is one of the most superior. What makes the difference? Widescreen. Steve Miner is a master of the form(see the underrated House or Halloween:H20) and injects this sequel with a lot of atmosphere and tension which was not as evident on previous pan-and-scan video releases of the film. For instance, consider the scene where Chris relays her previous experience with Jason to her boyfriend Rick. On video, it had always appeared as if the couple had just stopped at a random spot in the woods to talk. In widescreen, however, the entire left side of the picture is taken up by the side of a cabin and by a drainpipe spilling water throughout the scene. This one small detail adds a whole other layer to the atmosphere of the scene. You also get to see a lot more of Higgin's Haven and the surrounding woods and lake in widescreen. Also, as previously mentioned, the showdown/chase scene that climaxes this film is amazingly suspenseful, especially for an early 80's slasher sequel. Widescreen allows you to see Jason running up along the side of the barn as Chris enters. Creepy!

One last note about the DVD:

For years, Friday fans have lamented the lost death scene footage excised by the MPAA before the films were released to theaters. Well, apparently someone in the DVD department at Paramount is a fan, for Chili's death scene via firepoker in the Friday 3 DVD is the unrated cut. Wherein previous video versions, there is only a shot of the firepoker exiting her back, in the DVD version, a relatively long sideshot has been inserted showing Jason plunging the firepoker all the way through her and then slightly twisting it. This extra shot is worth the price of the DVD. Hopefully unrated death scenes will show up on future Friday releases also. I'd love to see some of the unrated footage from Friday 6 and 7.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Aspirin not included, February 3, 2009

By 

A. Gammill (West Point, MS United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Friday the 13th, Part 3, 3-D (Deluxe Edition) (DVD)

Getting old is hell. It's true. You see, I'm old enough to have seen Friday the 13th Part 3 in the theater back in 1982. There were a handful of pretty bad 3-D movies made during that brief resurgence of the fad. Believe it or not, this was actually the best of them. The film took full advantage of the process, poking every possible object, body part, etc. at the screen. All in polarized 3-D. Polarized? Well, I don't know all the technical details, but the glasses were tinted gray, instead of the old-style red and blue that was used during the early 1950's heyday of 3-D movies. A polarized 3-D movie doesn't just have depth; things literally pop off the screen and, at times, would appear to be inches from your face.

Sadly, this 3-D release of Friday the 13th Part 3 is NOT the same picture I saw all those years ago.

Apparently, the polarized process can't be recreated for the home screen (not yet, anyway. . .if you'd told me ten years ago I'd be able to store thousands of songs on a gadget the size of a cigarette lighter, I'd have called you crazy). So what we have here is a sort of "remixed" cut of the film, with the old-school glasses. And all the headaches those involve.

Disappointments aside, it's not a complete waste. The film itself was made to have depth (as in the third dimension of depth, not the philosophical kind!), and many scenes translate fairly well. The more notorious shock scenes (SPOILERS AHEAD) involving a spear gun and an eyeball rushing toward the camera come pretty close to duplicating the original format's intensity. Objects in the background often suffer some blurriness--hence the possibility of headaches--and the print itself is surprisingly grainy in spots.

The film itself is no better or worse than any of the FRIDAY sequels. But if you were lucky enough to have the film as intended on the big screen, you will almost certainly be disappointed with this presentation. I'm glad 3-D films are making a comeback; I just hope someone is able to improve the process for home viewing.