Friday the 13th Part III

Friday the 13th Part III
Date of Release:	August 13, 1982
Boogeyman:	Jason Voorhees
Body Count:	12
Preceeded by:	Friday the 13th Part II
Followed by:	Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Friday the 13th Part III is a 1982 American slasher film directed by Steve Miner, produced by Frank Mancuso, Jr., and starring Dana Kimmell, Paul Kratka, and Richard Brooker. It is the third installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. Set directly after the events of Friday the 13th Part II, the plot follows a teenage girl (Kimmell) and her friends who go on a trip at a house near Crystal Lake where a wounded Jason Voorhees (Brooker) has taken refuge until reemerging for another killing spree. The film marks the first appearance of Jason's signature hockey mask, which has since become a trademark of both the character and the franchise, as well as an icon in American cinema and the horror genre in general.

The original storyline was supposed to focus on a post-traumatic Ginny Field who began learning self defense and returned to college after surviving her ordeal in the previous film. After finding Paul's corpse inside her dormitory, she prepares to track down Voorhees and face him in a final confrontation. However, this concept was abandoned when Amy Steel declined to reprise her role.

Friday the 13th Part III was theatrically released in 3D, and is the only film in the series to be released in that format. The film was intended to end the series as a trilogy, however, unlike many of its successors, the film did not include a moniker in its title to indicate it as such. The film was theatrically released on August 13, 1982, grossing $36.7 million at the US box office on a budget of $2.2 million, and received negative reviews from critics. It was the first film to remove E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial from the number-one box office spot and became the second highest-grossing horror film of 1982, behind Poltergeist. It has the third most attendance of the Friday the 13th franchise, with approximately 11,762,400 tickets sold. It was followed by Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Plot

Following the events of the night before, a badly injured and unmasked Jason Voorhees goes to a lakefront store for a change of clothes. While there, he murders the store owner Harold and his wife Edna. Meanwhile, Chris Higgins and her friends travel to Higgins Haven, her old home on Crystal Lake, to spend the weekend. The gang includes pregnant Debbie, her boyfriend Andy, prankster Shelly, his blind date Vera (who does not reciprocate his feelings), and stoners Chuck and Chili. After running into a man named Abel who warns them to turn back, the gang meets Chris' boyfriend Rick at their destination.

At a convenience store, Shelly and Vera get into a confrontation with bikers Ali, Fox, and Loco. Shelly gets in the car and knocks down their motorcycles, impressing Vera. Later, the bikers show up at Higgins Haven, where they take the gas out of the van and attempt to burn the barn down to get even. Jason, who has been hiding in the barn, murders Fox and Loco with a pitchfork before beating Ali unconscious. That night, Chris and Rick head out into the woods, where Chris reveals that she was attacked by a deformed man two years prior, which prompted her to leave Crystal Lake in the first place; the main reason that she returned was to confront her fears and escape the trauma.

Back at Higgins Haven, Shelly scares Vera with a hockey mask and then wanders into the barn, where Jason slashes his throat. Taking his mask to conceal his face, Jason emerges from the barn. Vera retrieves Shelly's wallet from under the dock and is shot in the eye with a speargun. Jason enters the house and bisects a hand-standing Andy with a machete. Debbie finishes her shower and rests on a hammock, where Jason thrusts a knife through her chest from beneath. When the power goes out in the house, Chuck goes downstairs to the basement only for Jason to hurl him into the fuse box, electrocuting him. Chili finds that everyone else is dead and is then impaled with a hot fire poker.

When Rick's car dies, Chris and Rick are forced to walk back to the house to find it in disarray. Rick steps outside to search the grounds, but Jason grabs him and crushes his skull with his bare hands, making one of his eyes pop out of its socket. Jason then attacks Chris, who narrowly escapes the house and tries to flee in her van. The van runs out of gas and Chris makes her way to the barn to hide, but Jason attacks her again. Inside the barn, Chris strikes Jason over the head with a shovel, and hangs him. He regains consciousness and temporarily removes his mask in order to get free from the noose, which causes Chris to recognize him as the same man who attacked her two years prior. A still-living Ali tries to attack Jason, but he quickly finishes him off. The distraction allows Chris to strike Jason in the head with an axe. He staggers momentarily towards her before finally collapsing. Exhausted, Chris pushes a canoe out into the lake and falls asleep.

Chris has a nightmare of an unmasked Jason running towards her from the house before disappearing, which then turns into the decomposing body of Pamela Voorhees, with her head attached, emerging from the lake to pull her in. The following morning, the police arrive and escort a traumatized Chris away from Higgins Haven. Jason's body is shown to still be lying in the barn as the lake is shown at peace.