Friday the 13th Part III

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 sequel to Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) and the third installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. Set directly after the events of the previous film, the plot follows Chris Higgins, a teenage girl (Kimmell), and her friends who go on a trip to a homestead near Crystal Lake where an injured Jason Voorhees (Brooker) has taken refuge until re-emerging 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.

The original storyline was supposed to focus on a post-traumatic Ginny Field from the prior installment. However, this concept was abandoned when actress Amy Steel declined to reprise her role. Martin Kitrosser, a script supervisor on the previous two films, co-wrote the screenplay with Carol Watson. Unlike the previous two installments, Friday the 13th Part III was filmed in California rather than the east coast. Paramount shot the film in 3-D, a choice suggested by Martin Sadoff, an associate of producer Frank Mancuso Jr. The 3-D technology used in the film complicated the shooting process, which lasted several months in the spring of 1982.

Friday the 13th Part III was theatrically released in select theaters in 3-D, 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. A direct sequel, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, was released two years later.

Shortly after being sliced with a machete by Ginny Field, 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, for a summer trip. 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. While the car gets their front window broken with a chain, Shelly returns to knock down the bike again, impressing Vera. Later, the bikers show up at Higgins Haven, where they siphon gas out of the van and attempt to burn the barn down to get even. Jason, who has been hiding inside the barn, murders Fox and Loco each 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. Her overall memory of the incident is unclear.

Back at Higgins Haven, a rejected Shelly scares Vera with a hockey mask and then wanders into the barn; Jason emerges wearing Shelly's mask. Vera retrieves Shelly's wallet from under the dock, then is promptly shot in the eye with a speargun. Jason then enters the house and slices a handstanding 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 to be hurled into the fuse box and electrocuted. Chili finds Shelly bleeding to death from a slashed throat, believing it is a joke at first, and Jason impales her with a fire poker.

When Rick's car breaks down, Chris and Rick are forced to walk back to the house, only 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. With the van running out of gas, Chris tries to use the van's reserve tank. However, she runs out of time and the wheel falls through the bridge, prompting Chris to enter the barn to hide, only for Jason to attack again. Inside the barn, Chris strikes Jason over the head with a shovel and hangs him. He regains consciousness and temporarily removes his mask to free himself from the noose, allowing Chris to recognize him as the same man who attacked her two years prior. An awoken Ali tries to attack Jason, but Jason 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 cuts to 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 be still lying in the barn, seemingly dead.