13 Things You Didn't Know About Friday 13th Part III

Tremble in superstitious dread at the latest in our fascinating series on horror trivia in the Friday The 13th franchise!

With the repeat success of Friday The 13th Part 2, a third instalment was inevitable, and Steve Miner was tapped to return as director, who in turn enlisted Martin Kitrosser, script supervisor on the previous two movies, to write the script with his wife Carole Watson.

This time, aware that there was a limit to how often they could push the same storyline - nubile dumbass teens are murdered inventively in the woods by psychopath - Paramount decided to add the recently resurgent 3D gimmick into the mix to spice things up a little.

To be honest, if you saw Friday The 13th Part 3 in the cinema that’s what you remember most: the 3D staging and effects. It wasn’t just the killings. Every chance they had to have something ping out of the screen at the theatrical audience, they took it: so the credits loom out of the screen at you in lurid red, a rat runs directly towards the camera, a wallet is thrown out of the screen… weapons lurch towards the audience alongside even more ludicrous 3D effects like juggling balls shot from above... the eyeball held out to camera by the harbinger at the beginning and the eyeball that pops from Rick’s head at the end… the f*cking YOYO…

So are you a Shelly or are you a Chris - a fan, or a super fan? Check your horror credentials here...

The law of diminishing returns is at its cruellest when it comes to entries in a slasher franchise. There’s only so many ways that the same killer can murder the same array of stock teenagers from central casting, after all.

Paramount thought they’d cracked audience burn out with Friday The 13th Part 3, however. The solution was in the title: take advantage of the very recent resurgence in 3D in the cinema.

But 3D wasn’t just about sending a bag full of cardboard sunglasses to theatres. It required intricate staging and lighting, and even more intricate blocking and choreography, all structured by insanely meticulous planning. With this in mind, everything else about Part 3 - script, casting, music, the works - all played second fiddle to one thing: making sure the 3D worked properly.

David Katims, who played Chuck (electrocuted by being shoved into a fusebox) was pretty blunt about the production’s priorities:

"The writing and the acting didn't matter at all. I don't imagine any of us really feel like this was the crowning glory of our talent. I hope not..."

Screenwriter Petru Popescu, who was brought in to provide an uncredited script polish to add some menace, was even less inclined to mince words:

"I went to some of the casting sessions and I saw that there were boys and girls who gave good readings and those who gave bad readings, but it didn't matter…”