Friday the 13th Movies: Ranked Worst to Best

5. Friday The 13th Part III (1982)

Paramount Pictures

While Friday the 13th Part III ranks as #5 on my list, that doesn't mean it's great. It is a GOOD film, but not a GREAT film. F13 Part III will forever be remembered as the first appearance of Jason's iconic hockey mask. It's hard to believe that mask didn't appear until the third film, but we'll just have to deal with it as best we can.

This film will also be forever remembered for the awkward moments shoved into the film to satisfy its 3D audience (3D flicks were enjoying a resurgence in 1982). On a side note, this is the only 3D film I ever saw that "got" me with one of its effects. I saw this movie in the theater with a buddy of mine. We were both slouching in our seats with our knees propped up against the chairs in front of us. My slouch was so low that my knees partially blocked the screen. At one point, Jason offs a victim by shoving a pipe into their torso. The audience is treated to a 3D trickle of blood coming out of the end of the pipe as it points directly toward the movie-goers. I actually moved my knees to prevent the blood from dripping on my legs. I loved the feeling, but I've never had it happen since. More's the pity.

Picking up the day after F13 Part 2, we finally start to get a glimpse of how difficult it is to kill Jason (but we don't REALLY see it until Part IV). Having survived his final encounter with Ginny in Part 2 (who somehow also survived), our hero/villain makes his way to a local store to pick up some new duds. Being the evil bastard that he is, Jason doesn't pay for his clothes but instead kills off the merchant couple before heading off to a lakefront property called Higgins Haven. Luckily for us, Higgins Haven is filled with nubile girls to slaughter, and Jason does us proud.

In Part III, we are still stuck with the mortal Jason. Lots of things hurt him throughout the series, but later versions of Jason just wouldn't be killed by a mere hatchet to the head. What a wimp! Besides Jason's donning of the hockey mask, my favourite thing about F13 Part III is the huge number of cliches.

Stuart Bedford's awesome article 10 Obvious Signs You're About to be Murdered By a Movie Slasher chronicles a lot of these cliches, but even he couldn't list them all. How about if I list them all for you? A girl wades into the lake at night and is killed. The only thing missing from this cliche was nudity. A guy plays a prank that he's a killer in order to scare a girl. He dies. A couple of kids that just had sex are killed. The girl who just had sex is killed after taking a shower. Surprisingly, she wasn't killed in the shower, but close enough. This same girl has blood drip on her from her dead boyfriend just before she is killed. Three cliches on one girl! Now that's really working your script. An evil group of bikers hell-bent for mischief is slaughtered. Evil people always die in slasher flicks. A guy is killed when his car runs out of gas. His gas was drained by the evil bikers. A guy goes into the basement to check the fuse box after the power goes out. EVERYONE should avoid this trap.

Not bad, eh? The writers of F13 Part III really knew how to work in those cliches. Or maybe they invented them? I'm not sure.

Contributor

Tim is a varied character. He's lived on three continents. He hates ice cream. He has been a highly-paid computer programmer. He invents collectible card games. He is a coffee shop owner. He has had fantasy stories published in magazines. Eventually he wishes to retire from life and become a professional 10-pin bowler who writes articles while living in his RV and traveling from bowling tournament to bowling tournament with his faithful wife in tow. And of course, Tim is a major horror and science fiction fan.