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Friday the 13th Part III (Blu-ray 3D Review)

Jason Inc./Paramount Pictures (Turbine Medien)

Film/Program Grade: C+
Video Grade: A-
Audio Grade: B
Extras Grade: F
Friday the 13th Part III (Blu-ray 3D)

Review

[Editor's Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray 3D import from Germany.]

The financial success of Friday the 13th and its sequel further emboldened Paramount Pictures, under the producorial eye of Frank Mancuso Jr., to continue making more of them, now with Jason Voorhees as their established villain. Friday the 13th Part III would not only give Jason another roster of characters to slaughter, but take full advantage of the 3D craze that had recently been re-popularized by recent films like Comin’ at Ya and Parasite. Steve Miner would once again return to the director’s chair and Jason would finally don his iconic hockey mask for the first time.

This sequel picks up only moments after the events of the previous film in which surviving camp counselors Ginny (Amy Steel) and Paul (John Furey) seemingly kill Jason, but retcons the confusing ending in which Jason later re-appears and jumps through the window to grab Ginny, and Ginny wakes up on a stretcher, leaving the fate of Paul unknown. In the third film, Chris (Dana Kimmell), a young woman with a troubled past, and a group of her friends visit an isolated farm house in the country for a vacation, not far from Jason’s murderous neck of the woods. The new cast also includes Paul Kratka, Tracie Savage, Jeffrey Rogers, Larry Zerner, Catherine Parks, Nick Savage, Gloria Charles, Kevin O’Brien, and Richard Brooker as Jason.

The third Friday is roundly considered one of the least in the series, mostly because it’s such a drop in quality compared to the first two, especially Part 2, which attempted to explore Jason’s psychology and give some of the characters a little more dimension. Part III tosses the majority of that out the window in order to service the 3D as a gimmick. Characters spend more time sticking objects into the camera than offering interesting or compelling dynamics or thematics. That’s certainly par for the course when it comes to most slasher films at that time, but coming off the heals of one that had more to it than most, it makes it seem more obvious, though there’s an exception.

Chris is certainly a different kind of final girl as someone who’s still recovering from childhood trauma in which she was potentially sexually assaulted, which is never blatantly addressed. It’s also inferred that her assailant was actually Jason, chronologically making Chris not only his first victim, but the first survivor. It’s one of the few times that Jason does anything with his victims outside of immediately killing them, but it also gives Chris an interesting excuse not to bed down with her potential love interest Rick, who’s constantly baffled by the severe lack of nookie. Another interesting aspect of this particular group of people is the pregnant couple, Debbie and Andy. Debbie isn’t anywhere near showing yet as evidenced by her lack of clothing, but it adds some substance when she’s killed, which is similar to Kevin Bacon’s death in the first film.

Then there’s the biker gang and Shelly. The biker gang, made up of Ali, Loco, and Fox, is seeking some revenge against Shelly and Vera after their initial run-in at a gas station. Meanwhile, the awkward and infuriating Shelly who constantly berates himself for not being good looking while simultaneously pulling pranks on everyone just makes you pine for his eventual demise. The only function that the biker gang serves is to set up a key moment during the film’s climax, as well as to increase the body count. There’s also the pot-smoking, popcorn-eating seemingly older couple who barely make a dent in the story, outside of a moment when they think they’re going to be pulled over by the cops and proceed to try and dispense with all of the marijuana they have on them by eating it. It’s unclear why this disparate group of people are friends with each other, and to be fair, this isn’t just another set of promiscuous and rebellious teenagers looking for a good time with lots of sex, drugs, and alcohol. It’s actually very tame in that regard.

The star of the show, despite the constant and useless interruption by the Motion Picture Association of America, are the kills. Most of them are about average, though Andy’s death in which he’s split in half, as well as Rick’s demise in which his head is squeezed so hard that his eyeball flies into the camera, are the highlights. There’s also the funky and spooky disco Friday theme by the fictional band Hot Ice, which is simply a pseudonym for composer Harry Manfredini and co-writer Michael Zager. Completely out of step for the series thus far, the theme took on a life of its own in discos and gay clubs, and has become somewhat of a favorite among fans.

Making its way into theaters on August 13, 1982, Friday the 13th Part III wasn’t as stellar a hit as its predecessors, but it did pretty good business considering its quality, and seeing it in 3D certainly helped. Like all of the Friday films, the critics hated it, and though fans generally consider it to be one of the worst of the series, it’s still a beloved and valuable part of it.

Friday the 13th Part III was shot by cinematographer Gerald Feil (Silent Madness) on 35mm film using Arriflex cameras and the 3-Depix single-strip converter 3D camera system, finished photochemically, and presented theatrically in 3D in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Turbine Medien brings the film to Blu-ray 3D in Germany using the previous 3D master included in Scream Factory’s massive boxed set of the entire franchise from 2020, but with adjustments for technical errors. Here’s what they have to say about the project, via their official press release:

“Friday the 13th: Part 3 from 1982 is impressive in 3D, not least because of its insane pop-out effects, in which objects appear to protrude from the screen. Previous releases of the film had to struggle with significant distortions. Such errors in the 3D presentation do not necessarily lead to a complete loss of the 3D effect, because the brain has a certain tolerance. But watching flawed 3D footage is exhausting and causes headaches in the long run.

For the Blu-ray 3D release, Turbine therefore had extensive corrections and improvements made to the existing 3D master. The image was adjusted in the parameters Horizontal Position, Vertical Position, Zoom, Rotation, Keystone X, Keystone Y and Trim. These optimizations were carried out jointly for both eyes as well as separately for the left and right, making a total of 21 parameters per image setting. The image parameters were adjusted scene by scene when the camera was static. If the camera moved through a scene, changing its angle or using the zoom, these 21 parameters had to be adjusted for each position. The parameters were first determined automatically using a 3D correction system and then manually fine-tuned.

The movie has certainly not looked better in 3D since its theatrical release in 1982.”

While there were some technical snafus present in the Scream Factory disc, it was certainly welcome after decades only being able to see it in 3D theatrically during revival screenings, not to mention the anaglyph 3D version found on Paramount’s 2009 DVD release. Suffice to say, Turbine’s Blu-ray 3D presentation surpasses the Scream Factory disc purely in terms of picture. A title card at the beginning informs us that the opening few minutes are not in 3D, which is the most dupey-looking footage in the film. (It’s worth noting that this title card isn’t a part of the 2D presentation). A solid bitrate often sitting between 30 and 40Mbps is maintained throughout. Depth is improved, with mostly clear dimension for background, midground, and foreground elements. The film’s infamous gags, such as the aforementioned eyeball popping out or a yo-yo bouncing up and down toward the camera, don’t always work perfectly, but others like the fruit juggling, the leaping snake, and the clothesline prop at the beginning, certainly do. The size of your setup and your distance from it will certainly help in this regard, but Turbine’s adjustments have made these gags work much better. Color and contrast levels are solid, outside of the left or right eye occasionally being a tad darker than the other eye, which is highly infrequent. Some ghosting is still present, but this is about as perfect a Blu-ray 3D experience of the film as you’re going to get, perhaps outside of further restoration work by the likes of 3-D Film Archive.

Audio is included in German 5.1 and 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio, and English 5.1 and 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional subtitles in English, English SDH, German, and German SDH. The English tracks appear to be the same as the previous release. Part III is a little less interesting than the previous films aurally as the focus was more on the visuals and getting the 3D right, but the audio selection here is more than serviceable—even giving a minor amount of boost to the disco Friday theme during the opening and closing credits. It’s also nice to have the original mono soundtrack as an option, though the 5.1 does have some edge in terms of spacing the soundtrack out without adding anything unnecessary to it.

The Turbine Medien Region-Free Blu-ray 3D release of Friday the 13th Part III, #11 in the Turbine Collector Series line, sits in a clear Amaray case with a double-sided insert, featuring the film’s main US theatrical poster artwork on both sides with the German language title on the front, and the English language title on the reverse. There are no extras included, but the whole purpose of this release is providing consumers with a release they won’t be getting elsewhere in the world, specifically a markedly improved Blu-ray 3D. If you’re a Friday the 13th and a Blu-ray 3D fan, this disc is a must-own.

- Tim Salmons