Follow TV Tropes

Following

Film / Friday the 13th Part III

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fridaythe13thpart3_poster.jpg

The third Friday the 13th film, where Jason gets his hockey mask, released in 3D in 1982.

Being Not Quite Dead from the last movie's climax, Jason Voorhees wanders off from Camp Crystal Lake and ends up in Higgins Haven, a farm nearby. Good (bad?) timing too, as the place is soon filled with murder candidates trying to have a good time.


This film has the examples of:

  • Adaptational Villainy: In Michael Avallone's novelization, Jason is turned into a full blown Ax-Crazy serial killer who is not above cannibalizing and sexually violating his victims.
  • All Bikers are Hells Angels: The three bikers.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Jason cuts Ali's hand off before killing him.
  • Asshole Victim: The three bikers are criminal scumbags, so it's not too sad seeing them die.
  • Ax-Crazy: Jason fits this trope in general of course, but it's emphasised in this movie, with Jason simply wandering into Higgins Haven to stalk and murder everyone he comes across for no reason.
  • Axe Before Entering: After Jason learns that Chris is hiding in a closet, he takes an axe to its door.
  • Big "NO!":
    • Chili screams out one when she finds the corpses of Andy and Debbie upstairs.
    • Chris does it too when Jason, even with an axe sticking in his head, just keeps coming after her.
      • Including when the van runs out of gas.
  • Black Dude Dies First:
    • Among the main characters (not counting the two opening victims), the black Badass Biker Fox is the first to die.
    • Averted with Ali, one of the other bikers, who turns out to be Not Quite Dead after his initial attack and is the last one to die by Jason. In the novelization however, he survives.
    • The black cop lives, but he never survived Jason, he just discovers his body.
  • Blood Is Squicker in Water: Chris finds bloody clothes in a bathtub.
  • Call-Back:
    • Chris's ending nightmare calls back to the one in the first film.
    • During the news report being watched by Edna, mention is made of the "axe-wielding maniac" responsible. This can actually be seen as a subtle callback to the Covers Always Lie of the previous film; the theatrical posters depict Jason's silhouette wielding an axe, but he never uses one in the film, instead using a spear, knife, machete, pickaxe and pitchfork.
    • Debbie's death is a call back to Jack's death in the first movie.
  • Camping a Crapper: Jason kills Harold when he comes from the toilet.
  • The Cavalry Arrives Late: Yet again, the cops don't show up until everyone but the Final Girl is dead.
  • Chain Pain: Ali of the bikers is armed with a chain, which he wraps on his fist to punch through car windows.
  • The Chase: The last thirty minutes of the film focus on Jason pursuing Chris all around the property, and it's considered one of the most entertaining chase scenes in the franchise.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The axe that Chili unsuccessfully attempts to scare Shelly with is later used by Chris to part Jason's skull.
  • Combat Pragmatist: When Chris realizes there's no escaping from a closet she's trapped in, she grabs the knife Jason left in a previous victim and fights back. Jason shouldn't have left it lying around...
  • Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: This is the only film in the Friday the 13th franchise where Jason's name is never said (not counting the reused ending from the last film played at the beginning of this film).
  • Crying Wolf: Shelly's played so many pranks on everyone that by the time he's barely clinging to life and looking for help after his throat is cut, Chili doesn't believe him.
  • Death by Mocking: Happens to Shelly. When he is dying and stumbles on Chili, she thinks he is just pulling one of his pranks again.
  • Dented Iron: While Jason's Implacable Man status was solidified here, he's still only human at this point; taking a stab wound to the leg leaves him limping, and Chris' counterattacks leave him in visible pain.
  • Destination Defenestration: To frighten Chris, Jason throws Rick's body through a window from the outside.
  • Determinator: Both Chris and Jason; the climax consists of the two of them throwing everything they've got at each other, surviving, and keeping on coming. Chris ends up coming out on top, but Jason impressively manages to keep up the attack for a few seconds despite having an axe in his head.
  • Deus ex Machina: Just as Chris is about to be killed by Jason, Ali shows up, revealed to have survived Jason's previous attack, and distracts Jason long enough for Chris to stick an ax in his head.
  • Developing Doomed Characters: As is normal for this series; Notably, this entry engages in this trope *twice*, following a couple that run a convenience store for a good ten minutes before offing them, then starting over with the main cast, and the next thirty minutes are devoted to showcase their characteristics and relationships.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: One of the rare times Jason actually makes some noise. Sure, it's only him screaming in pain when he gets stabbed, but still...
  • Eat the Evidence: When the protagonists spot two police cars with blazing sirens and all behind them, they promptly start eating their drug stash. After pulling over, the police just keep driving onward, much to their dismay.note 
  • Expy: Abel, the hobo who frightens the cast with his warnings, is one of the late Crazy Ralph.
  • Eye Scream:
  • Final Girl: Chris.
  • For the Evulz: None of Jason's victims in this movie were encroaching on his territory (they were, in fact, nowhere near Camp Crystal Lake) and hadn't done anything to provoke him (they don't even seem to have ever heard of him). He seems to have just decided to stalk and murder a random group of people for fun.
  • Foreshadowing: Abel shows off an eyeball to the protagonists in order to warn them about Jason. Jason spears Vera through her left eye and Rick later gets his head crushed by Jason, popping out one of his eyes.
  • Gas Siphoning: Becomes a Chekhov's Gun moment after Shelley and Vera have a tense confrontation with Ali, Fox and Loco at a gas station, ending with Shelley damaging their bikes with Rick's car. The bikers track them to Higgins Haven for revenge. They siphon gas from Chris' van to burn down the barn. Unfortunately, Jason is hiding in the barn and takes them out. During the climactic chase, Chris tries to escape in her van, but the siphoned tank stalls out on the Haven's bridge.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Shelly.
  • Groin Attack: Andy's walking down the hall on his hands and Jason cleaves him in half from the crotch downward.
  • Guys are Slobs: Harold has a very liberal take on hygiene, evident on how he eats bits and pieces of his own store goods.
  • Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Jason is now completely bald, despite having hair and a beard in the last film.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: Andy's corpse is found cut in half.
  • Harpoon Gun: Jason shoots Vera in her eye with a harpoon gun.
  • Head Crushing: Rick gets his head crushed barehanded by Jason so hard one of his eyes pops out of its socket towards the audience in one of the silliest bits of 80s 3D filmmaking.
  • Heroic BSoD: At the end of the film, Chris is a non-responsive wreck, twitching, crying, and laughing at random.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The knife Jason used to kill a previous victim gets utilized against him because he left it laying around.
  • I Ate WHAT?!: While feeding the fish, Harold decides to try some of their food himself. Then he takes a closer look on the container:
    Harold: Dayfly eggs? (spits)
  • Immediate Sequel: The film starts right after the events of Friday the 13th Part 2.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: After being spooked by a door slammed open by the wind, Chili turns away from it and ends up running to Jason, who impales her with a fire poker.
  • Implacable Man: Along with his trademark mask, this film is where Jason began to exhibit this quality: he not only shrugs off a violent snap-hanging that should have broken his neck but immediately afterwards takes an axe to his head and continues moving forward to try and kill Chris for a good ten seconds before he 'dies'.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • Jason's murder of Debbie, who is mentioned repeatedly to be pregnant.
    • Really, Jason looks his most villainous in this movie; none of the people he killed were anywhere near his home at Camp Crystal Lake and in fact, he deliberately wandered into their territory to just randomly kill everyone he meets.
  • Knee-capping: Chris stabs Jason's knee when she is finally forced to confront him directly, which forces him to limp for the rest of the film.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: This is notably the only film in the series where, aside from the recap from the second film, Jason's name is never said onscreen. This is because all of the characters in this film are outsiders who had no prior knowledge of Jason or any of the events regarding him or the murders from the previous two films. Even by the end, Chris is never given the full context; as far as she knew, Jason was just some random deformed psycho who had it out for her.
  • Lovable Jock: Andy, filling the role of "handsome athletic guy with the hot, somewhat loose chick." He's very friendly to everyone, especially Shelly, and it's clear that he and Debbie are madly in love.
  • Magical Security Cam: The news report on the last film's events shows the scene of Ginny being taken to the ambulance.
  • The Man They Couldn't Hang: After knocking him out with a shovel, Chris tries to kill Jason by putting a noose around his neck and dropping him from the barn's second story, but he has none of that.
  • Motorcycle Dominoes: Shelly accidentally trips over the biker trio's motorcycles when he and Vera leave the store.
  • Nice Guy: Rick, who was Chris's boyfriend before she moved away from the area.
  • Nightmare Sequence: Chris has one before the film ends, with a still-living Jason coming back after her before disappearing, followed by a zombified Pamela Voorhees dragging her underwater, much like Jason did to Alice in the first film's nightmare.
  • Not Quite Dead:
    • Jason, of course. The opening scene confirms that he survived the machete wound Ginny inflicted at the end of Part 2. Additionally, he springs back to life after Chris hangs him from the barn rafters.
    • Ali, last seen being overpowered by Jason, unexpectedly turns up alive in the climax, though Jason quickly rectifies this.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: Neither Chris nor the audience knows what happened in her past encounter with Jason after she blacked out. Whatever Jason may or may not have done to her is left to the imagination.
  • Novelization: The film got two: first by Michael Avallone, and the second one by Simon Hawke (who also wrote the novelizations of the first two films). Avallone's novel includes the original ending for the film, which had Chris having a nightmare of Jason chopping her head off.
  • Obvious Stunt Double: When Jason grabs Chris as she is falling from a window, it becomes obvious from the camera shots outside the house that a stunt actress is being used.
  • Once is Not Enough: Chris seems aware of this trope. After laying Jason out with a shovel, instead of running off like some other characters have, she proceeds to put a noose around his neck and attempts to hang him. It doesn't work and it takes slamming an ax into his skull to 'finish' him, but points for trying.
  • Paddleball Shot: this movie is loaded with crap flying towards the camera, including but not limited to body parts, bloody weapons, popcorn, yo-yos, and fruit. It's comically pointless when viewed in 2D.
  • Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Loco's corpse falls from a tree and scares Chris after she goes outside to search for missing Rick.
  • The Prankster: Shelly likes to scare people with his horror makeup and other paraphernalia.
  • Previously on…: The film starts with the climax of Part 2. It also has an additional scene of Jason waking up and crawling away.
  • Rain of Blood: Debbie discovers Andy's body when his blood drips on her.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Chris apparently has a history with Jason despite not appearing in the previous films. Most likely done to compensate for the fact that the producers originally wanted the film to be about a character who did have a history with Jason; Amy Steel's Ginny from Part II.
  • Rule of Scary: Pamela Voorhees showing up in Chris's Nightmare Sequence doesn't make much sense storywise, as Chris doesn't even know Jason's name, much less who his mother is.
  • Sassy Black Woman: Fox.
  • Scary Black Man: Ali.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Chris tries to drive out of the situation once she realizes how bad it is. Unfortunately, its gas has been stolen and the bridge can't take the weight of it and renders it useless.
  • Shirtless Scene: Rick gets one when he hauls hay into the barn.
  • Shovel Strike: Chris whacks Jason on the head with a shovel, knocking him unconscious.
  • Shower Scene: Debbie has one midway through the movie, and is killed shortly after getting out.
  • Slasher Smile: Jason does a sinister one upon taking his mask off.
  • Slashed Throat: Shelly's throat gets slashed. When Chili comes across him, she thinks that he's just pulling another prank.
  • Soft Glass: With his arms stuck in Chris' car window, Jason resorts to headbutting the glass to free himself, suffering no injury from the impact or cuts from the broken glass. In fairness, this is Jason we're talking about, and he was wearing a hockey mask.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: Jason does this to Edna twice before killing Harold and her.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Abel is an old, weird doomsayer like Crazy Ralph from two previous films.
  • The Stoner: The hippie couple Chuck and Chili.
  • Terrifying Pet Store Rat: The rat that distracts Mrs. Hockett is a hooded rat, and stays perfectly calm despite being suddenly confronted by a human.
  • There's No Kill like Overkill: After overpowering Ali, Jason spends a good solid minute hacking him to death, clearly having learned from his earlier surprise failure to kill him. While Jason is occupied with butchering Ali, Chris manages to grab an axe, which she buries in Jason's skull as soon as he turns around.
  • Third Is 3D: Alongside with fellow horror movie part threes Jaws 3-D and Amityville 3-D.
  • This Cannot Be!: Chris's reaction when Jason survives being hanged.
    Chris: No! You can't be alive!
  • Throw-Away Guns: Jason doesn't tend to reuse something after he kills somebody with it.
  • Throw the Book at Them: Chris tips a bookshelf against the railing of a second-story balcony, causing an avalanche of books to rain on Jason's head. This is surprisingly effective... for a given value of "effective" when discussing Jason Voorhees.
  • Use Your Head: When Chris traps Jason's hands with her van's side window, he headbutts the glass to free himself.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Part III recaps the ending of the previous film, including Ginny being taken away in an ambulance, but omits any reference to Paul's fate.
  • "You!" Exclamation: Chris's reaction when she sees Jason unmasked and recognizes him as the one who attacked her two years ago.

Top

Friday the 13th 3D yo-yo

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

Example of:

Main / PaddleballShot

Media sources:

Report