“A New Dimension In Terror…” Synopsis: Having revived from his wound, Jason Voorhees takes refuge at a cabin near Crystal Lake. As a group of co-eds arrive for their vacation, Jason continues his killing spree.

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Calamity Brains:

None of the early Friday the 13th movies work for me, and Part III is no exception. This one also strays from the camp formula set out in the first and the second movies, which I feel ruins a bit of the ambiance. Instead, Part III does the generic horror thing where a group of teens head out to a remote cabin for a weekend getaway. In this case, they run afoul of Jason as he takes refuge after the events of the previous movie. (Picking up immediately after the last movie as it does, Part III also technically takes place on Saturday the 14th, but we’ll let that one go.)

I generally find the ambiance in Friday the 13th movies to be fairly lacking, but Part III does manage a little tension occasionally. The main problem I have with the series is that it focuses heavily on people being picked off one by one while the others remain blissfully unaware of the danger – which just doesn’t work for me as a setup. Part III follows that formula for the majority of the deaths at the cabin, but does contain other setups as well, which I appreciated.

Unfortunately, the movie suffers a lot from a story standpoint. It has a very slow start; the relationship between Chris (Dana Kimmell) and Rick (Paul Kratka) makes no sense; there’s a random subplot with bikers that only exists to take the car out of the escape equation. Chris also has a fairly WTF backstory which mostly just feels like a very lazy attempt to shoehorn her into relevance. And quite frankly, I have no idea why Jason (Richard Brooker) is attacking any of these people, being as his beef is traditionally with camp counselors.

Honestly, this whole addition to the franchise felt very generic and phoned in to me. Without its place in a popular horror franchise, I’d suggest you skip it. Even with that distinction, I suggest you watch it with friends, since you’ll probably be bored.

Calamity Brains’ Rating: C
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