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Friday the 13th Part III

Film infobox

Friday the 13th Part III
Date of Release:	August 13, 1982
Preceded by:	Friday the 13th Part 2
Followed by:	Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Friday the 13th Part 3, sometimes known as Friday the 13th Part 3: 3D, is a 1982 slasher film. It was directed by Steve Miner, who had also helmed the previous installment in the series. The screenplay was written by Martin Kitrosser, Carol Watson, and an uncredited Petru Popescu. Kitrosser would later help to co-write the fifth installment, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning and it is the first time Jason Voorhees would don his iconic Hockey Mask.

According to actress Catherine Parks, this entry was intended to be the final feature in the series. Due to its phenomenal box office success (it grossed almost $37 million against a $2.5 million budget) it was decided by Paramount Pictures to finance yet another film, 1984's Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Part 3 was initially released to theaters in the 3D format, which was experiencing a resurgence in popularity at the time. For many years the 3D version was only available to home video audiences in Japan on the Video High Density system. On February 3, 2009, the 3D version was released to North American home video for the first time on a deluxe edition DVD that also features the 2D version of the film.

Like many of the other entries in the long-running series, Part 3 was edited in order to receive an R-rating by the MPAA. The deluxe edition release of the film features the theatrical cut.

The film contains an infamous alternate ending in which the lead character Chris, played by Dana Kimmell, is decapitated by Jason at the conclusion. Though this sequence has never been commercially released stills of it can be seen in Peter Bracke's book Crystal Lake Memories, and it was included in Michael Avallone's 1982 novelization. Simon Hawke's 1987 novelization retains the ending utilized in the released film.

PlotEdit

Picking up one day after the events of Friday the 13th Part 2, the horribly deformed serial killer Jason Voorhees has survived his attack at the hands of Paul and Ginny and has migrated to a store where he steals new clothes. He then murders the store owners, Harold with a meat cleaver slammed into his stomach, and Edna with a knitting needle through her mouth, before moving on to a nearby lake front property named Higgins Haven.

At the same time, a girl named Chris, who was attacked by a mysterious, disfigured stranger in the woods near Crystal Lake two years earlier, returns to the property with her friends Debbie, Andy, Shelly, Vera, Chuck, and Chili. After meeting Abel, an inebriated, religious fanatic who warns them to turn back, the gang meets Chris' boyfriend Rick at their destination (Higgins Haven). Chris intends to face her fears; however, none of her friends know that an unmasked and reclusive Jason has taken refuge in the barn to recover from his battle wounds. The gang run into trouble with some local bikers, who then try vandalize the property. However, they are murdered one by one by Jason before they can do any real damage - except for syphoning gas from Chris's van. One biker is impaled through the throat by a pitchfork, the next gets another pitchfork through the stomach, and a third is clubbed.

When Chris and Rick go out for a drive, Jason emerges. He slashes Shelly's throat and takes his hockey mask. Now with a mask to cover his hideously deformed face, he then proceeds to murder the rest of the gang. He shoots Vera in the eye with a speargun. While Andy is handstand walking, he looks up as Jason slashes him with a machete, splitting him in half. Debbie has a knife shoved through her chest while she rests on the hammock. Chuck enters the basement when the power seems to die and is thrown on a fusebox and electrocuted. Chili then gets impaled through the stomach with a red hot fire poker.

Chris and Rick return to find the place empty. Rick goes outside to look around while Chris remains inside. Chris goes to the door to call out to him, but Jason holds him and keeps his hand held over his mouth just a few feet away. After no response, Chris goes back inside. Then, Rick is killed by Jason who squeezes his head until one of his eyeballs pops out. Jason then attacks Chris, chases her around the property, and into the barn. Chris hits Jason in the head with a shovel which knocks him temporarily unconscious, long enough to place a noose around his neck and roll him off outside the barn, hanging him. When Chris goes back down and opens the barn door, to her surprise, Jason has survived the hanging. Jason raises his mask up so he can take the noose off of his neck, thus showing his real face to Chris, at which point she recognizes him as the man who attacked her two years earlier. As Jason proceeds to attack Chris, one of the bikers, who survived his clubbing earlier, attempts his revenge, but Jason cuts off his hand and proceeds to hack him. With Jason distracted, Chris picks up an axe and strikes him in the head, apparently killing him. Chris then wanders over to the lake and falls asleep in a canoe that drifts into the middle of the lake.

The next morning, Chris wakes up and sees Jason unmasked and alive staring at her through an upstairs window in the house. When he spots her, he runs out to attack her but as Chris tries to escape, she is grabbed and taken into the water by a decomposing Pamela Voorhees. It is revealed that this was all a nightmare and at some point later, the police take a clearly mentally disturbed Chris off the property as the camera shows Jason's supposedly dead body. The final shot is of the lake finally at peace.