1982: Friday The 13th Part III (in 3-D)
The plot: Jason. Teenagers. 3-D.
The victims: Two groups: A band of culturally diverse young people (including a pair of stoners, a pregnant chick, and a nerdy practical joker) vacationing at an old farm, and a gang of culturally diverse local toughs (as indicated by their leather jackets, chains and bandanas) who bully the vacationers.
Series motifs: All the fades to white and warnings from creepy old men remain, along with the skinny-dipping, shower scenes, prepping-for-sex scenes and fake scares. But Friday The 13th Part Three is best remembered for one key addition to the series' mythology: the hockey mask, which Jason swipes from the practical joker and makes his own.
The style: 3-D-riffic. Eyeballs pop out, harpoons shoot into the camera, boys play with yo-yos—yes, yo-yos—and even the credits come right at ya (in the manner of the previous year's unexpected 3-D hit, Comin' At Ya.) An element of tongue-in-cheek humor begins to creep into the series as well, along with touches of self-reference. (Example: The teens walk by a Fangoria magazine with a Tom Savini cover photo.) Scare-wise though, this is one of the slackest Fridays, as the limitations of the "separate, then kill" plot structure begin to reveal themselves. Since only one or two kids survive long enough to find out what's happening to them and their friends, no kind of character arc can develop, so the story stalls. Really, none of these first three movies get revved up until the last 20 minutes.
1982 signifiers: The creepy Harry Manfredini score over the opening credits is replaced by a bumpin' electro-funk instrumental.
1984: Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter
The plot: A now fully superhuman Jason rises from the dead at a local morgue then heads back to the lake to torment a group of partying teens and a nearby family.
The victims: The usual horny idiots (including Crispin Glover!), but also the series' first child: a horror movie fanatic and make-up expert played by Corey Feldman.
Series motifs: The opening credits feature the already-iconic hockey mask (and a return to scary music), while the teens run through their paces: skinny-dipping, prepping-for-sex, and showering. (Though in a twist, the showering victim is a man, not a woman.) With the anti-slasher movement at a peak in the year of Silent Night, Deadly Night, Paramount tried to kill the profitable-but-embarrassing Friday The 13th series by adding "The Final Chapter" to the title, and yet, in the closing moments, a steely gleam in Feldman's eyes leaves an opening for a sequel. As it happened, both Feldman's character and the idea of a soul-jumping Jason would return in subsequent movies, though not in the way this chapter suggests.
The style: Suspense-wise, this is one of the series' better entries, in part because the victims become aware of their circumstances relatively quickly, and in part because the few moments of humor are more mordant than goofy. (When Glover bellows, "Where's my corkscrew?," it's not hard to guess what weapon he's about to be offed with.) The Feldman-as-killer-to-be bit is legitimately unnerving, as is a climactic dream sequence fake-out that nods to the first film. But the most notable aspect of The Final Chapter may be the copious nudity, including a long scene where a character watches an old stag film before Jason rips through the screen and dispatches him. In retrospect, Paramount seemed to be trading one disreputable genre for another.
1984 signifiers: Early in the film, a hospital orderly watches a jazzercise video. Later, Glover—in a buttoned-up Oxford shirt—puts a trashy hair-metal song on the radio and dances spasmodically, while his best friend sits around in his jean-jacket vest and rolled-up shirtsleeves, listening to his Walkman.
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