Friday the 13th Part 3 (Film Review)

1982 Paramount Pictures
Directed by: Steve Miner; Written by: Martin Kitrosser, Carol Watson, and Petru Popescu (uncredited)
Starring: Dana Kimmell and Paul Kratka
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 95 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 6/10

Chris is headed to Crystal Lake with a bunch of her horny friends. Chris isn't horny, mostly because of a past traumatic experience involving some mysterious, monstrous looking fellow in the woods when she was younger. I wonder who that was? Anyway, there were recent murders at Crystal Lake, but who cares, I'm sure everything is fine. It's not fine, though, because the murderous Michael Myers is still hanging out lakeside, ready to kill some teenagers...and now he's wearing a hockey mask.
Friday the 13th movies aren't good, but they are generally pretty fun, and Part III is no exception. This volume was shot in 3D, and the technology generally dictated that the actors only got one take. Not like it matters. "Let's have some sex" and "Hey, did you hear something?" don't exactly require a Shakespearean performance. Besides, you don't come to these movies for the acting. You come to watch horny teenagers get hacked to pieces.
Friday the 13th Part III provides the latter in spades and with panache for 90 minutes. This installment was originally shot in 3D, the dumbest gimmick in cinema, and anyone watching this movie in modern times will only be seeing it in 2D anyway, but watching the depths that director, Steve Miner, went to shove as many objects toward the screen as possible is also highly entertaining. Miner can make schlock look pretty good, and Part III is as artfully shot as it needs to be, and well-paced. There are a lot of great, silly touches, like priming the viewer to want a shopkeeper to get killed because, hey, the bastard takes sips of Sunny D, then puts the jug right back on the shelf! The nerve! Thankfully, Jason gets him good. He gets a lot of people good. This is delightful, violent stupidity, and how great it must have been in the early 80's to know that every summer, rain or shine, you'd have another one of these to see in the theater, each one just as delightful and violent and stupid as the last.