The Cool Channel DVD Review: Friday the 13th: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan, Disc 2 Posted by J.D. Dunn on 03.13.2006
Say, where is the corkscrew?
From Crystal Lake to Manhattan, Disc Two
Friday the 13th, Part 3 (1982)
D: Steve Miner W:Martin Kitrosser Starring:Dana Kimmel, Paul Kratka, Tracie Savage, Nick Savage and Richard Brooker. Runtime: 95m. MPAA: [R]
The Film
When we last left Jason Voorhees, he was apparently killed by Ginny cleaving his torso in twain at the end of Part 2. With a little help from some convenient retconning at the opening of Part 3, we see that Jason simply removed the machete from his body and crawled away. What this means for the existence of Paul or the adorable Muffin the Dog is anyone's guess.
The next day, we find our intrepid villain killing a pair of random shopkeepers in a scene with some genuinely creepy shots, especially his shadowy skulking behind the hanging laundry.
But these are stories about teens getting slaughtered, not middle-aged businessmen with diarrhea. Enter Chris Higgins (Kimmel) and her friends Debbie, Vera, Shelley, Andy, and Cheech & Chong refugees Chuck and Chili. They're hanging out at Chris' rural cabin and farm along the lake for the weekend.
This gives Chris a chance to rekindle her romance with Rick (Kratka), the hunky farmhand who is confused by Chris' reticence. It also gives portly loser Shelley a chance to irritate everyone with his practical jokes. This ruins his chances with his lovely Latina date Vera (as if he had any to begin with).
Vera agrees to take Shelley into town for some groceries, but they run afoul of some bad-ass gangsters named Ali, Loco and Chili. This leads to an almost Shakespearean string of tragic occurrences as Shelley accidentally backs over their bikes, prompting the bikers to tail them back to Higgins' Haven and siphon the gas out of their van (and get dispatched by Jason). That would be important later.
Chris and Rick go off into the woods where Chris explains just why she's so withdrawn; she was attacked by a hideous man in the woods a few years earlier and possibly sexually assaulted. She doesn't remember much of it.
Of course, with the only two responsible cats gone, that leaves the mice to play and die. Jokester Shelley gets killed off screen but not before scaring Vera with a hockey mask and changing horror history in the process. Jason steals his hockey mask, and an icon is born.
Of course, it winds up as a one-on-one duel between Chris and Jason after Jason kills Paul in one of the most gruesome and memorable scenes in the franchise's history.
Originally filmed in 3-D during the technology's early-1980s rebirth, Part 3 suffers from a move to the small screen. Many of the scenes are designed around throwing something at the screen or poking something at the screen. As a result, most of the scenes play out in a clunky fashion.
The acting is worse than usual, with Kimmel's lead performance being particularly cringeworthy (though I do like her contributions on the commentary track). The screenplay is a little better, though. At least there is a reason for the car not to start this time. Even the deux ex machina that allows Chris to survive makes sense, and the final battle between the two is nicely rendered by the returning Miner.
Still, the film doesn't hold up very well, with multiple continuity and logic errors that prove too distracting for the film to succeed. C-
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) D:Joseph Zito W:Barney Cohen Starring:Kimberly Beck, Corey Feldman, Crispen Glover, Judie Aronson, Camilla & Carey More and Barbara Howard. Runtime: 90m. MPAA: [R]
The Film
Well, it was a nice idea. Bringing back make-up FX guru Tom Savini to kill Jason just seemed so right. Unfortunately, money talks, and when this film (with a budget of under $2 million) made over $30 million at the box office, it rendered the subtitle laughable.
After the events of the last film, Jason's body is taken to the county coroner's office, apparently without having undergone any real medical scrutiny to make sure he was dead. It doesn't take long for him to pop up and kill the perverted coroner (the hilarious Bruce Mahler) and his nurse friend (Lisa Freeman).
But, of course, Jason's home will always be near the lake where we find Tommy Jarvis (a very young Feldman) with his sister Trish and his mother (Beck and Joan Freeman as the divorcee Mrs. Jarvis), living in relative peace. That is until another group of vacationing college kids arrive at the cabin across the way.
A pair of random twins (Carey & Camilla More) joins the fun, and the kids next door have a big party with sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Of course, all that leads to Jason coming back and picking them off one by one.
There is considerably more humor in this one, especially any time Glover and Lawrence Monoson are trading barbs about Glover's nickname "Dead Fuck." And Glover's spastic dancing is one of the series' most fondly remembered moments.
We even get a bit of continuity as Rob (Erich Anderson), the brother of Sandra from Part 2, returns to get revenge on the masked man. Sadly, it doesn't work out that well for him. As with all other Friday films up to this point, the denouement see Jason pitted against our heroine and her little brother.
This film succeeds more than most of the sequels thanks to the interplay with all the victims. At one point, one of the twins tries to steal a girl's boyfriend from her. It's not Shakespeare, but it's better than a guy stealing some girl's panties as a joke.
Obviously, with Savini and Vito (the pair responsible for 1981's gory slasher The Prowler) the gore ante is going to be upped considerably. While none of the kids' deaths top Part 3's eye-popping creativity, they have an overall nastier feel to them. I don't think any man on earth envies Paul's (Alan Hayes) death at the lake.
This is also the film where slashers took a disturbing turn toward manipulating the audience into wishing death on the characters just for the sake of seeing them get killed. Before, it was done for the sake of suspense, but in this film the deaths are so entertaining that the audience is rooting for them.
Jason finally gets it in the end via Savini's insane special FX. Boy! Does he! This time, there is no doubt that he is dead. The key, though, is the toll the ordeal takes on its victims. B
The 411: These were the films that turned Jason into both a film icon and a running joke. Hockey masks have become synonymous with horror, so much so that the concept was ripped off for the "Bloody Murder" series. With mainstream filmgoers and critics, Jason became a punchline worthy of eye-rolling. After all, how many times can a guy come back from the dead? Well, we'll find out on the next two discs.
