Friday the 13th Part 3: 3D

Picking up where part two left off, Friday the 13th part 3: 3D opens by establishing that Jason Vorhees was only injured by Ginny Field, recovered and managed to evade the authorities.

Inevitably another group of dumb teens are soon on their way to the slaughterground – though this time the location is Higgins Haven rather than Camp Crystal Lake of the first two films – where, with the exception of the obvious final girl with the masculine name, Chris Higgins they ignore the crazy guy's warnings of doom; smoke pot; drink brews; make out; play dumb practical jokes, and generally do everything that the rules of the slasher film say you shouldn't. Also present are three tough bikers that it's impossible to take seriously on any level…

So, it's formulaic, ideologically retrograde and not terribly well made. Worse, in terms of the raisons d'etre of the form, there's little nudity and the gore isn't even all that extreme or impressive. What, then, does Friday the 13th Part 3 have going for it? The answer's in the title: The attraction – the choice of term a deliberate allusion to the "cinema of attractions," the appropriate frame of reference when discussing low, bodily forms like the slasher film – of being a 3D movie, complete with things leaping from the screen or being dangled in front of your eyes, from snakes to harpoons to yoyos and gratuitous seen-from-above juggling.

Watched with 3D glasses on amidst an appreciative audience entering into the spirit of things, it really is a lot of fun. But on the TV screen via video or DVD and without the benefit of 3D it's likely only to be of interest to series completists and slasher trivia types, for whom the film answers the question of where Jason acquired his iconic hockey mask.