The Movie Room

Friday the 13th Part 3 1982, directed by Steve Miner

Rating: 1/10

I am not a fan of the Friday the 13^th series in general; my average rating of the 11 films and the remake is 2.83/10. If I add in the Bring It On sequel that is set in the same universe as Friday the 13^th (shockingly, it is In It to Win It that has that distinction, not the latest one Cheer or Die which is a slasher film), the average goes down to 2.69/10. I am not opposed to the ideas behind these movies (I really enjoyed In a Violent Nature that came out this year—for the most part), I just have yet to really enjoy the execution. The worst of the worst, for me, is very clearly Friday the 13^th Part 3.

There is one main reason that sets this entry apart from the rest of the franchise: Shelly Finkelstein as portrayed by Larry Zerner. I love slasher films and I realize that in many of them the characters are made to be easily disposable; while the best slashers make you care about the humans involved before massacring them, I am not going to hate on a slasher for having unlikable characters. But Shelly Finkelstein goes beyond unlikable. I detest him. I assume there was some kind of unholy alliance between writing, directing, and acting here that worked a bad miracle and made the worst character in film history. Shelly is supposed to be the comic relief, but nothing he does or says is even remotely funny. He is a prankster, but his pranks are not so much pranks as just an incel making his lack of female attention everyone else’s problem. He blames the women for not wanting to be with him, but after spending even a single second with him I am surprised there is even a brief moment in this movie where the women (or any one else) is tolerating his behavior and hanging out with him. 

But, I always believe that even the worst movie still has some artistic merit, so I will concede that not only Friday the 13^thPart 3 but also Shelly Finkelstein himself have value in that it is here where we get the iconic Jason hockey mask. Whereas Michael Myers and Freddy Kreuger were pretty fully formed in their first outings, Jason was not the villain of the series until the second one and he does not get his mask until this film, specifically he does not have the mask until he murders Shelly (which somehow does not make Jason the hero of the film?). Shelly had previously used the mask in one of his pranks to spite a woman who was not interested in him, and then when he is moping that his prank did not get him laid (because WHY WOULD IT?), he is mercifully murdered by Jason who takes the mask and uses it to pretend to be Shelly when approaching other victims. I loathe Shelly Finkelstein fiercely, but as a means to a hockey-masked end, I have to give him some props.

Even though I am not the biggest fan (or really a fan at all) of this franchise, I realize that the hocky mask is iconic and when I’m giving out candy on Halloween nights, it is always still fun to see people wearing the masks. So for that, I thank Friday the 13^th Part 3 and value its place in horror history. But as for a piece of entertainment, it is not only the worst horror film in my collection, it is my least favorite movie in my collection overall.