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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)

Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)

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Released 13-Jun-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Horror Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 1982
Running Time 91:17
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (61:29) Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding 4 Directed By Steve Miner
Studio
Distributor

Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring Dana Kimmell
Paul Kratka
Richard Brooker
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $39.95 Music Harry Manfredini


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired
English
Arabic
Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Icelandic
Italian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    The slasher film has been the meat and potatoes of Hollywood since at least the 1960s, when young males (sans or plus dates) would flock to the theatres or drive-ins for a good scare. Or a good chuckle, given what audiences in this jaded age are like. The 1980s brought us the era of the Video Cassette Recorder, and soon it wasn't even necessary to go to a theatre or drive-in to see the semi-latest offering from Hollywood's slasher flick cookie cutter. However, 1981 was a little early for the VCR market, so the idea of retailers being able to rent out videocassettes in order to take money out of the film studio's pocket and put it in theirs was still on the horizon. Friday The 13th, Part 3: 3D, to quote its full title, was therefore one of the last slasher films to be completely theatre-centric.

    There is hardly a plot to speak of in this effort. If you've seen either of the previous two episodes in the franchise, then you will be able to recite the plot of this one off the top of your head without thinking about it. Jason Vorhees (Richard Brooker) rises from the dead yet again, just in time for the latest group of idiots to arrive at a nearby lakeside property, complete with a barn and everything. It isn't even worthwhile introducing the other characters, since one knows that they are all going to die in the most creative ways the screenwriter can think of (which isn't saying a lot), save for one. A few things, however, make this Friday The 13th unique among its peers.

    First of all, this is the episode in which Jason comes by the legendary hockey mask - the cloth bag of the previous film was a hilarious touch, but it just doesn't work as a trademark. Second, this is the only Friday The 13th film in which none of the characters actually say the name "Jason" (the archive footage from the previous episode designed to fill time and bring us up to speed doesn't count). Third, since this film arrived at the beginning of the Disco era, we even get a Disco version of the usual Friday The 13th theme for those of us who remember the era to break-dance to. It sounds a tiny bit like New Order's Blue Monday, in fact.

    When it comes to rating good films, I don't trust the IMDB as far as I can throw my seventeen-inch monitor, but when it comes to rating bad ones, the IMDB never fails, and the four out of ten average rating that this episode currently enjoys says it all. The film is too good to be a complete failure, but it is barely bad enough to be enjoyed as a form of unintentional comedy, so it is not quite in what we'd call "no man's land". If this sounds like your idea of fun, then grab a beer, sit down, and enjoy.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    Friday The 13th, Part 3 is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced. The opening scenes that fill us in on what happened at the end of the previous episode, and the opening credits, appear to have been window-boxed at 1.85:1, but this is the only time in the feature when the aspect ratio changes.

    According to the information I have found online, this feature was filmed using the ArriVision 3D process, so this would appear to be the correct aspect ratio. It makes Part Three unique among the Friday The 13th films I have seen to date as being the only one filmed in this ratio. It also makes this offering unique because it makes full use of the 2.35:1 frame, and some scenes don't make a modicum of sense when cut and shut (pan-and-scanned) to fit the antiquated shape of 1950s-style televisions that are on the way out at long last, anyway. An excellent example of this fact can be seen at 68:50.

    In so far as the foreground objects are concerned, this is a sharp transfer, and as much so as you'd expect from a 3D film shot with an anamorphic lens during the early 1980s. The depth of field apparent in this transfer is incredibly limited at times, but this is inherent in the photography, and there isn't a hell of a lot that anyone can do about it. The shadow detail is much the same as other episodes in the franchise, in that it is either quite murky, or non-existent. Low-level noise is not a problem here, thankfully.

    As is the style for Friday The 13th films up to at least Part Six, the colours are extremely muted and lifeless, and I don't believe that this was a deliberate choice. As a matter of fact, I would hazard a guess that the cameras used to photograph each Friday The 13th episode are at least a decade older than the films themselves. On the positive side, there are no composite artefacts on display here.

    MPEG artefacts were not noticed in this transfer, thanks to the sensible decision to compress the film to an RSDL disc. There is still a significant amount of wasted space, but not enough that one will wonder why they didn't just remove a couple of dozen subtitle streams. Film-to-video artefacts are still a significant problem, with shimmering in all the places one expects of a Friday The 13th film. Film artefacts are the biggest nuisance in the transfer, with black and white marks all over the picture throughout the running time. The most irritating problem, however, is changes in the brightness and colour consistency of the picture, a problem that is quite significant during the last two reels. Circular marks also appear in the picture, but their position makes it hard to believe that these are actually reel-change markings.

    A total of twenty-four subtitle streams are available on this disc, with two English streams. It appears that the second English subtitle stream contains cues for Hearing Impaired viewers, which are fairly accurate when all things are considered. Considering that most of the script probably consists of "make a screaming, gurgling sound here", I have no complaints.

    This disc is presented in the RSDL format, with the layer change taking place at 61:29. The layer change was mildly noticeable on the Toshiba SD-1250 and SD-1300, but its placement is very good considering the overall scheme of the film.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are five soundtracks on this disc, all of which are presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 with 192 kilobits per second. They all sound pretty monaural to me, as is typical of low-budget slasher flicks from this era.

    In order, the disc contains soundtracks in English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian. I listened to the English and Italian soundtracks.

    The dialogue is generally clear enough that the important plot points (yeah, right) can be followed, but some lines get lost in the congestion of the mix. Again, this is fairly typical of this style and vintage of film, even if it can get a little frustrating. Jason's few lines are pretty easy to understand, however, especially if you ingest a lot of beer or drugs while viewing the film (you might need it to get through the credits without laughing). The audio sync was pretty much spot-on.

    The music in this film is credited to Harry Manfredini, and aside from the usual themes that are recycled from parts one and two, this time around we get a funky disco theme during the credits that will either have you dancing or bursting out in laughter. Possibly, it will make you do both at once. Instead of trying to be timeless like more recent episodes in this series, part three knows that it is a cheap product of the early 1980s, and wears the fact on its sleeve with great pride. A funnier musical arrangement in films does exist, but you have to go to ones with much lower budgets than this in order to find it.

    The surround channels were not encoded into this soundtrack. Don't bother engaging Dolby's Pro-Logic mode if you have it on your receiver, as it won't help. If you have Dolby Pro-Logic II or DTS Neo, on the other hand, knock yourself out.

    The subwoofer was also not encoded into this soundtrack. It was missed during some of the more violent sequences, but that's about all.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menu is static, silent, and 16x9 enhanced. Navigation is very simple and straightforward.

Theatrical Trailer

    Presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, this two minute and seven second trailer is good for unintentional comedy. The full title of the film is used here, too. It's a pity that the disco theme song from the credits isn't.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The two discs appear to be fairly identical, except the Region 1 version of the disc is single-layered, with soundtracks only in English and French, and a single English subtitle stream.

Summary

    Those of us who grew up in the 1980s and the early heyday of home video will look back on early Friday The 13th films with a certain kind of nostalgia, in so far as remembering which films our mothers tried to stop us from watching goes. The third episode in the franchise shows in plain colours that the creative minds behind it were running out of ideas very, very early (maybe they were hired to do the Police Academy series). However, Part 3: 3D is one of the better entries in the canon, and while that isn't saying a hell of a lot, it does put it well ahead of the monotonous fourth entry, or the sleepy, misogynistic sixth entry.

    The video transfer is as good as can be expected from a very old slasher film.

    The audio transfer is reasonable. At least the disco number is properly preserved.

    It seems that Paramount still do not realise that forty dollars for a disc with no extras does not equal value for money.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Dean McIntosh (Don't talk about my bio. We don't wanna know.)
Monday, April 21, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba SD-1250, using Component output
DisplaySamsung CS-823AMF (80cm). Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationSony STR DE-835
SpeakersYamaha NS-45 Front Speakers, Yamaha NS-90 Rear Speakers, Yamaha NSC-120 Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Active Subwoofer

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