Another dimension of terrror! Fthe13th pt. 3 continued...

Friday the 13^th part 3 –

The ending of the early Friday the 13^th film entries are dream sequences brought up by the exhaustion and mental duress of the main antagonist(s) after facing a night of Voorhees patented murder and mayhem.  This holds true for the first sequel, Friday part DOS.  In the end we are treated to a full Jason facial; and what a sightly splendor it is.  Underneath the potato sack Jason sports flowing locks of amber hair and has quite the distinguished beard.  However in the beginning of part 3 Jason seems to have visited the barber between blood bathes, and is now cleaner shaven.  What gives?  The end of part two was a dream silly, that’s what.  So strike that image of hillbilly barnyard heavy petting zoo Jason from your trash culture addled mind.  The really real Jason is as bald as a mongoloid baby’s bottom, and with piercing blue eyes I may add.  Some fans may cry afoul, but they simply weren’t paying attention.  Although at the end of this movie the cops all leave the crime scene in mass, like there was some sort of shift change at the precinct, so I’m not sure if it’s all still part of the dream or  if someone fell asleep at the wheel or what.  They don’t even try to mark off the bodies with police take, or round up any evidence.  They just all sort of silently leave. Guess they really can’t charge any overtime.  The budget at Crystal Lake must be pretty tight. 

Let’s talk about Shelly, the true face (and Brillo-y hair) of Friday the 13^th part 3.  Shelly is a gyrating ball of teenage angst and ugly Betty awkward-ism. The poor sap just wants to fit in and I can feel his pain.  The teenage years are a confusing time of in-groups and our-groups.  What’s cool and what’s for the fools?  Shelly doesn’t know and he doesn’t feel like he fits in anywhere with the group.  I kind of agree.  I mean look at the way he waddle runs…ha!  Nobody in the cast really stands out as his friend, his pal, his numero uno buddy.  The date he was set up with seems only interested enough to take pity on him.  I couldn’t see him agreeing to go on the trip without some sort of promise, like getting set-up with a chick, but otherwise these people just don’t seem very hip to be on Shelly’s side.  I just get the impression he was tagging along hopping to get some snatch but thought he was way out of his league, a notion that came to him after committing to the trip and seeing the chick he was supposedly going to get setup with.  The only fun he could scare up from the trip was by pranking people.   “Being a jerk is better than being nothing.”  Give it a few minutes Shelly.  You’ll be nothing soon enough.  Jason says he owes you one for the mask. 

No discussion about Friday the 13^th part THREE is complete without talking about the whole rape debate concerning Chris Higgins.  The argument is essentially that Jason raped her when she ran away from home into the woods surrounding Crystal Lake. Although they never quite spell it out that way for the audience, the cast make comments about how sensitive she may be to coming back to the area, and refrain from making raunchy yet innocuous jokes in her presence.  The experience also seems to have affected her sex life with Rick, wedging them apart when Chris only has a few days to rekindle her old flame.  Personally I think Jason raped her.  There’s not enough proof to definitively plant my flag, but the way Jason is kind of pawing at her during the flashback sequence, and the fact that he leaves her alive after she passes out, makes me think he had his way with her.  I think a lot of fans shy from it because Jason has achieved a kind of an antihero cult status amongst horror nerds, and nobody wants to think their mongoloid serial killer hero is a rapist as well, but there it is.  Jason doesn’t take prisoners but he rapes.  If he is to represent a kind of id that pursues his needs like an animal, who savagely kills outsiders like a territorial bear, then I think being a rapist is an acceptable character trait for Jason.  After Jason pulls himself from the noose at the end and reveals his beauteous face, I can’t help but detect a slight, knowing smirk on his lips when Chris exclaims “It was you!” Jason knows he hit that shit.      

 

The above poster was actually stolen from me at a horror convention.  Zornow is the man, and helped me look for it, but to no avail.  I bought it, had it signed, and 5 minutes later lost track of it.  So if you ever see a Fthe13th poster like the one above addressed to Cropsy Chris, that's all mine!