YMMV / Friday the 13th Part III

• Base-Breaking Character: Chris. She's one of the more divisive leads in the series. Part of the fanbase adores her and considers her to be one of the best final girls of all time because of the fact she fights back against Jason and shows great strength and intelligence during the final act. The other half sees her as annoying, spoiled, badly acted, and pampered.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Shelly gets some love because of his Funny Moments, his Moment of Awesome against the bikers, for having some Hidden Depths for a comic relief character, and providing Jason with his iconic hockey mask. To say there was rejoicing when it was announced that he was going to be playable in Friday the 13th: The Game would be a huge understatement.
• Franchise Original Sin: This was the film that truly introduced the idea of putting in unlikeable characters to root Jason on. In this case a biker gang that was planning on burning down the teens barn. Unlike later Asshole Victims like Dr. Crews or Principal McCollouch, however, it was accepted here since the biker gang wasn’t connected to any of the main characters aside from a bad encounter at a convenience store. Plus they were swiftly killed off pretty early on after their initial introduction so they didn’t overstay their welcome, whereas the aforementioned Crews and McCollouch took up so much screen time because they were connected to the main characters that fans just wanted to skip to their deaths already and move on. It helped too that the biker gang was portrayed as cartoonishly over the top, where as later characters were more serious minded.
• Fridge Brilliance: Why doesn’t anybody in the movie ever refer to Jason by his name at any point? Because these kids are from out of town and aren’t aware of the Crystal Lake massacre or the Jason legend. Higgins Haven has been referenced as being their summer home, meaning they only go there once in a while. They’re not as familiar with the area, therefore not aware of the stories.
• Growing the Beard: Not so much in quality terms, as it's usually considered the weaker entry among the first four films, but it's the point where the series evolved into the form it would take in most future entries, with Jason now being much more muscular and having his hockey mask, and getting an equal level of focus to the protagonists.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Debbie can be seen reading an issue of Fangoria magazine. Then we're shown that she is reading an article on Tom Savini, who would work again on the series in the next film.
• Iconic Sequel Outfit: This is the film where Jason finally dons his hockey mask, after being presumed dead in the first movie and wearing a burlap sack in the second. He takes the mask after killing Shelly and it has been a mainstay ever since.
  • He also obtains his green work shirt and grey slacks in this film that he would wear until they were seemingly destroyed at the end of part 8. In part 9, Jason's wearing a new wardrobe for the first time since this movie.
• Newer Than They Think: This movie was the first appearance of Jason's trademark goalie mask, and he doesn't wear it until the last half hour of the movie.
• Obvious Stunt Double: When Jason grabs Chris as she is falling from a window, it becomes obvious from the camera shots outside the house that a stunt actress is being used due to her different hairstyle.
• One-Scene Wonder: Abel the hobo, whom the protagonists find sleeping in the middle of the road and who produces an eyeball from a murder scene to scare them.
  I have warned thee!
• The Scrappy: Whereas fans are divided on whether or not Chris is a good Final Girl, Rick is pretty unanimously considered the worst leading man in the entire series (with the possible exception of Sean from Part VIII), due to his whiny personality, Paul Kratka's weak performance, and the fact that he adds virtually nothing to the plot.
• Signature Scene:
  • Jason firing a harpoon into Vera's eye, his first kill while wearing the now-iconic hockey mask.
  • Rick's death, where Jason squeezes his head so hard that one of his eyes pops out (and flies at the camera in 3D).
  • The climactic chase scene, which is considered to be one of the most fun and entertaining in the series, and Jason and Chris's subsequent fight in the farmhouse.
• So Bad, It's Good: Granted, a lot of the elements are about on par with mid-range entries in the franchise but the 3D money shots are so obvious and much of the time pointless that they add a lot of unintentional humor to the proceedings.
• Special Effects Failure: While most of the kills and makeup work are effective enough, Rick's head being crushed by Jason is an obvious mannequin.
  • A lot of the 3D gags (that don't just involve the actors waving something at the camera) involve wires and strings that are clearly visible (this being before the existence of wire removal to eliminate such elements), even in lower-definition versions. Rick's head-crush-and-eye-pop mentioned above is probably the biggest offender as the eye visibly stops just before the camera.
• Squick: Does anyone use toilet paper in these films?
• Tear Jerker: Vera's death is actually pretty sad, as she is probably the nicest of the bunch, and her death also counts as a case of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, as she was going to apologize to Shelly for yelling at him over his prank after seeing how hurt he was, but had the bad luck of running into Jason.
  • Let's also consider the fact that these kids have families. Vera had a mother and at least two siblings back home who didn't even want her going on this trip, and Shelly, as we saw from a photo in his wallet, had a mother whom he was very close to. And none of the families will ever see their children again thanks to Jason.
• Values Resonance: Unlike a majority of final girls in slasher movies around this time, who were mostly depicted as scared, frail, and oftentimes stupid victims who only scream, run, hide and try to attack the killer once, Chris showcases more strength and intelligence as she’s seen fighting back against Jason on many occasions. She not only topples an entire shelf worth of books onto Jason as he makes his way towards the spiral staircase but she stabs him twice when cornered in the hallway, then after escaping his grasp outside the house she beats him over the head with a log to buy her more time to escape, then later knocks him cold with a shovel and proceeds to hang him, and when that doesn’t do him in she chops into his head with an axe, effectively killing him for the (supposed) final time. It actively subverts the usual tropes of how the Final Girl usually acts in most of these movies, making it part of the reason why some fans consider her one of the better final girls of the series.
• Vindicated by History: It received negative reviews when it was initially released, but over time many critics have warmed up to it. Likewise, fan opinion on the film has changed a lot over the years. Originally considered one of the weaker entries, often compared unfavorably to Part II and The Final Chapter, the film has received a warmer welcome from fans in recent years.

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