Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982) helpfully begins with a prologue that showcases the finale of part 2. Trapped in Jason's woodland shack, the beleaguered heroine fakes Jason out with an impersonation of his mother. She limps away, but Jason isn't down for the count, would there be a sequel if he was?

At a country store on the outskirts of Crystal Lake, Jason menaces the owner and his shrew of a wife. Bumpkin Harold knocks down the laundry and (3-D Alert) must replace the pole. Inside the house, his wife watches a news report that recounts the recent Crystal Lake murders. Though her reception is fine, she (3-D Alert) adjusts the television antenna. As she settles back down on the couch, she can't find one of her knitting needles. Hmmm.

When Harold checks on his rabbit hutch, he finds a mass of blood and fur. Jason has become a bunny killer?! Say it isn't so! The real culprit is a rubber rattlesnake that (3-D Alert) startles Harold with the help of some obvious fishing line. After investigating some suspicious movements, Harold (3-D Alert) gets a cleaver to the chest. While investigating her husbands cries, Harold's loving wife encounters a (3-D Alert) rat on a stick (Huh?) before getting that knitting needle (3-D Alert) though the back of her head. Ah-ha, so that's where it went.

The next day, kids (3-D Alert) play ball in the street while Chris (Our heroine played by Dana Kimmell) picks up her friends for a weekend at the lake. Each of our teen archetypes are introduced, the good girl heroine, the horny couple, the good times/pot smoking couple, the loser comic relief friend, and the pretty/popular one.

On the drive to the lake they (3-D Alert) pass a joint around, eat their stash in fear of getting busted, drive by the murder scene at the store, and nearly run over an old man (3-D Alert) with a fondness for eyeballs.

Once at the cabin, Chris meets up with her boyfriend Rick, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the Brawny paper towel man. The reunited love birds discuss their sexual relationship while (3-D Alert) bailing hay in the barn. When they hear a shriek of terror, they run back to the cabin and find Shelly (the annoying loser friend) with a hatchet buried in his head. But, no such luck, it's only a practical joke.

Shelly and Vera go into town to get some supplies. While (3-D Alert) paying for their groceries, they encounter some hoodlums dressed like extras from Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video. One hoodlum (3-D Alert) puts his fist through their car window. Attempting to impress Vera, Shelly tries to run him down with their car. With a VW bug as a weapon, Shelly isn't able to inflict much damage.

At lakeside, horny guy demonstrates his prowess (3-D Alert) … with a yo-yo. The three delinquents follow Shelly and Vera back to the cabin and siphon the gas from the kid's van. Two of the gang members (3-D Alert) go explore the old barn where Jason Voorhees has taken up residence. They each suffer (3-D Alert) death by pitchfork. Ali, the bad-ass brother gang leader, briefly engages Jason (3-D Alert) in a fight before being bludgeoned to death.

As night falls on our campers, Rick and Chris go for a walk in the woods. While their friends are (3-D Alert) juggling back at the cabin, Rick wants to know why Chris won't get jiggy with him. In a flashback, Chris reveals that she narrowly escaped a run in with Jason two years earlier. She has returned to the family cabin in order to face her fears.

After a lakeside practical joke doesn't go as planned, Shelly goes to the barn to check out a noise. These kids are making it too easy for Jason.

Vera is enjoying her evening by the lake when Jason appears on the dock. Courtesy of Shelly, Jason now wears the iconic hockey mask and, with the help of some fishing line, (3-D Alert) proves to be an excellent shot with a spear gun.

Inside the cabin our frisky duo are wrapping up a session of hammock hanky-panky when they're paid a visit by the Voorhees woodland welcome wagon. Using a machete, Jason (3-D Alert) splits lover boy in two. Since he's walking on his hands upside-down (don't ask) this proves easy for Jason.

After a post-coital shower, slutty girl relaxes by reading an issue of Fangora magazine. She flips past an article about Tom Savini (the make-up wizard behind the original Friday the 13th, 1980) and looks up to see (3-D Alert) the severed body of her boyfriend stuffed in the rafters. She then gets a Kevin Bacon special through the throat. (Kevin Bacon died in a remarkably similar way in the original Friday the 13th, hence the reference)

Stoner guy is (3-D Alert) making popcorn in the kitchen when the lights go out. So, down to the basement he goes…alone. He encounters some interesting objects (3-D Alert) before being shoved into the fuse box by Jason.

Shelly returns to the cabin showing signs of his earlier off-camera encounter with Jason. Stoner girl is now all alone in the house. "Andy! Debbie! Shelly's dead! He's dead!" she wheezes as she makes her de rigueur trip through the cabin, room by room, discovering her dispatched friends. Jason grabs (3-D Alert) a red-hot fireplace poker which pot girl gets in the stomach.

Chris and Rick finally return from their moonlight walk in the woods. In the movies most wacky and squeal inducing moment, Rick is caught in Jason's vise-like grip, his eyeball (3-D Alert) popping out of a rubber special effects head.

And then there was one. Chris must fend for herself when Jason gains entrance to the cabin by hurtling Rick's body through a window. She tries her best to stop Jason by (3-D Alert) dumping a bookcase on top of him. She hides in an upstairs closet and (surprise!) finds the body of slutty girl. As Jason chops his way through the door, Chris shows some admirable guts by pulling the knife out of her friends neck and (3-D Alert) fending off Jason by getting all Norman Bates on his ass. Chris smashes an upstairs window, and is about to escape, when Jason grabs her. Luckily her Members Only jacket rips and she falls safely to the ground.

The chase continues outside where she manages to escape in the van. She doesn't get very far; remember… the gas tank has been siphoned. Jason (3-D Alert) reaches through the driver's side window and, after a brief scuffle, chases Chris back to the barn. This is the pre-zombified Jason, so he moves pretty fast. We're not talking a ten minute mile or anything, but still…

Jason tears the barn and comes after her with his (3-D Alert) machete as Chris climbs up to the hay loft. After whacking him with a shovel, Chris wraps a rope around Jason's neck and (3-D Alert) pushes him out the hay loft doors.

Jason takes a licking, but keeps on ticking. "You can't be alive!" Chris shouts. As Jason un-hangs himself, his mask is lifted up, reveling a face that only his mother could love. Chris awaits the final death blow from Jason's machete. But, all is not lost. From out of nowhere the bad-ass gang member that Jason bludgeoned to death earlier in the movie makes a surprise reappearance! While Jason (3-D Alert) makes mince meat out of him, Chris takes the opportunity to (3-D Alert) burry an axe in Jason's head.

With Jason so very, very dead, Chris does just what the other beleagured heroines before her have done, she escapes (3-D Alert) in a canoe to the sanctity of Crystal Lake. Come morning, all is serene, till she sees the maskless visage of Jason on shore. But, wait…now he's gone.

Kill, kill, kill…die, die, die…

The rotting corpse of Mrs. Voorhees reaches into the canoe and drags Chris into the lake…but it's only a dream.

"She must have flipped out. That poor kid's been through hell." The sheriff explains as he helps Chris into a squad car. As they drive past the barn where Jason's body lies, Chris begins to laugh in an eerie, crazy girl kind of way.

Surprisingly, director Steve Miner doesn't go for one last 3-D scare. The last shot is of Crystal Lake, which is now quiet and serene with Jason out of commission. The serenity won't last for long, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) will soon be on the way.

Like most Paramount DVD's, the Friday the 13th Part 3 disc features a nice widescreen print, a trailer, and little else. A 3-D special edition that you could watch at home would be a lot of fun, but since we're talking about a Paramount picture, isn't very likely.

Hardcore fans of the Jason franchise seem to love or despise part 3. Though it contains the pivotal moment where Jason Voorhees firsts dons his hockey mask, most seem to feel that the 3-D effects were more funny than scary which is the very reason that Cool Cinema Trash loves it so much.

CCT also recommends:

Amityville 3-D

Bloody Pit of Horror

Jaws 3

If renting movies is for you, try Netflix. They stock most of the movies CCT recommends.