Part 3 looks very campy and cliche to me. I don’t see cliche as a derogatory term. Really, I just see it as another term for, “repetitively iconic,” which I think is a great thing. It’s the first movie that wee see a hockey masked Jason killing pot smoking teenagers having sex in the woods; a theme we would see again, and again, and again. Truly, much darker in the other films. I also come from the tradition of Elm Street and Saw; so it did not rub me as particularly gory, moody, or scary. Though, I don’t watch horror to get scared, I watch horror for the roller coaster ride. For the jokes, one liners, dark humor, and the good facing evil battle. If I get scared along the way, which I don’t expect to, it’s a bonus. Part 3 rubbed me, from a modern view, as campy, iconic, and a fun ride. I’m sure, in its original audience, it was moody, scary, and dark. But I’m not going to pretend I see, or like, the film is ways and for reasons I don’t.

Part 5 is about a young man who killed a psychopathic killer in self defense as a boy, who hardly even talks, trying to get his life back together after many years of treatments. It takes place in a halfway house with other kids who also have tragic stories. Roy’s wife died and he keeps away from his son who is also in the halfway house. Roy is being overshadowed/possessed. And Tommy is having visions of a “dead” killer still trying to get him.

In contrast, Part 3 is a bunch of fun loving people smoking pot, having sex, and getting killed. It’s like one big vacation; aside from the deaths. There is almost nothing dark about it at all. The dark part is the flashback with Chris getting attacked (maybe raped) by Jason. It’s more of how she describes it that makes it dark. It feels like a rape victim telling her tragic account. Though, I don’t think he raped her. I do think she thinks he might have, just by the tone of her voice and he defeated she felt by it. Also, she did go insane. But I don’t see how that two things can compare to Part 5. Don’t get me wrong, I love Part 3. But I wouldn’t dare call it dark.

Part 1 and 2 are dark. A Mother killing over her drowned son Jason. And 2 has to be one of the darkest; a camp counselor, who probably thinks her boyfriend is dead, is trying to pretend to be the killer’s dead Mother to come back to to get inside his head, in a room with her severed head on an alter, with sacrifices, her friends, below the alter, wearing the now ratty sweater of the dead Mother, and trying to kill her son with the machete the killed her. And, the “dirty trick” feeling of trying to confuse Jason by playing off of his hope that his Mother would return. That whole sequence is to me the darkest moment in the Franchise.

As far as Reggie the Reckless, I love that character and think Shavar Ross did a great job playing him. The red pajamas rock, and he had great chemistry with the cast and delivered his lines with smooth confidence. Also, in the interviews with him on His Name Was Jason, it’s clear he has a great sense of humor as a person too.