AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Review of two Friday the 13th Part 3 novelizations
And so continues our second week of AWESOME-tober-fest 2012. Last week was Norman Bates/Psycho week. This week is Jason Vorhees/Friday the 13th week. Let’s start off this week with TWO novelizations written for the same movie; Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3-D.
Yes, there were two novelizations written for Friday the 13th Part 3. The first was by Michael Avallone and published the same year as the movie’s release in 1982. This particular novelization was the first published for any of the Jason movies.
Right away, the cover for this novelization is pretty awesome. First of all, the hockey mask isn’t the standard Jason mask. However, Jason didn’t actually get the mask until Part 3, so the Jason hockey mask was not the iconic symbol when this book was published that it is today. Also, I love that they included the 3-D moniker in the title. Like the book is actually written in 3-D (IT SHOULD TOTALLY BE WRITTEN IN 3-D!!!).
For most of the book, the story sticks pretty close to the movie. A few deviations here and there, nothing really to mention. However, that is, until the end. This novelization is interesting in that it features an alternate ending from the one used in the actual movie. In this ending, Chris, who is in the canoe in the lake, hears her boyfriend’s voice back at the lake house. She gets out of the lake and runs back up to the house and opens the door only to have Jason decapitate her. This is vastly different than the “it was all a nightmare” ending that was actually used.
This novelization would go out of print and become fairly hard to find until Paramount decided to publish Friday the 13th novelizations for the release of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.
The second novelization for Part 3 was not published until 1988. It was written by Simon Hawke. Hawke was hired to adapt Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives, and since the first two movies were never adapted, Hawke wrote adaptations of Part 1, 2 and he re-adapted Part 3.
Since Hawke’s adaptation was several years after the actual movie, he utilized the ending that was used in the actual movie. The book itself is actually pretty good. Hawke uses the novel to actually delve a bit into Jason’s psyche to give the reader a glimpse into what makes the killer tick. We hear Jason’s thoughts before and after a kill as well as some of his thoughts on why he seems to be unkillable. It really adds a nice depth to the story from the movie. I hadn’t seen this movie in years, but I enjoyed this book enough that it made me sit down and watch the movie again. It’s still one of my favorite Jason movies.
In case you want to look for these novelizations on your own you may find it fairly difficult to obtain copies. I know I did. Especially copies that are moderately priced. I myself scoured used book stores, real book stores and online to obtain copies but met with very little luck. It seems these two weren’t really printed after the initial run and both of these are considered hard to find collectors items. You can sometimes find them on eBay or on the Amazon Marketplace, but they are going for about $30 for the original Avallone novel and about $80 for the Hawke novel. Luckily, my good friend Jason, who guested on episode 14 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast, is my “horror movie guy” who has been collecting Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street memorabilia for years. He actually has these novelizations as well as several others that he so kindly let me borrow for AWESOME-tober-fest this month. So thanks, Jason, for allowing me to do these book reviews.
Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
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