The debut of the hockey mask. That’s the only new idea in this film in which a hulking Jason Vorhees encounters more obnoxious and sexually active teens and handily chops ’em to bits, but gets defeated by the most sensitive and chaste girl of the group. The gore scenes come and go in a flash—they were trimmed to avoid an “X” rating—with the highlight being the crushed head, complete with an eye that pops out at the camera.
This is the first movie of the series in which Jason gets killed. In fact, the producers originally thought this would be the final Friday the 13th, but NOPE. This thing made too much money. Jason had to rise again for a fourth film.
Look for lots of things here that fly toward or lunge at the camera. This was originally released in 3-D and was part of a short-lived 3-D revival in the early 80s that also gave us Jaws 3-D, Amityville 3-D, old 3-D movies shown on television in their original form (viewable with cheap cardboard glasses that you could buy at 7-11s and drug stores) and a theatrical revival of The House of Wax.