The Full Spear Gun Death Of Vera In Part 3

The physical effects work created for the Friday the 13th film franchise has been some of the most extensive ever completed in the horror genre. Because of the brutality and realism depicted in the elaborate kills for the films, Directors have been famously forced to cut out frames or entire scenes of the their film to obtain an R rating from the MPAA. From time to time we will explore these cuts and how they effected the a certain scene.

Not to long ago, we explored Vera's death in Friday The 13th Part 3 and the original concept for her death scene as told in Michael Avallone's book of the same name. The changes were not very extensive, but her death was much more brutal in shocking than what we see in the film. Well, we went back in time and re-visited an old Fangoria magazine from 1982 and discovered that even the theatrical death scene of Vera was filmed with a much more elaborate result of Jason's spear gun shot to Vera's eye.

From Fangoria #22
'Doug White and Makeup Effects Lab'

“Some of the most gruesome sequences were trimmed by the makers of the picture to avoid difficulties with the MPAA further down the road. Recalling problems with the first sequel, the hot poker and spear scenes were cut to make them somewhat less graphic. In the latter scene, one of the most dramatic 3D bits in the picture, the unstoppable Jason fires a spear gun some 100 to 150 feet away from the camera and the viewer can see the spear coming at him for the entire distance. The spear then lodges itself in Vera’s eye. According to White, “They did a side shot of her taking a reaction upon impact and falling back into the water, and then they cut to her turning sideways with the tip of the spear coming toward the camera for the 3D effect. But they cut out the reaction because they said it looked too good.” As a result of this and similar cuts, once the picture was delivered to the MPAA, director Steve Miner only had to go back to the editing bench once as opposed to the eight cuts required by the ratings board on Friday the 13th Part II.”

It's interesting to learn that Director Steve Miner implemented his own cuts before going to the MPAA. Perhaps they would not have cut this extra awesomeness from the movie at all if he would have submitted it without the edit?