Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

141
one simple way to give an impression of distance. A loud sound tends to seem near;
a soft one, more distant.” (1985; 194) [emphasis in the original] The image cuts
back to the close up of Chili, looking downward and screaming. Chili is thrust
backwards slightly when she is stabbed by the poker, as she screams and the hissing
grows even louder with the penetration. This cuts to a close up of the poker, held by
Jason’s hand on the left hand of the frame, running through Chili’s midriff at the
right of the frame, the red tip emerging from the other side of Chili and smoke
coming from the wound, the hissing suddenly louder at the beginning of the shot.
The image then cuts back to the close up of Chili looking downward, with smoke
rising in front of her face, eventually sinking below the frame. Her scream and the
music both fade to a lower volume at the end of the shot. The source of tension in
this sequence is the overbearing music, functioning in a way similar to the music in
Suspiria. This in combination with the editing of multiple short shots and with the
spatial volumization relative to Chili’s position within film space, seen and unseen,
all indicate Chili’s perspective throughout the sequence.
Another relevant sequence in terms of creating the perspective of a victim, or
in this case victims, in Friday the 13 th Part III 3-D is the end of the climactic
confrontation between Chris and Jason. After a surprise attack by Ali, Jason cuts off
his arm and hacks at him with a machete. Jason is framed from behind in medium
shot, striking below the frame, with each sound of his machete entering Ali’s body
being entirely unverified diegetic. In a reverse medium shot, Chris, holding a
hatchet she picked up off the ground, slowly stands, moving toward Jason with the
nondiegetic score playing steadily and rhythmically, creating a slow crescendo,
while Jason’s hacking continues. There is a cut to the reverse shot of Jason from
behind, the camera keeping Jason in medium shot as he stands up and turns to face