Notable for being the first film in the series to feature the killer Jason Voorhees wearing his signature hockey mask, the third installment of the “Friday the 13th” series is known for having two alternate endings that didn't make the final cut.
Original ending.
Exhausted and traumatized after a violent battle with Jason Voorhees, Chris leaves the barn, walks toward the dock, and climbs into the canoe to drift away on Lake Higgins. There is no nightmare of Mrs. Voorhees emerging from the water, no visions of Jason unmasked, and no hands dragging her under. Chris simply floats in the morning mist until she hears the sirens and sees police reinforcements arriving at the shore. The police rescue her from the water, in a state of total shock, and secure the perimeter of Higgins Haven.
When director Steve Miner and Paramount executives reviewed the structure of the climax, they concluded that the ending felt flat and lackluster, so they decided to add the iconic, albeit repetitive, sequence of Mrs. Voorhees’s corpse emerging from the water and dragging Chris under. However, this ending was retained in the official novelization because the book, written by Michael Avallone, had already been written, laid out, and was in the process of being printed.
Chris's Death.
After killing Jason in the barn, our main heroine, Chris, paddles out to the middle of the lake in a canoe, where she falls asleep. The next morning, she wakes up and hears Rick, one of her friends, calling her from the cabin. Chris heads to the cabin to say hello to Rick, but instead, she is ambushed by Jason, now unmasked and wielding a machete. Jason grabs Chris and decapitates her. The next scene shows Chris in the back of a police car, screaming frantically while the police try to comfort her. It had all just been a nightmare.
According to director Steve Miner and the producers, beheading the female lead within the dream sequence was excessively violent and cruel, even by the franchise’s standards. Furthermore, it disrupted the emotional flow that left the audience relieved that the heroine had physically survived, so the scene was ultimately cut.
Lost?
Although it was filmed in its entirety, the second alternate ending has never been released on home video. Many fans believe that Paramount still owns the original negatives, while others believe the negatives were destroyed. Since then, various images have surfaced online, keeping alive the possibility that this ending could be recovered.
