Friday the 13th Part 8 : Jason Takes Manhatten

Friday the 13th Part 8 : Jason Takes Manhatten title

Tag Line : New York has a new problem.

Awful, awful, awful. Just when I thought the series was looking up, Paramount Pictures hit us with this abomination. The film starts with Jason (Kane Hodder) still lying dormant at the bottom of Crystal Lake, when a passing boat conveniently snags its anchor on an underwater power cable and gives him a huge electric jolt.

Predictably, Jason re-awakes and bumps off the young couple on the boat in one of the most cringe-worthy scene's I've ever witnessed. Then for some unknown reason, decides to take their boat down river and stows away on a pleasure cruiser full of teenage kids who are setting off on a school cruise to New York City.

The title of the film is extremely misleading as the vast majority of action takes place on board the pleasure cruiser, with only the last 15 minutes or so set in New York city, and most of that is in the subway system and the sewers. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate to call this 8th outing "The Voyage of the Damned", as most of it takes place on the boat and it virtually killed off the franchise.

As you can probably gather I was very disappointed with this lame effort, in spite of the return of Kane Hodder as Jason. Shoddily directed, Jason's method of killing wants to make you cringe with embarrassment, rather than recoil in horror. Indeed, everything in this film just plain sucked, it was even voted biggest turkey of 1989 (I think) by readers of Fangoria magazine. Only watch this film if, like me, your a completist and want to see the whole series.

Overall marks 3/10.

Other Information.

This monstrosity was written and directed by Rob Hedden, who should be put against a wall and shot for this travesty. He got the job after directing several episodes of the Friday the 13th TV spin-off series, and still writes and directs for numerous shows. His credits including episodes of "MacGuyver", "Knight Rider 2000" and "Star Trek : Enterpirise" (hey, didn't those shows suck too?) His biggest success appears to be the 2002 film "ClockStoppers", which was directed by Johnathon Frakes.
The films budget was $5,000,000
The original script was set almost entirely in New York, however owing to budgetary constrictions the director had to limit almost all the action to studio sets, hence why 95% of the film takes place on board the boat.
The man in the diner who Jason (Kane Hodder) throws over the counter and into the wall mirror was stuntman Ken Kirzinger, who went on to play Jason in "Freddy vs Jason". He was also Kane's stunt double in some scenes.
Fred Molin, from the TV series, scored the entire soundtrack this time as Harry Manfredini was unable to return. His musical talents where sorely missed!
The films intro was shot at a Boy Scout Camp in Vancouver Canada.
The film was heavily censored by the US ratings board to get an R-rating, as a result the killings are virtually blood free. The most notorious cut being a death scene where one of the kids is killed by having darts thrown into his eyes. Instead they had to film an entirely different sequence, showing Jason plunging a red hot rock into the guys chest in the sauna. However even this had to be cut down, as they complained it was too bloody.
The original UK video release removed a brief scene where one of the punks pulls out a butterfly knife when they confront Jason owing to the BBFC's policies on "imitable behaviour". This was re-instated for the DVD release after the censors revised it's classification policies.
Pictured left, one of the original promotional posters. This was withdrawn prior to the films release following complaints from the New York Tourist board.
After this dismal effort proved barely popular at the box office, Paramount Pictures decided to not to make any further sequels. If they just decided to invest in a decent production, rather than churn out a sensless farcical slasher they might have got a bigger return. If you look at Halloween H20, compared with Halloween's 5 & 6, you'll see what I mean.