Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Review by the Fiend of Grue
Ah Jason Voorhees… the unstoppable killer whose sole focus in “life” is to avenge his Mother’s death on drug abusing, sex crazed teenagers. Up until this point in the very successful Friday The 13th franchise, we have witnessed Jason being stabbed, axed, cut, shot, hung, and drowned in everyway imaginable, only to rise up and kill anybody who crosses onto his turf…Camp Crystal Lake. After Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood which saw the weakest returns yet for the franchise, you’d think Paramount would call it a day and let the series rest in piece(s). BUT…like with any profitable horror franchise though, where there is still some money to be made, the cash cow will be milked. Because even though Part VII saw weaker returns than ever before, the Friday series did have a dedicated fan base calling out for more Jason.
It’s funny when you mention Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan to most people that are casually into horror movies, their first reaction is often times, “Oh yeah…is that the one where he’s on a boat?” (Don’t believe me, just try it for yourself.) That assessment would, for the most part, be true. For a title promising Manhattan, there sure is a lack thereof in the finished product. Budget problems plagued the filmmakers from making Part VIII more Manhattan with most of the film not only being shot on a boat, but all of the alley scenes in the film were shot in Canada. Still though, they stuck with their title and gimmicky name, but even that couldn’t save the film and it sunk fast at the box office.
The film begins with an opening montage, showing what was then a very slummy and drug riddled New York City. In the background plays an actual theme song entitled “The Darkest Side Of The Night,” replacing the standard Harry Manfredini soundtrack that we had become so accustomed to over the years. By doing these things, director Rob Hedden immediately lets it be known to the crowd that they are in for a very different Friday The 13th film. Even the famous “Cha…cha…cha…cha…ha…ha…ha…ha” sounds different this time out.
After the scenes of New York City, the camera cuts to a boat carrying a teenage couple that has just graduated from high school and in the midst of hot lust, set the anchor right on top of an underwater power line that just happens to have our unstoppable killer resting on top of it…who would guess? As the anchor somehow jerks on the line ( I guess it’s underwater current?), it ruptures the line, sending current into Jason and if we remember back to Friday The 13th part VI: Jason Lives, we know that electrical current will most certainly raise out maggot infested, serial killer, antihero from his watery grave.
After rising out of his watery tomb, Jason of course easily disposes of the teens on the boat and soon after we see him pop out of the water at the base of a cruise liner housing some more teens that have just graduated…Jason can just smell a good cast of teens to kill I suppose.
Once on the boat, Jason goes about doing his thing that he did every year in the eighties and one by one picks off a bunch of teens that you would sit there and just wait to be killed off in the first place. That is the genius behind these movies because in making these characters unlikable and making you wish for their death, what Paramount Pictures did was make Jason into the antihero that people began to cheer for.
Jason eventually wrecks so much havoc on the ship that he kills a man and in the process starts a fire that causes the remaining survivors to abandon it. The small group gets aboard one of the ship’s emergency boats and eventually rows ashore New York City, but little do they know, Jason is hot on their heels. Not one to let his prey get away, Jason gives chase right into the city also and for the last half an hour of the film, confronts the survivors in the streets of the Big Apple, finally giving the title Jason Takes Manhattan some worth.
In terms of story, acting and even execution, this is by no means the best Friday The 13th film that has ever came out, but over the years I will shamelessly admit that this, next to Part VII, has become my favorite of the series. Yeah I know that I’m mostly alone here but it is true, this is one of my favorite Friday’s.
I originally saw this movie in the theaters when it was released and, let me tell you, I fucking hated it with a passion! I was so pissed off that as much as I loved the series, I hoped that there would never be another one again. To me, the series that I loved more than anything in the horror genre had been destroyed, it had been reduced to shit and I was furious. I gave it another look when it hit video store shelves, but with the same results. A couple of years ago when the boxset was released I gave it one more try and to my surprise…I actually LIKED it! For some reason Part VIII had grown on me over all these years.
Upon watching the movie again, with fresh eyes, I was able to notice just how different of a Friday film that this was. The things that I hated so many years ago, was now the reason for my attraction to it….it was different. Gone was Crystal Lake, gone was Jason’s comfort zone and the same ol’ same ol’ surroundings of all of the other Friday films. This time Jason was somewhere different, even if it was a boat for the first hour. And Kane Hodder even further cemented what he started in Part VII by becoming the man that gave Jason a more menacing personality and actually managed to make him into a character that you just don’t want to fuck with. If you need confirmation, just watch the scene in this movie where he kills the films resident slut by throwing her into a mirror. Very brutal stuff.
Even though most of the kills take place off screen, Jason Take Manhattan does have one of the most memorable kill scenes of the entire franchise. Once in New York City, Jason is in hot pursuit of the amateur boxer teen named Julius. Eventually he corners him on a building rooftop and Julius decides to swing at him. After punching him in the mask over and over, it doesn’t phase Jason (duh, ya dumbass!) and a completely worn out Julius tells him, “take your best shot…motherfucker,” to which Jason does and punches the poor guy’s head clean off his body. The head rolls down the roof, falls in a dumpster and the lid slams shut…utter brilliance! There is also another short but sweet kill in which Jason kills a chick by smashing her head in with her own guitar! That’s our little guitar ANTI hero for ya!
**SPOILER ALERT**
The biggest downside to this movie was the ending. First off, Jason has some toxic chemicals thrown in his face, to which he screams (???) and then he rips his mask off to reveal the WORST looking Jason makeup ever. Ok…so then we find out toxic waste flows through the sewer system of New York at midnight, every night and on this night Jason has trapped the last two teens there as they try to escape through a manhole cover. Soon, the waste rolls in, melts Jason and we are left with a kid version of Jason lying on the ground without the deformities? It leaves you with one of the biggest WHAT-THE FUCK??? moments of the entire franchise. I don’t know what in the hell Rob Hedden was thinking with this ending and since then, even Kane Hodder has spoken up about being very dissatisfied with this horrendous ending.
**END SPOILER**
Flawed film…yes. Cheesy film…yes. The best Friday…probably not, but I will go as far to say that I believe that this is the most underrated of the series. Rob Hedden was adventurous with this film and broke out of the mold that the series seemed to require at this point and I applaud him for that. Not only that, but he also made the most beautiful and sleek film of the entire franchise. If you’re a fan of this series, I challenge you to go back and give this movie another chance. I’m not saying you’ll end up enjoying it like I did, but you may find that you like it more than you originally thought. And if you don’t find that you enjoy the film, at least you can revel in the classic song “The Darkest Side Of The Night.”
LITTLE KNOW FACTS ABOUT THIS FILM: The scene where Jason busts into the diner in New York City and a worker comes up to him only to be thrown against a wall. That guy was Ken Kirzinger who not only played Jason in Freddy vs. Jason but was also the stunt coordinator on Part VIII.
And the scene where Jason goes into the sauna on the boat and kills a guy was actually a pick up scene shot after principal photography in which Ken Kirzinger dons the mask of Jason instead of Kane Hodder.
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