FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN-United States-1989

Jensen Daggett as Rennie Wickham

Scott Reeves as Sean Robertson

Peter Mark Richman as Charles McCulloch

Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees

Directed by Rob Hedden

Written by Rob Hedden and Victor Miller (characters)

So, Jason takes Manhattan. What, there weren’t enough horny teenagers coming to Crystal Lake for him to slaughter? He had to go all the way to the Big Apple to find more of them? I mean why not “Jason Goes to the Police Academy” or “Jason Goes on the Tonight Show” or “Jason in Space”? Well, wait, the space one was done two films later. But what I am getting at is that it’s ludicrous to take Jason out of his element. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, they put him in outer space in Jason X. That worked, oddly enough. I really can’t put my finger on why the whole Manhattan thing didn’t work. It wasn’t Kane Hodders’ fault. He went above and beyond the call of duty as Jason. I suppose the best thing to say about the movie is that it didn’t stink as badly as Part V. It comes pretty damn close, so I know it’s not for lack of trying. I mean, even the kills in this one are lame as hell. The best one being when Jason decapitates the captain of the high school boxing team with one swift uppercut to the chin. Don’t even get me started on the acting. Other than the great physical acting of Kane Hodder as Jason this one is seriously bad.

I have said before that I am a huge Friday the 13th fan. It is my personal opinion that Jason Voorhees is one of the coolest movie villains ever created. However, this is one of the worst films in the series. So, skip this one. Enough said.

Trivia

The original posters for the film featured Jason ripping through an “I Love NY” poster. In the first poster, Jason is holding a bloody knife which was cleaned in a second poster for fear that the blood was too graphic. However, both posters were dropped following a complaint from the New York Tourism Committee.

In the scene where Jason reaches through the porthole and grabs Rennie, Jensen Daggett was reportedly really terrified. Her face was just inches from a large and very sharp piece of glass that had become stuck in the window frame, and the actor who played Jason was (unknowingly) pulling her towards it.

In the original script, when Jason makes it to the dock, a dog starts barking at him and he kicked it. Kane Hodder, who was playing Jason, felt that kicking the dog was going too far and so the scene was dropped.

Trivia