Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

MOVIE #1,206 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 10.23.23 50 MOVIES IN 32 DAYS! It’s “Jason in Manhattan” time, folks. I mean: “Jason at Sea” time, folks. This wild entry is considered by some members of the fandom to be a hidden gem. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but it’s definitely a (mostly) fun time. The second and last film to feature a “written and directed by” credit (Rob Hedden), things are askew right out the gate. Gone are the simple block sans serif white text over black opening credits in favor of a highly stylized font over random shots of the big Apple: the statue of Liberty, junkies shooting up, you know? New Yawk stuff!

This was famously shot in Vancouver and they make no effort at obscuring the mountains in the background which, if you've never been to New Jersey… yeah, we don't have those. Also the idea that a senior high school cruise could take off from a random lake and somehow get to NYC? It's almost too lazy to address, but again: such waterways do not exist. Anyway, after one of the most random reanimation sequences (Jason is awakened when an anchor hits an underwater electrical wire near where he’s been hanging out at the bottom of the lake), he sneaks aboard the cruise ship and this is where about ⅔ of the movie takes place.

Our Final Girl is Rennie (which is a name, certainly) and she is seeing visions of mutant little boy Jason for some reasons. Her weird uncle is also the principal and this guy (played by journeyman actor Peter Mark Richman) is one of the most nasty and memorable non-Jason villains in the series. Rennie is allowed to bring her dog on this class trip for some reason, continuing the rich tradition of good dogs in this franchise.

And maybe it’s because I’ve just watched eight of these fucking things in a row, but the kill scenes are all so tedious now. I touched on this in the previous review but, to contrast it with the Nightmare franchise and how nearly every death in those movies is a really creative set piece in and of itself: here it's much more about quantity over quality and the vast majority are quick and don't feel overly considered.

But still, I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit. I’m not sure what I’m looking for in a Friday film at this point, so this wonky premise (which definitely isn’t taking itself too seriously) worked for me.

When they finally get to Manhattan, they are immediately mugged (and Rennie is kidnapped, injected with heroin [?!] and is almost raped before Jason “saves” her). I love this bleak late 80s portrayal of NYC as a total hellhole. There are vats of toxic waste just lying around everywhere (the evil uncle gets dunked in one) and we learn that every night at midnight the entire sewer is flooded with it (?). Anyway, this is how Jason dies. He’s melted into nothing and then briefly becomes a normal little boy again (??). Also Rennie reconnects with her lost dog in the middle of the city: easily the most preposterous event in this film.

I am feeling too lazy to make any gifs or videos for this (sorry). And I’m also realizing how difficult (and arbitrary) ranking these is going to be. Every movie has registered somewhere between a 6 and an 8. None of them are unwatchable and none of them are really that great (I also don’t think that’s a very original sentiment).

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Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is a 1989 American slasher film written and directed by Rob Hedden, and starring Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves, Peter Mark Richman, and Kane Hodder reprising his role as Jason Voorhees. It is a sequel to Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) and the eighth installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. Set one year after the events of The New Blood, the film follows Jason as he stalks a group of high school graduates on a ship en route to New York City. It was the final film in the series to be distributed by Paramount Pictures in the United States until 2009, with the subsequent installments being distributed by New Line Cinema. It was released on May 13, 1988.