Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

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Friday the 13th Part VIII:
Jason Takes Manhattan
Friday8.jpg
Original Theatrical poster
Directed by Rob Hedden
Produced by Randy Cheveldave
Written by Rob Hedden
Based on Characters
by Victor Miller
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by Fred Mollin
Cinematography Bryan England
Edited by Steve Mirkovich
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
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  • July 28, 1989 (1989-07-28)
Running time
 100 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $5 million[1]
Box office $14.3 million (US)

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is a 1989 American slasher film directed by Rob Hedden and starring Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves and Kane Hodder. It is the eighth film in the Friday the 13th film series, and deals with Jason Voorhees stalking a group of high school graduates on a ship en route to, and later in, New York City. It was the last film in the series to be distributed by Paramount Pictures in the United States until 2009. According to New York Has a New Problem: The Making of Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, this was another sequel intended to be the final film in the series. The film grossed $14.3 million at the domestic box office, making it the second lowest-grossing film in the series domestically.

Plot

Following the events of The New Blood, two graduating high school students are aboard on a houseboat. Jim tells his girlfriend Suzy the legend of Jason Voorhees, before playing a prank on her with a hockey mask and a fake knife. The boat sails over some underwater cables, which electrocute Jason's corpse and cause his resurrection. He sneaks on board and kills Jim with a harpoon gun before impaling Suzy, who tries to hide from him, with a barb.

The next morning, the SS Lazarus is ready to set sail for New York City with a graduating senior class from Lakeview High School and chaperoned by biology teacher Charles McCulloch and English teacher Colleen Van Deusen. Van Deusen brings McCulloch's niece Rennie along for the trip despite her aquaphobia much to his chagrin. Jason sneaks on board and kills rock star wannabe J.J. with her guitar before hiding in the bowels of the ship. That night, after a boxing match, a young boxer who lost to champion Julius Gaw is killed when Jason slams a hot sauna rock into his abdomen while Rennie, searching for her pet Border Collie Toby, discovers prom queen Tamara and Eva doing drugs. McCulloch nearly catches them moments later and Tamara pushes Rennie overboard, suspecting she told on them. She then uses video student Wayne to record McCulloch in a compromising situation with her, but rejects Wayne's advances afterward. Tamara is killed by Jason with a shard of broken mirror when she goes to take a shower.

Rennie begins seeing visions of a young Jason throughout the ship, but the others ignore the deckhand's warnings that Jason is aboard. Jason kills Captain Robertson and his first mate. Rennie's boyfriend, Sean, discovers them and tells the others before calling for an emergency stop. Eva is strangled as she tries to flee from Jason. The students agree to search for Jason while McCulloch decides that the deckhand is responsible; however, the deckhand is discovered with an axe in his back. One of the students, Miles, is killed by Jason and Julius is knocked overboard. Elsewhere in the hold of the ship, Wayne comes upon J.J.'s body and is thrown into an electrical box by Jason; his corpse catches fire and begins a chain of events that causes the ship to sink. With the other students dead, McCulloch, Van Deusen, Rennie and Sean escape aboard a life raft, and discover Toby and Julius are alive as well.

They row to New York where Jason stalks them through the streets. Rennie is kidnapped by a pair of junkies and the group splits up to find help. Julius tries to fight Jason with his boxing skills, but becomes exhausted after Jason does not go down; he is then decapitated by a single punch from Jason. Rennie escapes from Jason when he kills the punks that kidnapped her. She runs into Sean and they reunite with the teachers and the police before Jason kills the officer who is helping them. Rennie crashes a police car after a vision of Jason distracts her. Van Deusen is incinerated in the car when it explodes, and it is revealed that McCulloch is responsible for Rennie's fear of water, having pushed her into the lake as a child. They leave him behind and Jason kills him by drowning him in a barrel of waste. Jason chases Rennie and Sean into the subway where Sean incapacitates him by knocking him onto the electrical third rail. He is revived again and chases them through Times Square where they try to escape through a diner. They flee into the sewers and encounter a sewer worker. He warns them that the sewers will be flooded with toxic waste at midnight before Jason appears and kills him. Sean is injured and Rennie draws Jason off, wounding him with a splash of acidic waste that forces him to take off his mask, horrifying Rennie. She and Sean climb the ladder as Jason staggers to get them, but just as he is about to kill them, the sewers flood and engulf him. Rennie sees a child-form of Jason as the waste recedes. The two of them then escape to the street, where they are reunited with Toby who had run away earlier, and walk off into the city.

Cast

Production

The film was shot on 7 locations in the US. Filming first began in Columbia, Canada. The film then moved to Vancouver. The alleyway scenes were shot in Los Angeles. After filming wrapped in Los Angeles, the rest of the film was shot on locations in New York. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Music

The film's musical score was composed by Fred Mollin, who worked with longtime Friday the 13th series composer Harry Manfredini on the previous installment. On September 27, 2005, BSX records released a limited edition CD of Fred Mollin's Friday the 13th Part VII and VIII scores.[2]

The song "The Darkest Side of the Night" performed by Metropolis plays over the opening and ending credits to the film. Rob Hedden specifically wanted them to write a song reminiscent of Robert Plant.[3]

Reception

Box office

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan opened on July 28, 1989 in 1,683 theaters, placing at number 5 for the weekend with earnings of $6.2 million.[4] The film faced strong competition at the time of its release from such high profile genre fare as Pet Sematary, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Shocker, and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.[5] Ultimately, it would go on to gross a total of $14.3 million at the U.S. box office, ranking at number 70 on the list of the year's Top 100 earners.[6]

Critical response

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Critical reception for Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan have been overwhelmingly negative. On his commentary track for the film in the box set, director Rob Hedden acknowledges the faults and agrees that more of the film should have been set in Manhattan, citing budgetary and schedule problems.[citation needed] Entertainment Weekly labeled it the eighth-worst sequel ever made.[7] Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 9%, based on 23 reviews, with a rating average of 2.9/10 making it the poorest-received film of the series.[8] Film critic Leonard Maltin however gave the film a more positive review, awarding the film 2 out of 4 stars calling it the best in the series. Maltin also complimented the film's imaginative direction, but also criticized the film's running time as being too long.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Bracke, Peter, pg. 211
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ The 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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