Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) - 4/10
One year after the events of the previous film, Jason Voorhees stalks a group of graduating high school students on the SS Lazarus, a ship bound for New York City.
If Part VI was the first Friday that "feels like a real movie", Part VIII feels like a made-for-TV movie. The acting is the worst in a series that wasn't exactly getting Meryl Streep-level performances before, and the special effects are practically non-existent. Many of the kills are off screen, or we see Jason swinging something at the camera, and then see a bloody body. Compared to his awesome look in Part VII, Jason looks like crap. His face without a mask on looks like raw hamburger meat.
Part VIII's lightning is really bizarre. That's a weird complaint maybe, but if you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. I'm vaguely aware that other countries have different lighting techniques than Hollywood, and I know a lot of the movie was filmed in British Columbia, so that could be the explanation. Or it could just be that the film overall is pretty bad, and the lighting is no exception. Either way, it looks "off".
As for the plot, most people hate how much of this movie doesn't actually take place in Manhattan; the characters don't make it there until the final 30 minutes. Personally, I don't mind because I think a ship is an interesting setting for a horror movie.
Unfortunately, the execution of that setting is poor. It's a big ship, with not a ton of people aboard. Done right, Jason should've continued picking off most of the students until the remaining few noticed people are missing and eventually realized they're surrounded by water on a big ship with a killer onboard. Instead, Part VIII drowns us in boring subplots that go nowhere, and once evidence of Jason's crimes are discovered, there are still 10+ people left. There's no claustrophobia or tension.
Also worth noting there's a Crazy Ralph rip-off character who keeps saying the ship is "doomed". Advice to writer-director Rob Hedden: you don't need a red herring when it's not a mystery who the killer is.
Once the film moves to New York, the movie picks up a little bit. It does have two kills that I think are decent;
Julius getting his head punched off, and Charles - the asshole principle who is probably the only character with any common sense - getting drown in a barrel. Great utilization of New York by the way; Jason visits all of the major land marks: Times Square, the subway, a random diner, the alleys, and the sewers. Seeing as he can apparently teleport in this movie, he should've caught a Rangers game.
This movie also has some comedy, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly unintentional.
- The first moment is when one of character, after losing his glasses, shoots a fellow student in the chest with a shotgun thinking it's Jason.
- Later, as a group of the characters prepare to escape the ship, useless teacher Colleen mentions how she left several students in the ship's restaurant. Sean, the son of the slain ship's captain who is leading the escape in the only lifeboat, replies "there is no more restaurant!" Is he implying Jason killed them? He has no way of knowing that. If he implying the restaurant has already been engulfed by the spreading fire? The fire didn't start there and we literally just saw the characters in the restaurant less than two minutes of screen time ago. Either way, airhead Colleen just goes along with it and they don't go back for those students. Enjoy your fiery, watery, or Jason-y deaths, ya poor bastards.
- Finally, once in New York City, Rennie - the bland main character, by the way - drives a car directly into wall (in a horribly directed scene featuring slow motion). Rennie and the other characters flee the burning vehicle; Colleen does not, and is killed as the car completely explodes. It is hysterical.
The ending of the movie is the final nail in the coffin:
Jason is submerged in toxic sewer waste and reverts back to being a child. Who writes this crap?
Jason Takes Manhattan was the final Friday film produced by Paramount, and the studio went out with a whimper. It's a shame because the first 7 films are all pretty decent, and Part VIII gives us a really crappy ending to the "Friday the 13th" story line.
Financially, most of the films in the series had a budget of $2M-$3M, and took in roughly $20M at the box office ($30M+ for some of the earlier films). Friday VIII had the highest budget of any of the movies (estimated $5M-$5.5M), but only made around $15M. As a result, Paramount decided to stop making Friday movies, and loaned the Jason character - but not the Friday the 13th name - to New Line Cinema, who produced the next few movies in the series.
. Hell, make it like a 6-episode limited series, episodes around an hour+ or so. All self-contained stories. All unique approaches to the fighting. Sometimes the Predator wins too, so you never know what you're gonna get.
