FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII -- JASON TAKES MANHATTAN
Reviewed by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1989 David N. Butterworth/The Summer Pennsylvanian
Followers of the ever popular "Friday the 13th" series, i.e., those warped enough to have suffered through the previous seven chapters, won't want to miss this latest installment. It's certainly no worse than those earlier entries -- just as mind-numbingly awful, just as irritatingly stupid as all the rest.
With the possible exception of relocating the hockey-masked assailant to New York City, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII -- JASON TAKES MANHATTAN follows the same exact plotting as its seven predecessors: 1) bring Jason back from the dead; 2) knock off teens; 3) leave finale open-ended.
Right on cue, the film opens with Jason Voorhees -- who by now must hold some kind of underwater breath-holding record -- being revived from his watery grave. He boards a vessel upon which a libidinous bunch of graduating seniors are about to set sail on a celebratory cruise to New York. The scene is set for mayhem of an ocean-going nature. Call it Camp Crystal Lake at sea, if you will, or "The Love Boat," splatter style.
As with previous films in this interminable series, there has to be some catalyst, some connection between Jason and the current short list of soon-to- be dead teenagers. The link here is Renny (Jensen Daggett), haunted by visions of a facially disfigured boy from her past. However, it is revealed that the Camp Crystal Lake killings took place over thirty years ago. Isn't Renny a little young, therefore? Don't expect anything in this film to follow any kind of logic.
These would-be hackees are chaperoned by Barbara Bingham (as Mrs. VanDusen, whose role is simply that of excess baggage) and the familiar Peter Mark Richman (who plays Renny's uncle and legal guardian Charles McCullough). For a guy who doesn't believe in walking corpses, Richman gives a pretty lifeless performance.
Actually, the film's title is somewhat misleading as Jason and his quarry don't hit the Big Apple until about two-thirds of the way through the movie. And, even then, they predominantly frequent the dark back alleys and sewer systems of Times Square. We might as well be back in the woods at Crystal Lake for all the audience cares. The producers wasted a great opportunity to parody New Yorker's acceptance of bizarre looking outsiders. The closest the film comes to lampooning itself is when a bemused Jason notices a billboard advertising an ice hockey game, replete with appropriate headgear of course.
In the nine years since the original -- and best -- film in the series, the audience appears to have changed somewhat. Mothers with an entourage of five- and six-year-old children seem to have replaced necking teenagers. In earlier films, the on-screen characters habitually stripped off before being macheted or axed to death and the killings were always inventive, with an emphasis on the graphic. One could always go to these movies first to be titillated, then grossed out.
But now the characters don't even have to take a shower before being sliced or diced. Jason disposes of his victims so matter-of-factly these days that it's hard to determine what the real attraction is.
But, like it or not, there's something about this series that cannot be dismissed. Successive films have reputedly made more money at the box office than their predecessors, and the string of hits has even spawned a television series. Not only that, but no best-dressed Halloween party attendee would be seen dead without his or her hockey mask.
Maybe we're all missing the point here. Maybe Jason is a self-appointed champion, combatting adolescent promiscuity -- notice how any sexually active teen is permanently laid to rest? Or maybe he's an anti-drug proponent -- not one but two abusers in this film are efficiently done away with shortly after indulging. Or maybe it's simply a question of the bigger the body count, the bigger the box office bucks... .
It's no coincidence that FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII -- JASON TAKES MANHATTAN is labeled a "Horror, Inc." production for the film is about as pre-packaged as they come. As shrink-wrapped slaying goes there is no equal and, until moviegoers demand otherwise, the uninspired trail of blood and body parts will continue.
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