Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan is a 1989 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: 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[]
Aboard a houseboat, high school student Jim tells his girlfriend Suzy the legend of Jason Voorhees; the supernatural, undead psychopathic killer 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 stabs Jim with a harpoon barb before impaling Suzy, who tries to hide from him.
The next morning, the SS Lazarus is ready to set sail, bound 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 Duesen 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 sauna rock into his abdomen while Rennie, searching for her dog Toby, discovers prom queen Tamara and Eva doing drugs. McCulloch nearly catches them moments later and Tamara pushes Rennie overboard, suspecting she narced them out. 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 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. Robertson's son Sean discovers them and tells the others before calling for an emergency stop. Eva is strangled as she tries to flee 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. Wayne discovers Jason in the hold of the ship and is thrown into an electrical box; 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, discovering Toby and Julius alive as well.
They row to New York where Jason stalks them through the streets. Rennie is kidnapped by a pair of punks and the group splits up to find help. Julius tries to fight Jason with his boxing skills but is decapitated by a single punch. 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 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 revives 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. She and Sean climb the ladder as the sewers flood, Reenie sees a child-form of Jason as the two of them escape to the street. Rennie and Sean reunite with Toby who had run away earlier, and walk off into the city.
Cast[]
- Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees
- Jensen Daggett as Rennie Wickham
- Scott Reeves as Sean Robertson
- Barbara Bingham as Colleen Van Deusen
- Peter Mark Richman as Charles McCulloch
- Martin Cummins as Wayne Webber
- Gordon Currie as Miles Wolfe
- V. C. Dupree as Julius Gaw
- Kelly Hu as Eva Watanabe
- Saffron Henderson as J.J. Jarrett
- Sharlene Martin as Tamara Mason
- Alek Diakun as Deck hand
- Warren Munson as Admiral Robertson
- Tiffany Paulsen as Suzie Donaldson
- Amber Pawlick as young Rennie Wickham
- Ace as Toby
Production[]
| "Okay, we'll make Vancouver look like New York and we'll do it that way. But they came back again with, 'You can't do the Brooklyn Bridge in Vancouver. You can't do Madison Square Garden in Vancouver. You can't do the Statue of Liberty in Vancouver.' Pretty soon it was half New York, half on the boat. Then it was the last third in New York. It just kept getting whittled down and down." |
| — Rob Hedden (writer/director) on the deconstruction of Jason Takes Manhattan's story |
Despite the limited success of The Resurrection of Jason Voorhees plans were made for an eighth film shortly after the seventh film arrival to theaters. Producers decided they wanted to take Jason away from Crystal Lake and place him in a larger environment for the next film. Feeling pressure to make a hit, Frank Mancuso, Jr. approached series co-creator Thomas Trenton to help guide pre-production.
Trenton came up with the initial story and, as requested, made plans for moving Jason to an urban environment, pursuing a group of teens who brought him back to life in a séance while boating on Crystal Lake. Trenton turned in a first draft with the intent that he would also produce and re-assume the role of Jason, though he had apprehensions with the "zombie-Jason" persona.
After considering numerous locations, New York City was selected as the main setting. Due to its historical appeal and being one of the most famous of American cities. As well, for having a skyline that was universally recognizable. The story had Jason spending approximately a third of the movie on a boat before reaching New York. The film was then subtitled Jason Takes Manhattan.
The original poster for Jason Takes Manhattan which was pulled by the request of New York state
Due to creative differences early in the production, Trenton bowed out when Paramount attempted to cut the budget and limit the story's scope. Not willing to compromise, Trenton left the project after only two months of pre-production. Rob Hedden, who was chosen as director, inherited script writing duties. Kane Hodder was again hired to play Jason, but ultimately, the character spent the majority of the time on the cruise ship, as budget restrictions forced scenes of New York to be trimmed or downgraded. Vancouver had to substitute for the majority of the New York scenes.
A controversy emerged when an early marketing poster depicted series villain Jason cutting through a "I Love NY" poster. Within days of release the city of Manhattan, the New York State Tourist Board and then Mayor Ed Koch complained to Paramount for using the iconic image in such a manner. The posters were pulled from public display within a week and replaced with a new poster.
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.
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.
Reception[]
Box Office[]
Friday the 13th: 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. 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. 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.
Critical Response[]
On his commentary track for the film in the box set, director Rob Hedden acknowledges the faults and even agrees that more of the film should have been set in Manhattan, citing budgetary and schedule problems. Rotten Tomatoes details that only 9% of the critics who reviewed the film gave it positive reviews, making it the poorest-received film of the series. It holds an average score of 3.9/10. Entertainment Weekly labeled it the eighth-worst sequel ever made.
External links[]
Template:Portal
- Template:IMDb title
- Template:Amg movie
- Template:Rotten-tomatoes
- Template:Mojo title
- Template:URL
- Template:URL