|
|
Written and Starring Presented by Rated R 100 Minutes |
 |
||
 |
||||
|
FRIDAY
THE 13TH PART VIII:
1989 meant another year, another FRIDAY THE 13TH sequel. As the 80s was about to close, the horror genre started to see a decline. By this time Paramount, who never were proud of the series to begin with, reached a plateau with Jason Voorhees and quite simply ran out of ideas to keep the series fresh. They relied on a gimmick to move Jason out of Crystal Lake and into the biggest city of the world. This is no fault of the writer/director, Rob Heddin, but this film should be subtitled JASON ON A CRUISE SHIP, because the first hour of the film is set on a cruise ship the resurrected Jason (due to a ripped power line at the bottom of the lake) invades and systematically kills a school class on a trip to Manhattan. Amongst the students is Rennie (Jensen Daggett) who had a traumatizing experience as child when she saw Jason in Camp Crystal Lake while drowning. Her reason on the trip is to conquer her fear of water by her overbearing guardian Charles McCullough (Peter Mark Richman), the headmaster of the school. At the same time, Sean Robertson (Scott Reeves) tries to figure out his purpose after failing his Admiral father’s vision of steering a huge ship of his own someday. The story’s actually not bad, so where did it go all wrong? Well, for starters, there’s very little blood in this movie. Jason chokes, drowns, and uses rocks, his own fists, and just simply uses his strength in this film. What FX is used is not good, especially on Jason compared to how he looked in the previous film. Kane Hodder becomes the first actor to reprise his role as Jason and is very good once again, but the rest of the cast simply aren’t, just one note clichés. There is a sense of danger on the ship, as putting Jason in a new setting does for a few moments make you wonder just where Jason is. However, once the people on the crew find out, Jason gets more fierce in his rampage, eventually causing the ship to sink and a handful of survivors escape on a rowboat to Vancouver, I mean New York City. Vancouver doubles as much of New York City and it painfully shows, aside from a magnificent scene where Jason finds himself smack dab in the middle of Times Square. These scenes are simply the best part of the film as it shows New Yorkers in a perfect light. Jason stalks two survivors and nobody does a goddamn thing to help them. Nobody even looks at Jason twice when he appears, though I wonder how he managed to get on the subway without a token. I digress. When Jason kicks the boom box of a group of punks who threaten him, his response is very funny and to the point. The film is loaded with sequences of Jason as a boy (with hair!) appearing and disappearing out of Rennie’s consciousness. I understand Heddin wanted to do something different, but it really screwed with the continuity of the series storyline and resulting in a completely unsatisfying conclusion where Jason is hit by a vat of toxic waste and is turned into… a boy! WHAT THE FUCK?! Paramount said goodbye to the FRIDAY franchise after this film, which was a box office disaster and almost turned Jason Voorhees into obscurity. With the 90s looming, there was simply no place for Jason anymore and this was just a poorly executed mess from start to finish. This isn’t the worst film of the series but it is close and while some elements are fine, they don’t combine well enough to make this a winning film in my eyes. Paramount was done giving the franchise life, and I believed they made this solely on the premise it would kill off the franchise they were embarrassed to be a part of. In all, JASON TAKES MANHATTAN is a hugely disappointing effort that is one of the weakest sequels ever made. With no drive, no score from Manfredini, and no support from a studio looking for change, this was a film not meant to succeed, and it shows on every frame. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN: 4 Out Of 10 Maggots
|
|
|||
.jpg)
