FRIDAY THE 13TH - PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN

US, 1989, 96 minutes, Colour.
Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves.
Directed by Rob Hedden.

Friday the 13th, Part VIII, Jason Takes Manhattan, was a box-office success in 1989. It provides a useful resume at the opening of the film for those who may not be familiar with the plot. However, it is only those familiar with the plot, who might want to see this film. It begins on Crystal Lake, Jason's home - he is revived by energy from the anchor of a boat and proceeds to kill the two teenagers on it. They are going to a graduation voyage to New York. Needless to say, Jason gets aboard and proceeds to murder most of the students and some of the (seemingly non-existent) crew. The film offers some ghastly deaths (though, possibly, not so ghastly as in the initial films). There is also some sex which had been somewhat absent in films from number 6.

The film sketches some of the characters - especially the heroine, with nightmares about Jason from the past and his trying to drown her in the lake. She also receives a gift of a pen, possibly used by Stephen King - which jabs Jason in the eye. There is also some mockery of New York - its ugliness shown during the credits and the scenes recapitulated when the survivors and Jason arrive in New York and there is pursuit around the dock area, Times Square, the subway, dingy cafes and finally the sewers.

The film, on the whole, is fairly arbitrary in its presentation of characters - it does not capitalise on elements of plot that it has introduced which might have been developed. It generally is merely a succession of deaths caused by Jason.

The film shows the extraordinary popular success with young audiences of this kind of nightmare of the '80s.