Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
My favorite Friday, I can’t help it. I Saw it in movie theatres. In the same theatre I saw Batman (who symbol makes an appearance in the film). Watching this film in 2023 eyes makes me pounder as a New Yorker was New York really as bad as the movie says it is. Even though I was a child back then I’m going to say no. Simply because though its obvious that a handful of scenes takes place in Times Square this is not New York. Not the New York I remember, not the New York that it was, trust me. In fact I just so happen to know that this film was filmed up north in a place called Toronto. Which has proven to be a good mask for Manhattan (in such movies liker John Wick), but I think they could not afford to make it New York enough (that Time Square shot possibly eat up the budget).
After Friday the 13th part 6 Jason changed from a human with the type of mommy issues that grant psychotic strength to what is best describe as a zombie with a one track mind that only includes cutting up flesh over eating it. In another cheap revival of Jason to get the ball rolling, a boat anchor cutting over a power cable shocks Jason back to life. He kills some kids, steels their boat, and ends up on a bigger boat with a group of kids who looks more like Freddy’s taste than his.
Seriously, we have the hardcore filmmaker whose dedication to keeping the camera rolling is admirable because cameras were big in 2017 (If you are die hard enough to pay attention to the timeline in the film franchise part 8 takes place 37 years after the 1980 movie versus the actual date the movie came out in 1989), the wanna be rock star who based on the 2017 timeline is all about that retro 80s fashion, and the jock boxer man enough to stupidly take on a slasher.
These kids personality are high and detailed. Perfect for a Nightmare on elm street where big man Krigger would creatively used these wants and desires to kill them in their wildest dreams. Jason is not that creative which is fine with me. He’s got two or three really good movies (he loves killing two people with one stab, its really his thing).
Anyway, some how this boat was close enough to New York that when Jason kills it (like he literally does kill the boat). The survivors are able to escape to the big apple (Technically if you believe the movie Jason Goes to Hell, Crystal lake and its camp are looking close to Fairfield Connecticut, which does share a body of water with Manhattan (Although this truth means that a scene in the movie in which the survivors look stranded at sea makes know sense cause the sound is not big enough not to see land close by).
Jason Lives proves the film franchise exist in a world where the supernatural can happen, but Jason take Manhattan nails into the coffin that this world is also filled with people with psychokinetic powers. Hence the final girl who has a psychic connection to Jason because she almost drowned in the same lake he did. It would have been cool if this was explored in more movies.
I would have also loved to see a Jason takes Manhattan two in which Jason now living in a condo overlooking central park spends his days at the museum and his nights murdering people in Central Park to which the right white person finally gets murdered and the cops try to pin it on a black dude from Harlem (what too real?)
Also, another point of canon is that (spoiler) Jason drowns in a pool of Toxic waste that runs through the sewer every night at midnight!? (wow! No wonder new York has giant alligators and ninja turtles lurking in the sewers). This event should have made a style of uber Jason like the one in Jason X. that also would have been interesting but may have change the demographic of the movie, but hey Troma could do a cross over with this uber Jason battling the Toxic Crusader.
