By Jerry Peterson
I have a soft spot for the oft-maligned 8th outing of the Friday the 13th movies, “Jason Takes Manhattan” (JTM). It takes a non-stop barrage of flak for pulling a bait and switch. Barring a couple brief minutes in Times Square, the movie instead takes place on a boat for the first half, and then in some filthy back alleys, sewers and subways that could be from any city, anywhere for the rest of the runtime.
But I still enjoy this movie, and still watch it regularly. JTM
marks the last time that Paramount Pictures would make a Friday the 13th
movie, before selling the rights to New Line Cinema. This is the last one that still feels like a classic Friday flick, complete with all the cliches the series helped establish.
JTM’s place in time is unique. Released on July 28th of 1989, this wasn’t just the last Friday movie that Paramount would make; it was also the last one made during the 1980s. And as the decade came to a close, there was a palpable sense that the slasher genre of horror movies had also reached its end. In the early 90s, almost all of the major faces of 80s horror were given “final” sendoffs such as Freddy’s Dead in 1991, Jason Goes to Hell in 1993 and Hellraiser: Bloodline in 1996. Instead of seeing sequels every year or every other year, the once great horror titans would go dormant and see only rare, sporadic appearances. Slasher movies had officially gone the way of westerns and musicals.
So aside from JTM’s status as the last Friday the 13th
made by Paramount in the 80s, what makes it special? Despite the change in
locale, Jason stalks and kills like usual, and the cramped confines of the rusty
ship, Lazarus, make for some interesting and visually claustrophobic settings.
Writer/director, Rob Hedden, said that he had been given
permission to kill off Jason “in a way that makes it feel like he’s really dead
and he’s not coming back.” With that in mind, the main character, Rennie, keeps encountering the
spirit of a young Jason. He first appears looking like a normal boy but gets
progressively more malformed and zombie-like each time she sees him. Ghost
Jason keeps crying for help, while also attacking Rennie.
Jason is finally defeated by a tidal wave of toxic waste that reduces him to the normal boy Rennie saw during her first vision. I always took this to mean that somehow the spirit of the innocent boy that Jason had once been, was now free from the monster that he had become. And delivering on Paramount’s request, this death scene was so permanent, that when New Line Cinema took a crack at a sequel with part 9, they didn’t even try to show how Jason came back to life.
That’s one thing I always appreciated about the Paramount Friday
movies; despite how fast and loose continuity is between them, there was always
a straight line that went through the first 8, connecting them. Heavy use of
flashbacks and recaps always get the audience up to speed, so we know exactly
where we are upon starting any given movie. Jason is always where we left him
in the previous movie. That all stops with part 9. When that movie begins, he’s a full grown adult again, already back to stomping around Crystal Lake. No explanation given.
On a final note, I have to mention the ending. This is the only time that the last two survivors are able to walk away on their own with no last-second, sequel-baiting jump-scare, no ominous final shot suggesting the rise of a copycat killer, no eerie music, no nothing. For the first and only time ever in Friday the 13th, we get a happy ending. And as Rennie and her boyfriend walk off into the night, upbeat pop music begins to play. It feels like the movie itself is saying, “Thanks for coming along on the ride all these years.” Despite the fact that New Line Cinema and later Platinum Dunes would try to continue the exploits of Jason Voorhees, it is Friday the 13th part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan, that feels like the true and proper ending to the series to me.
