ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - July 28th
"FRIDAY THE 13TH, PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN" released in 1989
Watch the Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan trailer below!
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Still at the bottom of Crystal Lake after the events of The New Blood, Jason Vorhees (Kane Hodder) is accidentally resurrected again when a passing boat's anchor drags an underwater electrical cable straight into his path. After quickly dispatching the two teens aboard the boat, Jason then sneaks aboard another ship, the SS Lazarus. On the Lazarus is group of high school seniors heading to New York for a field trip, chaperoned by biology teacher Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman) and English teacher Colleen Van Deusen (Barbara Bingham). Among the group is McCulloch's niece Rennie (Jensen Daggett), who suffers from aqua-phobia ever since her uncle threw her into Crystal Lake when she was a child and encountered Jason, and her boyfriend (and son of Lazarus's Captain), Sean (Scott Reeves). As the ship gets underway, Jason starts to pick off the group of doomed teens one-by-one in various ways; impaling a wanna-be rock star with her own guitar, punching a hot sauna rock into a boxer's abdomen, and slicing up mean-girl prom queen Tamara (Sharlene Martin) with a dozen mirror shards in the shower. When Jason inadvertently starts an electrical fire while killing one of his victims, the Lazarus starts to sink in the storm. With the other students dead, McCulloch, Van Deusen, Rennie, Sean, and Julius (V. C. Dupree) escape aboard a life raft, and eventually find their way to the Port of New York. But Jason is not far behind, and begins an epic final chase throughout the streets and sewers of New York!
Rennie Wickham: Look, you don't understand. There is a maniac trying to kill us.
New York Waitress: Welcome to New York.
Top and Above: Rennie (Jensen Daggett) and her boyfriend Sean (Scott Reeves)
think they're safe in New York - but Jason (Kane Hodder) never gives up!
Due to the ever declining box office of the Friday the 13th series, Paramount would eventually sell the franchise rights to New Line Cinema, making Jason Takes Manhattan the last film in the series to be produced and released by Paramount. Writer/Director Rob Hedden (who had previously worked as a writer for Paramount on the TV show MacGyver) originally wrote more of the movie to be set in New York, with scenes set in Madison Square Gardens (where Julius and Jason's boxing match was to take place), the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building. Paramount however told him the budget could not possibly cover the expense of shooting in New York for that much time, and the script was rewritten to include most of the action taking place on the Lazarus. None of the rewrites however would explain how a cruise ship being on a lake would end up in the Atlantic Ocean and none of the cast , who were just happy to be working on a Friday the 13th movie, mentioned this rather large plot-hole to the producers or the director!
Mugger #1: [Jason kicks a gang's boom-box out of his way] You're deadmeat, slimebag!
[Jason turns to the gang and lifts his mask]
Mugger #1: [terrified by what he sees] Yo, man. It's cool. It's cool, man. It's cool.
[the gang runs off]
Top: Remaining survivors Rennie, Sean, Julius (VC Dupree), and teachers McCulloch
(Peter Mark Richman) and Van Deusen (Barbara Bingham) finally make it to New York;
Above: Jason deals with some muggers in Times Square!
Lar Park-Lincoln, who played heroine Tina Shephard in The New Blood, was asked to reprise her role for Jason Takes Manhattan. Not wanting to take the part, Park-Lincoln used a similar trick employed by Amy Steel (Ginny from Part 2) and John Shepherd (Tommy Jarvis from Part V) and purposefully asked for way too much money during sequel negotiations, knowing the producers would turn her down but not alienating them in the process. The role of Rennie was therefore written, with Elizabeth Berkley and Dedee Pfeiffer auditioning for the role before actress Jenson Daggatt was cast. Hedden actually wanted Daggatt to have a nude scene in the movie to rebuke the traditional horror-rules that the "slutty girl" always gets killed, but Daggatt refused the many attempts Hedden made to wear her down, even refusing to remove her blouse! Sharlene Martin (playing Tamara) was also uncomfortable being nude in the film, until, during the filming of the shower scene, Hedden also got naked to put her at ease. Actor Lee Coleman was cast as Sean but the lack of chemistry between the two young stars led to the recasting of the role with Scott Reeves, who had to reshoot all the scenes Coleman had played. Jason Takes Manhattan would also be the feature film debut of Kelly Hu, who would later go on to star in the films The Scorpion King and X-Men 2.
TRIVIA: In the final cut scene, Julius throws punches at Jason for exactly one minute and sixteen seconds!
[Julius is exhausted after boxing Jason]
Julius Gaw: Go ahead. Take your best shot, motherfucker.
[Jason punches his head right off]
Top: Julius rallies the survivors on the SS Lazarus to hunt down Jason;
Above: Julius loses his boxing match with Jason!
And of course, the legendary Kane Hodder donned the hockey mask again for his second outing as Jason Vorhees. Despite the nature of the film and adverse filming conditions, it was Hodder who provided several moments of levity which were appreciated by the cast. Following several death scenes, for example, once director Rob Hedden called "cut," Hodder would do a brief disco dance in full makeup, making the cast laugh. While filming the climactic boxing scene Hodder encouraged actor V. C. Dupree to actually punch him to sell the shot - Hodder being 6'3", a muscled 250lbs, and wearing plenty of padding was not injured. For Hodder, his favorite moment was filming Jason's arrival in Times Square. Spectators were lined up and down the block watching the filming and Hodder, not wanting to ruin the illusion by taking off his mask, got a great kick where every once and while he'd turn his head and look at them and watch them all go crazy!
TRIVIA: Kane Hodder vomited on cue in the final scene after drinking several pitchers of water. This was not a special effect!
Top: With acid thrown in his face, Jason desperately holds on as the
sewers start to flood; Above: Is Jason finally dead this time?
At a running time of 1 hour and 40-minutes Jason Takes Manhattan was the longest Friday the 13th film by far, and also the bloodiest; Manhattan held the record with a body count of 20, until it was surpassed by Jason X over ten-years later. With a budget of $5 million, Manhattan would go on to gross nearly $15 million at the box office making it a modest hit, but ranked as the second lowest grossing film of the entire Friday the 13th series. In promotion for the film, Hodder appeared as Jason Vorhees on The Arsenio Hall Show completing the entire interview silent, still wearing his bloody hockey mask and carrying his machete! The original posters for the film featured Jason ripping through an "I Love NY" poster. In the first poster, Jason is holding a bloody knife which was cleaned in a second poster for fear that the blood was too graphic, and were withdrawn after complaints from the New York Tourism Committee. Like the rest of the films in the series, Manhattan received mainly negative reviews from critics. But it was the first time fans were vocal in their disappointment that Jason did not spend enough time in New York, given the title was Jason Takes Manhattan.
TRIVIA: The scene in which Jason kills Eva (Kelly Hu) in the disco took over fourteen hours to complete!
TRIVIA: The deckhand who's warning everybody that they're "doomed" is based on Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th (1980) and Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981).
Top: Crew prepare to shoot the disco-death scene on the Lazarus;
Above: Writer/Director Rob Heddon (left) with Timothy Burr (playing a young Jason)
In Hedden's original screenplay, Jason was to have been melted by toxic waste during the end of the film. Producer's quickly changed their minds and the scene was not shot, mainly due to the fact they did not want to rule out the possibility of another sequel. And more Friday the 13th movies were indeed still to come! Under the new umbrella of New Line Cinema, Jason Goes to Hell was released in 1993, and Jason X (taking Jason into space!) was released almost 9-years later in 2002; both films featured Hodder in the Jason role. The following year, the horror icon mash-up Freddy vs Jason was released, without Hodder to much fan outrage. Ironically, stuntman Ken Kirzinger who played the Jason role in Freddy vs Jason also worked on Jason Takes Manhattan - he was the man Jason threw into the mirror in the diner scene!
Want more Jason action? Check out the Jason interview on The Arsenio Hall Show!
IMDb RATING: 4.5/10
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