Movies
13 Days of F13: Day Nine – Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Today we take a look at Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, which would ultimately become Paramount’s swan song with Jason, as future installments would be handled by New Line. But Jason definitely goes “out” with a bang, racking up some of the craziest (and numerous) kills in the whole series. But how does BC feel about the whole movie? Keep reading to find out!
For a horror fan, there is no escaping Jason Voorhees or Friday the 13th. Even if you have never seen a single movie (for shame!), you know who he is, what he does, and what he looks like. But that’s from my perspective. I grew up in the 80s, played the video game on a system known simply as Nintendo (now referred to as “The 8 Bit”), and suffered the indignity of that comic where he fought a talking Leatherface.
But what about those who grew up in the Jason-starved 90s? The only Jason films they might remember in theaters are the ones where he fights Freddy or goes off into space. The remake may be their first real introduction to the hockey masked behemoth that stalks teenagers at a place known as Crystal Lake. So for them, Bloody Disgusting and Horror Movie A Day would like to present this retrospective series: 13 Days Of Jason. Each day leading up to the remake’s theatrical release, BC will be showcasing one of the original films, with trivia, factoids, thoughts, and his own full blown review.
Bloody will also be presenting a few other articles that highlight some of the series’ traditions, such as the lovesick nerd character and Jason’s habit of using unique weapons. Because even if you don’t agree with BC’s assessment of each film, there’s one thing we can all agree on: Jason fucking rules.
AKA: “The one on the boat”
RELEASE: July 25, 1989 (1,683 theaters)
GROSS: $14,343,976
PLOT: After being resurrected in the least coherent manner ever (something involving an anchor and a power line running through the lake), Jason hops on a houseboat and takes it from Crystal Lake to the Atlantic Ocean, where he transfers to a cruise line and does his thing for an hour. Then the survivors make it to New York’s Vancouver borough, where they are pursued by Jason until he is done in by NY’s nightly toxic waste flood.
THOUGHTS: If nothing else, it’s a step up from part VII, in my opinion, thanks to some creative kills (a guitar! A heroin needle! Sludge!) and some actual blood to boot. Plus, finally, a new location. Sure, we’d all love more NY stuff, but the boat parts are still fun, and Kane’s performance is terrific. Also, at long last, a new composer, as Harry Manfredini’s score, while great, was starting to show its limits 3 films ago. It has its problems, but I’ll take it over any of Kane’s other entries.
(Read BC’s full review at Horror Movie A Day)
BEST KILL: A lot of good ones here, but Jason punching the guy’s head off is just that much better.
MOST “HUH?” MOMENT: The final 20 minutes of this movie make absolutely no sense. Jason ignores hundreds of potential victims while chasing after two dull folks you know he won’t kill anyway, and then they all end up in the sewer, where a flood of toxic waste (a nightly occurrence, so says a doomed sanitation worker) turns Jason into a child. Then the Final Girl’s dog demonstrates his ability to find his way from New York harbor to Times Square.
FUTURE STARS: Kelly Hu went on to appear in a few blockbusters, including X2 (she played Deathstrike), making her one of the few “future stars” to appear in an alltime highest grosser.
TRIVIA: This film was released in the middle of what was known as “Sequel Summer”, due to the then-inordinate number of franchise films being released over a span of about eight weeks. By the time Manhattan hit theaters, it was competing against Lethal Weapon 2, Ghostbusters 2, Indiana Jones 3 (Last Crusade), Bond 16 (License To Kill), and Karate Kid III. Also, it lost the weekend to Turner & Hooch, which means that people would rather watch a dog die than see Jason schmuck around on a cruise ship.
Check back tomorrow for Jason Goes To Hell!
Click here to keep up with all of our 13 Days of Friday the 13th coverage!
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
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