Can we get a remake of this one? Please?
There’s perhaps no movie more disappointing in the annals of horror than 1989’s Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan, which sold us on a promise that was never quite fulfilled. The original premise, as teased in the very first trailer, was that the entire film would center on Jason Voorhees hacking and slashing unlucky victims in New York City – as director Rob Hedden explains in the book Crystal Lake Memories, it was going to be the coolest thing ever…
There was going to be a tremendous scene on the Brooklyn Bridge. A boxing match in Madison Square Garden. Jason would go through department stores . He’d go through Times Square. He’d go into a Broadway play. He’d even crawl on top of the Statue of Liberty and dive off.
Of course, none of that stuff actually made it into the movie. Budgetary constraints forced Jason to stay on a boat for most of the film, only arriving in New York City at the tail end. And even then, there’s really only one scene (above) that actually gave us what we went into the film expecting. But hey. It’s better than nothing, right?
In the latest episode of “Kill Count,” James A. Janisse shares our eternal Jason Takes Manhattan frustrations, while also tallying up Jason’s body count in the final Paramount Friday the 13th film before the franchise was taken over by New Line. Enjoy!
