Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

A boatful of graduating high school students headed to Manhattan accidentally pull Jason Voorhees along for the ride.

Director:

Rob Hedden

Writers:

Rob Hedden, Victor Miller (characters)

Stars:

Jensen Daggett, Kane Hodder, Todd Caldecott

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Todd Caldecott	...	Jim Miller (as Todd Shaffer)
Tiffany Paulsen	...	Suzi Donaldson
Tim Mirkovich	...	Young Jason Voorhees (as Timothy Burr Mirkovich)
Kane Hodder	...	Jason Voorhees
Jensen Daggett	...	Rennie Wickham
Barbara Bingham	...	Colleen Van Deusen
Alex Diakun	...	Deck Hand
Peter Mark Richman	...	Charles McCulloch
Ace	...	Toby
Warren Munson	...	Admiral Robertson
Fred Henderson	...	Chief Engineer Jim Carlson
Scott Reeves	...	Sean Robertson
Gordon Currie	...	Miles Wolfe
Saffron Henderson	...	J.J. Jarrett
Martin Cummins	...	Wayne Webber

Storyline

A whole high senior class is finally graduating. For that, they get into a luxury cruise called ''Lazarus''. At the beginning they are all having fun, including our main heroine ''Rennie'' who has a serious problem with the water because of past traumatic events '' Almost got drowned when she was little''. When we get to see all the young teenagers our friend Jason who got on board the ship starts with his killing rampage until we get to see only the main characters of the movie.. After that, they decide to look for the killer and kill him... Unfortunately, Jason got them first... After only a few of them escaped and got off the ship reached N.Y where they now have a bigger problem. Jason managed to get there too! He's cashing the survivors so he can kill them. Now the young teenager couple must escape or die in the dark waters of New York.

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | friday the thirteenth | boat | hockey mask | anchor | 

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Taglines:

Life in the city is murder (Deluxe Edition DVD)

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Genres:

Adventure | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 July 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ashes to Ashes

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,251,310, 30 July 1989, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$14,343,976

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Horror Inc., Sean S. Cunningham Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite the nature of the film and adverse filming conditions, Kane Hodder 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 Jason costume and make-up making the cast laugh.

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Goofs

(at around 16 mins) When the ship takes off we see some scenes with lots of people on board having fun playing, dancing, etc. But as soon as the killing starts the extras magically disappear and we are left with the main characters. At least after the fire alert starts the other passengers should be alarmed and rushing for the lifeboats. Surely Jason didn't just kill everybody off. Miss van Deusen is shown leading 4 extras (there were significantly more in earlier scenes) into the kitchen to wait. Later she mentions them and is told the kitchen is gone.

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Quotes

[first lines]
DJ: [narration] It's like this... We live in claustrophobia; the land of steel and concrete, trapped by dark waters. There is no escape, nor do we want it. We've come to thrive on it and each other. You can't get the adrenaline pumpin' without the terror, good people... I love this town.

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Alternate Versions

The UK video version was cut by 1 second to remove a brief shot of a butterfly knife being twirled. The cut was restored in 2002.

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Leprechaun 2 (2019)

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Soundtracks

Strike
Written by Bob Hayman and John Powell
Performed by The Koo
Courtesy of Delta Records

User Reviews

Eh...

Every movie series has its ups and downs. This was definitely Friday the 13th's "down" For some reason, this movie just wasn't that great. Don't get me wrong, I liked it and all...just didn't have that thrill that the others had. It shouldn't be called "Jason Takes Manhattan". Should be something like "Jason takes a cruise" or something. Although Kane Hodder played a great Jason, the character of Jason in this movie was disproportional. His abilities and whatnot. Some of the characters were the worst in this movie, the acting was pretty bad. I do like some scenes however. But they didn't fully redeem this movie from the horrific outcome. I give this a 5/10, this is probably my least favorite of the series.