Thank God It's Friday The 13th: Friday The 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan!!?

What is there to say about Jason Takes Manhattan that has not already been said? If you're a fan of Friday the 13th, you already know two thirds of it take place on a boat, the New York scenes are mostly Vancouver, and it's the one where Jason punches a guy's head clean off.

The physics of this are mind bending to consider.

So much of this flick concerns water that you would think some deep thematic significance could be inferred from it, and so would the writer, but you'd both be wrong. Apparently inspired by Tina's psychic trauma and douchey psychiatrist from 7, this one features as its Final Girl one Rennie, whose professor uncle once pushed her into Crystal Lake to try to teach her to swim, using fear of the little boy Jason who drowned there to motivate her.

I learned from this movie not to do this.

Once in the lake, she either sees or hallucinates little boy Jason trying to drag her down with him. As with pretty much everything in these flicks, noone knows if this is meant to actually be happening or not, and even more noone cares. If this were the opening scene, it would probably be creepy, but it's jammed in at random as a third act flashback, so instead it's just confusing and laughably silly.

I like how the makeup artist decided Jason's hydrocephalus and Down's syndrome weren't piling on enough so they gave him a cleft palate scar too.

Despite being hilariously ineptly handled, this scene is quite creative and at least the idea behind giving the heroine a profound personal trauma showed evidence of rudimentary effort, so let's call it a high point. Normally though when you do something like that in narrative terms, the heroine would overcome her trauma by confronting a similar situation later, using the personal strength she's accrued through a dynamic arc. Instead the payoff is that Jason gets deluged in toxic waste in the Vancouver sewers and turns into a normal boy, which isn't a payoff so much as it is a non-sequitur.

Only showing his face while melting was a smart way to avoid having to recreate the look from 7 exactly. I respect innovation in cutting corners.

Rennie looks unsure whether she's just had an arc or not.

So much for the deep lore, plot, and subtext (if any). Manhattan is more or less a succession of gags, a couple of which land, if your standards are low enough. Memorable-ish minor characters include a hair rocker with a hot pink guitar, and Kelly Hu (let's face it, The Scorpion King).

Not sure if cute, or a Ramone.

Most definitely cute, holy shit. Azns win this film.

Manhattan even tries to win your affection subliminally by reminding you of more popular entry Jason Lives. Sneaky!

Is Quayton the black Jason? Quayton spinoff when?

The most celebrated gag, however, must be the one from the Times Square scene, in which Jason kicks over a punk gang's 80s casette player and they menace him, only for him to scare them off by simply lifting his mask to reveal, presumably, his part 7 face.

ebin :DD