For those who haven’t seen Friday The 13th: Part 8, this article contains spoilers.
Jason Voorhees is one of the most enduring figures in horror. Regardless if you love or hate the franchise, there’s no denying its impact on popular culture. Often overlooked is what went into making the 12-film series. Through extensive research and interviews, I invite you to take a closer look at the Friday The 13th universe. This is Crystal Lake Confessional.
The Friday The 13th franchise had always been about reverse engineering. With small budgets and relatively easy to film, there was no way Paramount could lose money. Year after year, another installment came and went with audiences getting their fix of mild tension, gratuitous nudity, and the occasional dose of gross-out gore. Greenlighting a film in this series was more of an inevitability than legitimate deal-making. But as the 1980s came to a close, franchise champion Frank Mancuso Jr felt as tired as the slasher genre had become.
As talks began for Part 8, Mancuso decided it would be his final outing. The constant battles with the MPAA, critics, and the possibility of damaging his career by mere association was weighing on him. Talks initially started with Part 7 director John Carl Buechler. Despite battling associate producer Barbara Sachs tooth and nail, Buechler pitched ideas hoping to find better footing than before. However, that same associate producer convinced Mancuso an in-house writer/director would ensure an easier shoot.
It just so happened Friday The 13th: The Series was not only enjoying a successful second season but operating with young (and inexpensive) directors.
Friday The 13th: The Series alum, Robert Hedden was the first and only director interviewed for the job. To Hedden, the chance to make his feature film debut with Part 8 felt like a promotion. If granted as much creative freedom he had on The Series, Hedden knew he could turn in a worthy finale to close out the franchise. During the pitch meeting, Hedden was adamant about taking Jason away from Crystal Lake. Mancuso was so fascinated with the idea, he lobbied for a slightly higher budget.
The story finds Jason being once again resurrected from the bottom of Crystal Lake and continuing his murderous rampage. This time, he targets an ocean liner filled with high schoolers on their senior trip. Jason offs the group one by one, leading up to an explosive final battle in toxic waste-filled sewers of New York City.
Originally Hedden had envisioned an action horror film with chase scenes through the city’s most notable locations.
In the first draft, there was a chase scene over the Brooklyn Bridge, a one-on-one in Madison Square Garden, and a finale taking place on top of the Statue Of Liberty. But even with a budget nearly twice as much as Part 7, Hedden was forced to scale it back. To do this, he kept rewriting the script to spend more time on the ship. By the time Hedden came under budget, only the final act takes place in NYC. With production taking place in Vancouver and only 2 days worth of shooting in the actual New York City, Jason Takes Manhattan looked more like Jason Takes A Cruise.
To offset some of the cuts, Hedden decided to lean into the supernatural elements of the Jason lore. But doing so inadvertently undermines the very mythos of the franchise.
Since the second film, the story of Jason has always been rooted in modern folklore. The idea of a drowned child returning as an unstoppable adult bent on vengeance feels more like a story you would hear at a campfire. Part of that is due in part to the location. Taking Jason away from his location makes him seem more a ghost than a serial killer. Although Jason had been undead since Part 6, Hedden’s interpretation of the character never really clicks with the story.
Apart from his slimy, decaying appearance, Jason stealthy maneuvers from scene to scene like an apparition. While inhuman strength and convenient teleportation are elements overlooked in previous installments, taking place in a realistic location makes it harder to suspend belief. With a strange take on the character, location change, and sometimes psychedelic visuals, Part 8 feels very different. But not in the ways Hedden may have intended.
Budget cuts may have prevented Hedden from making the film he envisions but the idea itself has its own set of issues.
In 1989 the real New York City experienced nearly 2000 reported murders along with 70,000 aggravated assaults. So the idea of Jason chasing down a handful of people by the final act of the film feels lame and weak. Therein lies the problem: the premise of Part 8 only works in the form of a pitch. Placing the character in a new location only amplifies the contradiction of its existence. Maybe if Hedden had more time or money to develop the idea, he could’ve ironed out the issues. But as it stands, Part 8 is a strange, misguided entry in a tired franchise.
The ticket returns agreed. With Batman, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, and Ghostbusters II dominating theaters just a few weeks before, audiences weren’t as compelled for yet another Jason adventure. Part 8 opened with overly negative reviews from fans and critics alike, then exiting theaters 2 weeks after the debut.
The box-office failure of both Friday The 13th: Part 8 as well as A Nightmare On Elm St. 5, signified the official finale of the slasher boom.
But it wasn’t just horror. The success of Batman convinced studios to bet higher on genre films and not just niche groups as horror had done throughout the decade. Comic books films not only catered to the niche market but the broad sweet spot of families. It’s also worth noting VHS players significantly dropped in price as well as cable services. This opened the market for low budget horror films with little risk for studios.
It was the end of an era and Mancuso walked away at the right time. With horror dissolving into direct-to-video dumping grounds, Paramount had no choice but to put Jason Voorhees up for sale. As it stands, Part 8 may be the weirdest installment of the franchise but in recent years has seen a bit of a renaissance. Fans have warmed up to its strangeness and see it as more of an end of the 80s rather than just the franchise. Regardless of where fans stand, after Part 8 it was fitting for Jason to take a much-needed break.
Catch up with previous installments of Crystal Lake Confessional here.
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – –Part 6 – Part 7
Part TS – Part 8 – Part 9 – Part HM – Part 10 – Part FvJ – Part 2009