Rob Hedden envisioned a thrilling and expansive adventure for Jason Voorhees’ inaugural journey to the vibrant streets of New York City. He dreamed of a spectacular scene on the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, followed by an exhilarating boxing match set in the legendary Madison Square Garden. In his reflections shared in the book Crystal Lake Memories, the director elaborated on his ambitious plans for the 1989 film Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. “Jason would navigate through bustling department stores, explore the electric atmosphere of Times Square, and even make a dramatic entrance into a Broadway show. He would crawl to the top of the majestic Statue of Liberty before diving into the waters below,” he recounted.

Sadly, the only entities that cut deeper than Jason’s infamous blade were the studio executives who wielded the budget scissors with ruthless precision. “When the preliminary budget was presented, the executives announced, ‘We’re only allocating $4 million for this film,’” Hedden reminisced. “They granted us a mere week in New York, if we were fortunate, and mandated that the remainder of the filming take place in the most economical locations we could find.” This drastic budget reduction severely limited the scope of Hedden’s visionary plans.

As a result of these financial constraints, most of Hedden’s ambitious set pieces were ruthlessly excised from the script. Remarkably, Jason doesn’t even make his entrance in the city until one hour and four minutes into the film, leaving just about thirty minutes of chaos in the Big Apple. Nevertheless, the film showcases an impressive count of seven kills out of his total thirteen occurring right in the heart of the city, allowing for a glimpse of his notorious rampage.

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Previously, in the 1988 installment Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Jason had seemingly met his demise, resting at the bottom of Crystal Lake, the very campground where he had terrorized countless victims throughout the series. However, this time, a cruise ship carrying graduating high school seniors inadvertently disturbs his watery grave as it collides with both his lifeless body and an underwater power cable, resulting in his eerie resurrection. Once revived, he boards the vessel that is destined for the bustling metropolis, embarking on yet another grisly killing spree.

Experience Jason’s Terror in Times Square

“The recurring sentiment among fans is that it’s not really Jason Takes Manhattan, but rather Jason Takes a Cruise Ship,” Hedden acknowledges. “Initially, my outline depicted a different story structure, but as development progressed, it morphed into a split between the ship and New York. Eventually, it became heavily skewed towards the latter, with the final third set in the city. The film’s scope just kept getting narrower and narrower.” The frustrations of creative constraints were palpable.

In a shift from its predecessors, Jason Takes Manhattan attempted to sprinkle humor throughout the horror narrative. Upon his arrival, the first sight that confuses Jason is a massive billboard featuring a hockey goalie wearing a mask strikingly similar to his own. Later, while traversing the lively streets of Times Square, he shatters a boombox blasting rap music, yet surprisingly opts to let the young punks escape with their lives after a humorous exchange, which highlights his comically deformed visage instead of executing them.

In addition to the limited time spent in Manhattan, a significant portion of the movie was filmed aboard a decommissioned cruise ship and in the picturesque city of Vancouver. An abandoned tunnel in this Canadian city served as a stand-in for the New York City subway. Production designer David Fischer reminisced, “We constructed artificial subway tracks stretching for hundreds of yards within this tunnel and even built a fake subway car. Vancouver is notably clean, so we found ourselves scouring alleys to collect trash and even added graffiti to enhance the urban aesthetic.” The lengths they went to create the illusion of New York were quite impressive.

After eight installments of the Friday the 13th franchise within nine years, and with a film that fell short of the expectations set by its title, the box office reception was tepid, with only the most devoted fans showing interest in Jason Takes Manhattan. Ultimately, the film brought in a franchise-low of $14 million at the box office, marking a significant downturn for the series. It would be a four-year hiatus before Jason would reemerge on screens in the 1993 film Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.