One Way To Remake 'Jason Takes Manhattan'

There were a lot of opportunities missed with Rob Hedden's concept of taking Jason Voorhees to New York City and the Manhattan area. The missed opportunities were not as much a fault of the Writer/Director but more to do with studio restrictions based solely on finances. Although the lack of budget provided for production played the ultimate role in limiting the audience seeing Jason appear in Time Square and New York City, this writer tends to think that there could have been more creative ways to give the appearance of Jason in the Big Apple for a longer duration of time and deliver the key moments that were in Rob Hedden's original script while creating a more horrific and tense film that would keep viewers involved.

As most every fan knows now, the majority of  Friday The 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In fact, many city scenes we see in the movie were filmed in Vancouver! Although these scenes were mainly in back alleys and rooftops, the illusion of being in New York City was still implemented, which is why it is baffling to why these same tactics were not used for Jason entering a club to chase the Crystal Lake teens, or filming portions of Jason chasing his would-be victims in Madison Square Garden. Even though fans are not seeing Jason in the main areas of the city itself with these scenes, at least the film is telling the audience that yes, Jason is in New York City and is "taking" it by storm throughout multiple chase scenes.

What if Jason Takes Manhattan was not a book end film for Paramount Pictures with the main purpose of closing the chapter on a decade long run of profitable films from the 1980's? With that in mind, I say let's remake the film!

Remaking this film would be fun and give a wide appeal to fans, knowing that Jason is not only in Crystal Lake, but will also be in Manhattan later in the film. For starters, have the film begin with a longer sequence in Crystal Lake with an opening similar to the 2009 film. It would be like getting one whole film at the beginning and leave viewers satisfied with their classic stalk and slash in the woods. Eliminate the unwanted connection between the main character (Rennie) and Jason from their childhood, which would then remove the equally unwanted dream sequences. We're not in 1988 Nightmare On Elm Street competition territory anymore, right? Second, lets nix the whole last remaining graduation class of Crystal Lake cruise to New York angle.

We have to make a plausible reason for Jason to want to leave Crystal Lake, so what if the there was a large group of kids that Jason has encountered in the opening of the film for which they are exploring Crystal Lake and stumble upon the old camp and take a few items, which include one object very dear to our beloved slasher. So, in the prolonged opening of the film, Jason dispatches of many of these teenage explorers en route to recovering the stolen items from his home, but some escape onto a very large mobile home. Well, Jason hitches a ride, much like Michael Myers did in Halloween 4 in that film's climactic ending. We roll through opening credits with the idea that Jason may not have been left behind at the camp after all. The mobile home travels and arrives at a dock many miles away, for which our survivors from the opening sequence plan on taking a ferry to New York City and meeting up with friends to tell them about their ordeal.

Once on the ferry, there would be some stalk and slash scenes while the boat completes its journey to the city with the panicked passengers barely escaping with their lives and Jason in hot pursuit of the teens that have some thing very valuable of his from Crystal Lake. The rest of the film would entail Jason chasing the thieves through various hot spots in the city that could be filmed very economically. Dance clubs, restaurants, and even a tightly edited Madison Square Garden sequence could be managed with of course the lone money shot of Jason in Time Square.

This could be a fun re-imagining of the uneven first attempt to send Jason to the Big Apple and eliminate all of the silly sub plots (Rennie's connection to Jason) and out of place dream sequences that plagued the original film. The most important removal from the original film would be the awful ending for which will not be detailed in this article. Giving the audience a more plausible reason to get Jason to the big city might help in popular opinion of the concept of taking Jason away from the Crystal Lake region. Now, the real mystery of the story is why the adventurous teens were at Crystal Lake collecting and taking items to begin with and what did they steal that ultimately led Jason to go on his bloody rampage!?

What would you like to see added or subtracted? Thoughts and comments are welcome.