Prelude To An Obsessive Dissection

On Saturday, I went to a midnight screening of "Friday The Thirteenth Part Eight: Jason Takes Manhattan" at Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Theater. I had always been a fan of the series, and of that entry in particular. As a teenager, it looked better to me somehow (in spite of my having mainly seen it censored for basic cable, which sanitized it even beyond what was done to put it in theaters with an R rating). Today I still like it, but some things are more evident now.

Jason Takes Manhattan, like the others, is not very graphic, really. The violence is largely implied. No doubt a better version could be made from more graphic takes that were done in the first place to make slightly tamer ones look all right by comparison. Still, there are some decent kills for the connoisseur of such things. That stopped being good enough for me years ago, but I'm not above appreciating one of the staples of the genre.

A couple of others staples- bad writing and bad acting - are here in spades. The main girl has a needlessly complicated backstory, and is played by a not terribly good actress The main guy's backstory is simple and he is also terrible. The story is not beyond saving, but the dialogue mostly is., and f they had not sold New York so hard, the fact that they spend only the final act there (which is to say mainly Vancouver) wouldn't be so bad.

I was quite inspired by the screening, so you will likely see a string of posts on the film until I feel sure I have flogged it to pieces. Tomorrow will see some thoughts on the opening scene (and probably so will the next day, but with luck and your patience, we'll get through to the last scene in the end. In spite of my harsh words I do like the movie, and maybe you'll see something in it to like too. If not, it's a free country and there are many other aspects of life that make it worth living.