Rock Never Dies, Unlike Those Who Play It

This seems like as good a time as any, if I'm going to get really thorough about "Friday The Thirteenth Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan", to discuss one of the few very sympathetic characters it has: aspiring rocker and probable Joan Jett doppelganger JJ Jarrett. She kind of looks like Jett, and her first name is Jett's initials. She's not a terrible person to imitate. She even seems like a half-way realistic person to exist as a teenager, I think.

JJ is about a million miles away from the center of the story. She has no direct connection to the male or female lead, and no direct connection to anyone with a direct connection to them. She's friends with Wayne, who you may rest assured I'll get to, but Wayne ties only to Tamara (who ties to the female lead and to McCulloch). She doesn't have time to connect to anyone else, or have many moments for herself, which is a shame.

She dies rather early, getting two scenes (or three if you want to be technical) if memory serves. She gets introduced and then is killed very quickly thereafter. Watching the movie again, I was shocked at how early she goes, since general panic doesn't ensue for a long time after that. I guess no one cares about JJ really. Even Wayne, for reasons that will become evident, doesn't seem that fond of her, but you'd think that he would take notice of her prolonged absence before stumbling upon her corpse.

JJ is about my favorite character. She has a conscience, she has a defined deal- which is to say that she loves rock music and aspires to do it professionally- and by all rights, she should stand more of a chance against Jason than she actually does. She really gets a raw deal. If it were up to me, she'd have survived a lot longer. I guess there was no chance of her making the final group, but she deserved more than she got. It's another misstep for this film.