Friday the 13th Part 8:Jason Takes Manhattan

Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan is a 1989 horror movie sequel directed by Rob Hedden and starring Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves, Peter Mark Richman and Kane Hodder.

The movie begins with a couple who are on a boat. They are talking about Jason and his story. Jason turns up and gets shocked back to life. The guy on the boat has a hockey mask and he pretends to be Jason. The real Jason comes on board and slaughters them both. Cut to a cruise for students, the SS Lazarus. They are high school students who will be graduating and they are being accompanied by Dr. Charles McCulloch(Richman) and teacher Miss Van Deusen. McCulloch has a niece called Rennie(Daggett) and she comes along. A girl called JJ encounters Jason, who has crept on board for some killing. He disposes of her with her guitar. He works his way through the ship, killing at random.A guy called Sean(Reeves) has to take over the ship when Jason kills the captain and his mate. He calls for help on the radio. Jason messes up the radio so there is no help coming. They are stranded.

The survivors grab weapons and look around the ship for Jason. Jason causes a fire.The survivors find a lifeboat and they row to the shore which is New York City. Jason follows them. They get mugged on the streets and the gang take Rennie with them, but Jason kills them all. She runs off.
She has visions of Jason as a young boy. A boxer tries to fight Jason, but ends up getting his head knocked off! Rennie is having flashbacks of when she was young and her uncle threw her in the lake. She has been afraid of water since. She remembers seeing a child down in the lake. Jason finds Sean and Rennie who share a kiss. He chases them. They jump on the subway and he gets on too.

Sean manages to pull him onto the train track and electrocutes him. He and Rennie run off. Jason is by no means dead and he makes his way to Times Square. He encounters a gang of punks who challenge him but they run off when they see his real face. Rennie and Sean enter the sewers and meet a guy who tells them that toxic waste runs through it at night. Jason kills him.  Rennie runs off. He follows her. She throws toxic waste over him and he takes off his mask, showing his deformed face. Sean and Rennie run away from the toxic waste and they see Jason being swept away in it.
They see a young boy and Jason's mask floating away. The movie ends.

I enjoyed this one. It was unusual in that it felt like two segments. One on the cruise ship and then another in New York. It was what you would expect from these sequels but it was fun.Hodder was good as Jason and the film was entertaining. I know that this is supposed to be one of the worst movies in the series, but I liked it. I will give it a 5/10.

Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives Movie Review

Trailer here.

Jason Lives(1986) is the sixth movie in the series and it is directed by Tom McLoughlin. It stars Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke and David Kagen .

The movie carries on from the previous installment. Tommy Jarvis(Mathews) is at Jason Vorhees' grave with his pal, Allen. Tommy wants to dig up Jason's body to be sure that he is actually dead. Why he doesn't just leave it alone is beyond me! He and his pal do so and when Tommy sees Jason, he is reminded of his battles with him. He gets a spike and stabs it into Jason. He throws Jason's mask into the grave. Now, the likelihood of the spoke being hit by lightning and reanimating Jason is very low, but that is just what happens! Jason comes back from the dead. Tommy tries to set him on fire.
Jason chases him, but Tommy escapes.

Tommy goes to the local Sheriff Garris(Kagen) and tells him about Jason. The Sheriff thinks that he has lost the plot entirely. They throw him into jail. The Sheriff is not happy with Timmy dredging up Jason Vorhees' name and he doesn't want to remind people of the horrible things that he did. Camp Crystal Lake is now called Forest Green and a new bunch of people are coming there. A couple who are driving there see Jason in the road. They don't know what to make of him so they try and get past him, which is a big mistake. Jason is a bit rusty, but he soon finds his feet and kills them. The Sheriff's daughter, Megan(Cooke)comes into see her dad and finds Tommy interesting. Megan and her pals hear about Jason and they are working at the summer camp.

The kids arrive at the camp and there are also people paint balling in the woods. Jason is watching them. He decides to attack them and kill them, even pulling some poor guy's arm off in the process!
Tommy gets escorted to the edge of town and told not to come back by Sheriff Garris. Jason murders his way through the town. He goes to the camp and he gets rid of the camp counsellors. Megan likes Tommy and she believes him about Jason. Her dad thinks that Tommy might be behind the murders and he does not want him near her daughter. Megan picks Tommy up and says that she will help him to get Jason. The cops chase them. The Sheriff catches Tommy and throws him back into jail. He finds out that Tommy has an alibi for some of the killings so he knows that he is not guilty. Megan makes the Deputy Sheriff let Tommy out but holding a gun on him.

Tommy and Megan head for the camp where Jason is on a killing spree. Sheriff Garris goes into the dorms and gathers the kids together. He tells them to hide. He comes face to face with Jason and shoots him. Jason cannot be killed as he has changed into a supernatural being. Tommy and Megan arrive. The Sheriff and Jason face off and the Sheriff ends up losing. Jason chases Tommy and Megan. Tommy makes a trap for Jason. He goes into the water and waits for Jason to come to him.
They fight. Tommy manages to put a huge chain around Jason's neck and this pulls him to the bottom of the lake where he is stuck. Jason grabs Megan when she comes to help Tommy. She uses a propeller from a boat to kill him(or so she thinks). Tommy survives and they head off, thinking that Jason has gone. But of course, WE know that Jason will be back again!!!

I liked this movie. I found it great fun and I loved Jason and his killing spree. He just hacked his way through so many people in this one! I enjoyed the confrontation between Tommy and Jason. I liked the story in general and these sequels are just so much fun to watch because you are rarely disappointed. This was the end of Tommy Jarvis in the franchise which was a shame. I liked that Jason had a nemesis and this could have been a recurring theme throughout the series. Tommy was a worthy opponent for Jason and it would have been fun to explore this relationship further but it was not to be.
So, to sum up, I really liked this sequel and I would definitely watch it again. I will give it a 6/10.

Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning Movie Review

Friday the 13th Part 5 is a 1985 horror movie and the fifth in the series. It is directed by Danny Steinman and stars John Shepard and Melanie Kinnaman.

The movie begins with young survivor Tommy Jarvis(Corey Feldman) visiting Jason's grave and witnessing him being dug up by two men. Jason comes back to life and comes for Tommy. It is just a nightmare and the older Tommy(Shepard) wakes up. He is being taken to Pinehurst Halfway House, a treatment facility as he has lots of problems caused by his ordeal with Jason in the previous movie.
He meets the director of the facility, Pam Roberts(Kinnaman). She knows all about Tommy and she wants to help him. He also meets the doctor, Matt Letter(Richard Young). The facility is to prepare him to reenter society. Tommy has flashbacks about his mother and his sister. He keeps a knife under his bed. He meets a young guy called Reggie(Shavar Ross) and they get on well.

He meets some of the other kids there too. A local weirdo called Ethel comes to complain about the kids. She wants the place shut down. Two people get killed when their car breaks down. It seems that  Jason HAS come back to life after all. Tommy thinks that he sees Jason. Jason goes on a rampage and he kills anyone who comes into contact with him. The cops wonder what is going on. The Sheriff thinks that it might be Jason Voorhees. Reggie's brother and his girlfriend get killed by Jason. Weirdo Ethel and her oddball son meet Jason and he takes care of them. Jason makes his way to Pinehurst and he comes for Tommy, Pam and Reggie.

They get separated and Jason chases Pam. Reggie saves her when he drives a digger into Jason.
 Of course, Jason is not dead. He chases them into the barn. Pam gets a chainsaw and fights him. She manages to injure him and then Tommy shows up. Jason sees him and wants him dead. Tommy stabs him in the leg. Jason will not die!Tommy and Pam push him out of the barn window and he dies. But the shocker is that it was NOT Jason at all, but the dad of a kid who was killed at Pinehurst when another inmate turned violent. He used the guise of Jason to kill everyone in sight. Tommy is relieved that Jason has not come back to life and banishes Jason from his mind. The movie ends with Pam coming to see Tommy in hospital only to find his window open and he has seemingly escaped. He is hiding behind the door wearing the infamous hockey mask. What the hell???

I liked this film. I didn't like it as much as the others because there was no real Jason in it. The ending was a bit silly too. I enjoyed it for the most part and it was good fun on the whole. They probably could have come up with a better story for this one involving the REAL Jason, I felt. It seemed like a missed opportunity to me. I do think that this is a must for Jason fans, though. It is not as bad as some of the later sequels, so I recommend it to fans of the series. I will give it a 5/10.

Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter

The Final Chapter is a 1984 horror movie sequel directed by Joseph Zito and starring Corey Feldman.

This movie starts from where the last one ended. Jason is taken to the morgue. Of course, he isn't dead and he gets up and starts slashing his way out of the hospital. A group of teens are making their way to Crystal Lake where they have a house for the weekend. They meet the neighbours, Trish(Kimberly Beck) and her little brother, Tommy Jarvis(Feldman). The teens are there for a good time and they invite Trish along to their party. Jason has arrived there and he is making his way through the group. He is out for blood as usual.

Jason kills everyone in the house. Trish and Tommy realise that there is something wrong when they get back to their place and the power is out. Jason has killed their mother. Jason comes for them next.  Trish and Tommy are stuck in the house with him and he chases them.  He catches Trish and is going to kill her. Tommy makes a disguise as he is really good at making monster masks and props. He transforms himself into a young Jason and Jason forgets what he is doing for a moment.Trish attacks him with the machete but she doesn't succeed and his mask falls off, revealing his deformed face. This is just long enough for Tommy to grab a machete and plunge it into Jason's skull. He can't stop and he keeps hacking away at Jason shouting 'die, die'. The movie ends with Tommy being traumatised by what has happened as his sister tries to comfort him.

This was a very entertaining entry in the series. I liked it a lot. It is formulaic, but it works. This movie introduces Tommy Jarvis who was Jason's arch enemy and he starred in three of the sequels.
He was played by three different actors in the parts. Tommy is the only one who actually kills Jason and puts him out of commission (for a while anyway). This was meant to finish up the series, but of course, that didn't last. The Final Chapter was not actually the final chapter! All in all, this was an enjoyable movie and one of the better sequels in the series. I will give it a 6/10.

Best Horror Sequels/Series Part 3

Part three of my sequels posts is going to be all about the Friday the 13th movies....I would think that any self respecting horror fan has seen at least one or two of these....

 

I will start at the beginning. In 1980, Friday the 13th started one of the best horror franchises. Who knew when Jason made his way onto our screens that he would still be around 30 years later!!!The original movie is the best in my opinion and was the only one directed  by the creator Sean S Cunningham. Camp Crystal Lake is being taken over by kids for the summer and the camp staff are young adults who are out for a good time. Unfortunately for them, an accident that happened years ago is going to affect all of their lives. Jason was drowned in the lake and it seems as if he has come back from the dead to kill some people! Friday the 13th Part 2(1981)  was directed by Steve Miner and it continued on from the first movie. Alice(Adrienne King) is recovering from her ordeal that she suffered in the first movie. But, she doesn't have much time left because Jason comes and kills her. This was the first movie to show Jason as the killer after his mother's death. The story is much the same as the first film but this is a decent follow up.

The third movie was also directed by Steve Miner and was called Friday the 13th Part 3(1982). It again follows on from the previous movie. Jason was hurt in Part 2, but he managed to survive. He begins to kill again. The story doesn't vary much from the other two films. This sequel was enjoyable too. Plus it was the first of the franchise to show Jason's trademark hockey mask!It was also in 3-D.The fourth movie in the franchise was called The Final Chapter. This was meant to be the last movie in the series. It carries on from Part 3 and it appears that Jason is not dead after all(what a surprise!) and he goes back to Crystal Lake for more murder and mayhem. Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman starred in this 1984 movie. Not a bad movie, this was enjoyable. The next movie was A New Beginning and this was the fifth movie released in 1985. Jason was supposedly dead from the last movie so he does not appear in this movie as the killer. Danny Steinmann directed this offering. It isn't a great movie, but not a terrible one either.

So, we have arrived at the sixth Friday the 13th movie. This one was named Jason Lives(1986) so you can guess what was going to happen. Jason is brought back to life by electricity and he terrorizes more people. By this time, it was getting a little old and following the same lines as the other movies just got a little irritating. This film was watchable though and I wouldn't discount it. The New Blood(1988) was the 7th movie in the series and it follows the usual formula. Jason is killed yet again in the end of this, but you just knew he would be back! Jason arrived back on the scene in 1989 and this time the movie was titled Jason Takes Manhattan! This was the eight movie in the series. This was`one of the least successful movies in the franchise for good reason. It isn't that great. Resurrecting Jason yet again was a bit silly and it was getting old.

The ninth offering was released in 1993 and it was called Jason Goes To Hell:The Final Friday. This was going to be the final Friday the 13th movie.Jason is killed yet again, but he manages to survive after his spirit is passed from person to person allowing him to sort of live again. He needs to possess a family member to really come back to life. Jason spends the movie trying to get into the body of one of his relatives.He is finally killed and dragged down to hell, but who is there with him???None other than Freddy Krueger!!! But, along came Jason X made in 2001 and this one had Jason in space. This was not a good movie. I didn't like it much. It seemed just more of the same. I don't think that Jason works well out of his comfort zone of Crystal Lake. In 2003 , Freddy Vs Jason arrived and this was good fun. It brought together two of the best horror movie baddies. This was the eleventh in the series.

So, there have been eleven Friday the 13th movies and most of them are good. There are a couple I wouldn't watch again, but that is the way it goes with sequels. There is a remake as you probably know already, but it was so bad and so inferior to the original that it isn't worth talking about. You have plenty of movies to choose from here so get watching!!!

Happy Friday The 13th!

It is that day of superstition and great horror movies!!! There is never a better excuse to dust off those old Friday the 13th movies and sit down for a back to back night of terror! Whether you believe in the superstitions or just 

see it as another day, I think that there is no better time to indulge in some great 80's horror movies starring a large man in a hockey mask chasing some teens!!!!So, Happy Friday the 13th from us at Jigsaw's Lair! We are just going to sit down with some classic horror movies! We don't need an excuse to see some slashing and screaming!!!!Enjoy!

Happy Friday the 13th!!!!!

Hello from Jigsaw's Lair and a Happy Friday the 13th !!It is a lucky day for some and a very unlucky day for some teens who will be chased by a mask- wearing lunatic!!! This is a day for watching some great horror movies such as.. let me see...Friday the 13th(1980)! There are many sequels to watch too so you can enjoy a full night of fun!Enjoy your Friday the 13th and remember to watch out for that guy with the mask carrying a large weapon who is coming your way..I have one word for you- RUN!!!