Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is a 1989 American slasher film written and directed by Rob Hedden, and starring Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves, Peter Mark Richman, and Kane Hodder. It is the eighth installment in the "Friday the 13th" film series and follows Jason Voorhees stalking a group of high school graduates on a ship en route to, and later in, New York City. It was the last film in the series to be distributed by Paramount Pictures in the United States until 2009, with the subsequent installments being
Jason Voorhees Tommy Jarvis as the main antagonist. Screenwriter Barney Cohen felt Jarvis would become a substitute for Jason, but the idea was never fully developed in "A New Beginning". Director and co-screenwriter Danny Steinmann disliked the idea of Jason not being the killer, but decided to use Tommy's fear of Jason as the primary story. This idea was immediately abandoned in "Jason Lives", when "A New Beginning" did not spark the "creative success" the studio was looking for. Executive producer Frank Mancuso Jr. wanted to bring Jason back, and he did not care how it was achieved. In yet another alteration