Internet Janitor
When the trailer for this movie came out, it created a huge amount of excitement to see Jason in a different environment. However, when we found out that 90% of it takes place on a small cruise ship, it was very, very disappointing. It had been a long time since I’ve seen this one, and I wondered, was it just the wasted potential that irked me, or was it just not a very good Friday the 13th movie? Turns out both were true.
With most of them looking like they’re in their mid to late twenties, we follow a gang of high school rapscallions on a cruise ship to New York City. Young Rennie (played by Jensen Daggett), who has a vague, oddly specific fear of the water, boats, something. Doesn’t matter. She’s there with her overly possessive uncle on a cruise ship seemingly staffed by 4 crew members and zero hospitality workers. The bad luck for this group is that Jason Vorhees is also on board, and he can teleport now.
If you removed the entire New York part of this movie, I would give it another star, but the incredibly wasted potential is too much to ignore. I imagine for budgetary reasons, we spend most of the movie on what seems like a very small cruise ship. In fact, aside from a few scenes, any of the New York shots take place in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The long “subway” escalator is on Granville Street in Downtown Vancouver. I am willing to accept that they all split up, find each other, and Jason can find them in a place as large as NYC. I accept that at no point did they try to hail a taxi to get away from him. Also, Jason (played again by Kane Hodder from part 7, Jason Goes to Hell and Jason in Space) has always had the power to teleport, but here he uses that to the extreme.
One knocks it down a whole star. Our milk toast, devoid of a personality, is final girl, Rennie. She has a fear of the water after seeing an inaccurate (nerd alert) version of young Jason. Why? Dunno. But that and looking constantly confused are her entire personality.
The problem with the ship is that it in no way seems real. Nothing about the trip with only 2 adults to watch these, well, other adults pretending to be teenagers, is realistic. Who is coordinating the activities? Where are the staff who would be making the food, cleaning up, and putting on the events? It’s cramped and small and not in a good horror kind of way.
Whereas the phenomenal (minus the ending) part seven went back to a more serious tone after the sixth entry, this one is downright goofy at times, and it does not work as well as it does. Censorship also seems to have plagued this movie, as the kills, all in all, are pretty tame.
The end of this, along with all of Jason goes to Hell, and while we’re at it Jason vs Freddy need to be shut in a bin, at the bottom of a lake.