Review of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) by Tim B — 28 Apr 2009

You know that you're in trouble when the title misleads you. Jason's in Manhattan for about 10 minutes at the end of the movie. He spends 80% of it on a cruise ship. I'll always appreciate any movie with Jason Voorhees in it to a degree.

At this point I love watching the man kill. The actors are once again pretty decent. Jensen Degget is pretty likeable as Renne. Kane Hodder also still wins as The Man Behind the Mask. Hedden also makes the first 'glossy' Friday in the series and did an above the norm job, especially in the New York scenes.

It was awesome seeing Jason walk through Times Square and the subways of New York. There was a funny fight scene and the cruise ship setting was da pretty good setting. So what's wrong? There are some decent kills here but most of them are a huge letdown and get less creative.

Since when has Jason cleaned house by drowning somebody in a waste barrel or throw somebody into a pole? Come on. I guess they tried to further the concept that Part 7 had and further the 'magic' aspect.

Renne has some psychic link to Jason and although it makes for some creepy moments, there's nothing that comes out of it. Jason also appears to be a warlock of sort where he's somehow able to travel down two flights of stairs faster than the person who's already half way down them.

I know I should let some of that shite slide being it's a Jason movie and all but at least give a chase scene or suspense of some sort! This one is basically by the numbers with the typical teens, stupid ideas and hardly any gore or nudity.

I consider this one the worst in the series. It's not as bad as it could've been but as a Friday the 13th, it's a huge letdown. Moving on...