Review of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) by Cory M — 26 Feb 2010

I'll always have a special place for this film. It was the first Friday the 13th I ever saw, and in effect, the first horror film I ever watched. Oddly, I remember the date as well. It was Friday, January 13th, 1995 and a marathon of the movies were on USA. I tuned in about halfway through, just in time to see Jason take Manhattan, or should I say, Vancouver.

This film could have been a lot of fun, had they been able to actually shoot in New York for more than three days. Don't get me wrong, there is some fun stuff here, and a few interesting characters, but the budget didn't allow for a full NY shoot, so they shot some stuff in Times Square, got some broll, then set up shop shooting the rest in British Columbia. That's when the film unofficially became, Jason Takes a Cruise Ship.

Most all of the Friday movies have some sort of darkness to them, but this one feels especially dark. There's little to no humor in the film, which kind of hinders it. It seems to take itself too seriously at times, when it's utterly ridiculous. The film director Rob Hedden originally wrote and intended to make, would have been a real blast to watch, and refreshing in taking Jason out of Crystal Lake. Sadly, the movie Paramount allowed him to make doesn't do much besides switching out a camp for a boat and back alley sets.

*Rating based on other F13 films and not film as a whole.