Review of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) by Patrick E — 14 Jun 2010

Part 8 is the beginning of the end for the Friday the 13th series and has one of the most misleading titles in cinema history. It's chock full of plot holes, terrible acting from the majority of the cast and some very poor kill scenes for a slasher film. It's obvious that film makers were running out of ideas and were struggling to think of anything new.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the plot line would focus on Jason stalking some teenagers on the streets of Manhattan, hence the title, sadly there is all of ten minutes screen time set in New York. Instead, we the majority of the plot takes place on a cruise liner containing a bunch of high school graduates from Crystal Lake celebrating with a trip to new York. Jason gets on board and begins his usual killing spree. This actually could have been an interesting plot line, a sort of Under Siege with a serial killer, sadly the execution was terrible.

Yet again Jason is brought back to life from the bottom of Crystal Lake by resurrection power of electricity. I will remember to get someone to zap me with 9000 volts of electricity when I die, problem solved. The first plot hole is a huge one, the main girl of the film supposedly saw Jason in Crystal Lake when she was a kid. Jason drowned in the 50's, it's now the 80's and she is still a teenager. Her time traveling skills were never explained. She is stalked by ghostly visions of Jason throughout the film, sometime he is deformed, sometimes isn't. Even though these scenes make no sense at least they try to evoke some kind of scary atmosphere. The kill scenes on the boat are original, a guitar and hot stones from a sauna are used, the problem is that they all happen off screen. There is almost zero gore, maybe the problems the previous film had with the MPAA were to blame for this.

Once we finally get to Manhattan the film picks up hugely. It's great fun seeing Jason stalk around New York with people ignoring him. It's fun and leaves you wondering why they didn't set the whole film there. We do have another problem though; somehow Jason seems to have developed the power of teleportation. One second he is on the streets, the next he is one the tenth story of a building with no explanation how he did it. The climax is very good and but again leaves you thinking what could have been.

Kane Hodder plays Jason very well and the makeup effects are top notch again. Sadly it's the misleading title, off screen deaths, poor script and poor acting that let the whole thing down.

Beginning of the end for Jason.