Review #889: 'Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan' (1989)

After sitting through seven rather torturous experiences with the Friday the 13th franchise - with perhaps one or two exceptions - part 8's title promises a break from the formula, finally removing everyone's favourite hockey mask-wearing serial killer from his favourite stomping ground Camp Crystal Lake and plonking him in an unfamiliar setting. However, this series made its fortune from repeating the same formula over and over again, so we get the same dull hack-and-slash hokum that came before. A more apt title would be Jason Takes a Boat Ride then Walks Around Manhattan for a Bit at the End. 

The film begins with a young couple frolicking on a boat, where the young boy tells the girl the story of Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder), the deformed mass murderer responsible for the death's of many a teenage archetype. Jason, having been left chained to the bottom of the lake at the end of the previous film, is freed when the boat sails over some underwater cables, resurrecting Jason with electricity. Naturally, the young couple are butchered and Jason is on the loose again. Meanwhile, the SS Lazarus is bound for New York City and young aquaphobe Rennie (Jensen Daggett) is boarded, much to the annoyance of her uncle and stick-in-the-mud biology teacher Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman). Rennie is plagued by visions of a young deformed boy, and soon enough the mutilated corpses of teenagers start to appear.

Notice how Manhattan is not mentioned once in the synopsis. Whether it was for budgetary reasons or plain bad writing, Jason's feet don't touch land until the final act. So the opportunity for Jason to be let loose in a city that may just be as deranged as he is - leaving a trail of guts in his wake - is wasted, choosing instead to have Jason chase the leads around smoky back-alleys. When Jason finally stumbles through Times Square barely noticed by passers-by, it's an amusing moment and proves what a wasted opportunity this was. The rest of the movie consists of the same slasher routine as every entry that came before, only less inventive and featuring characters even more grating than usual. Possibly the worst in the series, yet the franchise would somehow prevail.


Directed by: Rob Hedden
Starring: Jensen Daggett, Peter Mark Richman, Scott Reeves, Kane Hodder
Country: USA/Canada

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie