Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Rob Hedden

Starring: Jensen Daggett, Kane Hodder, Scott Reeves, Sharlene Martin, Peter Mark Richman

From: Paramount

Oh, what a silly piece of crap this is. See me explain this below: 

As yesterday was Friday the 13th and I've watched/reviewed the first 7 in this franchise, this was the logical choice for me. Paramount's meddling, the film having a pitiful low budget and the MPAA rearing its ugly head again really hampered this movie and yet I can still say it is OK, even if part of the equation is me laughing AT it.

I am sure everyone knows by now how Jason ends up on a “cruise ship” that looks like a tanker ship full of oil or gasoline and not only is the NYC stuff reserved for the third act, it's mainly Vancouver and only a small fraction was actually filmed in The Big Apple. The movie is stump dumb and pretty inept; I could go on and on about flubs and logic errors, but I say a lot of the blame goes with Paramount for slashing the budget at the last minute; what a thing to do for a franchise that made them money.

I'll say that the cast and crew did try, and Jensen Daggett was likable as the lead girl, Rennie. The way the ending turned out was a little baffling, including how Jason looked... either he suffered a lot of water damage at the bottom of Crystal Lake or they decided to (and I'm borrowing a phrase here) make him look like a Muppet. Maybe they had some of the “top dollar toot” cocaine that the bitchy trampy Tamara was using. While the kills were unfortunately neutered because of the MPAA being melonheads at the time, there still were memorable moments-such as the ultimate fate of Julius-and some stereotypical yet still enjoyable characters. Thus, I can say this was OK and this being different helps, although the idea of Jason in New York City could have been pretty awesome. At least Metropolis's The Darkest Side of the Night was quite the late 80's tune.