Friday the 13th Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan

Starring:Todd Shaffer, Tiffany Paulsen, Tim Mirkovich, Kane Hodder, Jensen Daggett, Barbara Bingham, Alex Diakun, Peter Mark Richman, Warren Munson, Fred Henderson, Scott Reeves, Gordon Currie, Saffron Henderson, Martin Cummins, Vincent Craig Dupree, Sharlene Martin, Kelly Hu, Sam Sarkar, Michael Benyaer, Roger Barnes
Director: Rob Hedden
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

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Start spreadin' the news... Jason Voorhees, the cleaver-hoisting man in the hockey mask, has finally left Crystal Lake behind and taken his vagabond shoes to the Big Apple. Actually, Jason spends most of his time on a cruise ship bound for Manhattan, carving up the unluckiest high school graduation party ever. You'd think the change of scenery might breathe new life, or death, into the series, but chapter 8 is standard stalk 'em and slash 'em fare, albeit with a nautical slant. The title hints at a comic tone, but except for the one-joke idea that Jason fits right into the menacing urban scene, forget it. (The comedy would wait until the surprisingly entertaining Jason X.) This one does have a pretty leading lady, Jensen Daggett, whose visions of the young drowned Jason are occasionally creepy. The grown-up Jason, like "these little-town blues," is melting away. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

JASON.......2007-05-12

THE EXCITEMENT DIDN'T START TIL THEY ALL WENT TO NEW YORK.JASON SWAM ALL THE WAY THERE.THEY ALL KNEW JASON WAS REAL-SO THEY ALL PANICKED AND RAN.DOWN IN THE MANHOLE RANINE POURED ACID ALL OVER JASONS HEAD AND FACE. THAT SLOWED HIM DOWN.THIS WAS A GREAT MOVIE!

JASON.......2007-04-30

I LIKED THE PART WHEN JASON GOT OUT OF THE WATER IN NEW YORK-HE LOOKED AT THE BIG ADVERTISEMENT BOARD,AND THERE WAS A PICTURE OF A HOCKEY MASK.HE TITLTED HIS HEAD TO ONE SIDE.I THOUGHT THAT WAS CUTE.I ALSO LIKED THE PART WHEN JASON AND THE BOXER WAS FIGHTING ON TOP OF THE ROOF.JASON PUNCHED HIS HEAD RIGHT OFF!THIS WAS A GREAT MOVIE!

Probably the Low Point of the Series.......2007-01-26

"Jason Takes Manhattan" is probably the worst entry in the series, but it is still a pretty good film. The opening scene of the movie when the woman tries to hide, unsuccessfully, on a boat from Jason is one of my favorite scenes in the entire series! Too bad that the movie doesn't remain as good as the opening scenes when the first two people of the movie are killed. They probably should have called this "Jason Takes the Titanic", even the director of the film said that it isn't as good as it could have been. Jason's face is also not as graphic and as scary like in the previous film, so that was a disappointment. Overall, I would only recommend this movie to those who are already comfortable and have seen the other movies first. This may draw you away from the series if you have never seen the others and think that this is the best it gets, because it gets better in the other films.

Jason Takes Your Money.......2006-10-22

As a general rule, any film with a large number of Roman numerals behind it is going to suck, and the eighth outing of the F-13 franchise, JASON TAKES MANHATTAN, obeys this rule to a fanatical degree. This movie is terrible, an utter embarrassment, and is noteworthy only as a study in corporate greed and marketing deception.

By the fourth installment of the series, the ironically titled FINAL CHAPTER, this formulaic slasher franchise was as exhausted as an old, blood-soaked boot. Jason Voorhees had outlived his usefulness and it was time for his rotted a*s to hang up the gaolie mask and retire. But the movie industry is an industry first, and when THE FINAL CHAPTER turned unexpectedly into a cash cow the studio execs at Paramount continued to flog their exhausted serial killer into progidies of meaningless violence. THE FINAL CHAPTER was followed by three more absolutely asinine sequels, which saw Jason improve the Crystal Lake gene pool by slaughtering legions of pot-smoking teenage dimwits. By this time P-mount was beginning to get embarrassed by their deformed, kill-crazy stepchild, yet the lure of an easy payday drew them on.

I still remember seeing the preview for this flick in a movie theater back in 1989. The audience ate it up. We actually believed that the producers had decided to tweak the exhausted series by loosing Jason in a place where he would probably feel right at home: the Big Apple. One could only imagine the bloody shennanigans Crystal Lake's least popular citizen could embark upon in New Yawk City! People were laughing out loud as they imagined him loose in the City of Lights. He could slay obnoxious Volcanoites! Teach rude cab drivers the errors of their ways! Annihilate the snotty salespeople at Tiffanys! Cut down on panhandlers! Convince grafitti artists to stay out of dark alleys! Run for mayor! We sixteen year olds LOVED the idea.

There was just one problem. The gang at Paramount had no intention of delivering on their promise. The ad campaign, like the title of the movie, was a fraud, and the only thing that got "taken" in this film was the money of a lot of bloodthirsty teenage dupes.

First of all, the first 60 minutes of this 90-odd minute movie are not set in Manhattan, but in Crystal Lake and then on a ship called the Lazarus (get it?) which is conveying the usual cargo of teenage acting-skool dropout slasher fodder on a graduation cruise to New York. Jason, accidentally revived from the depths of the Lake by a jolt of electricity, stows on board the ship and proceeds to ch-ch-ch, ha-ha-ha his way through the doltish grads and the suspiciously small crew until the survivors are pursuaded to take a rowboat to Manhattan Island. Unfortunately "Manhattan Island", with the exception of a couple of second-unit establishing shots, is largely an unimaginative-looking soundstage on the Paramount lot populated by Central Casting New Yawkers, including the usual mixed-race mugger team and an Irish cop who says things like, "Well, ye seem loike foine peeple, so I'll not be arresting ye."

There is not a single scary moment in the whole film, and there are not even any particularly interesting kills. Kane Hodder's plodding, rotting, thoroughly over-rated Jason looks almost bored, as if he signed onto the cruise by accident, and then got talked into doing his mass murder shtick by the ship's entertainment director. To make up for the lack of any kind of suspense, the writers threw in a lot of gratuitous pleading for mercy from the female characters, and added nice little moments like a ship's crewmember talking warmly about his baby son right before Jason runs a harpoon through his body. Classy stuff, but really, everything about the movie is stupid, from the crazy deckhand who mumbles prophetically that the voyage is doomed (shades of Crazy Ralph), to the annoyingly cute little dog who has more acting talent than most of the victims. Hell, the climax of the film features a chase through the New York sewers, which, we are told, flood with radioactive toxic waste every midnight. (Does Rudy Guilani know about this?)

I realize having expectations for a Jason movie is silly, but even by the cellar-low standards of the franchise, this flick is a ripoff, a fraud, a dreadful fake, utterly stupid, appallingly bad, useless, terrible, and horrible. ZERO STARS.

While Jason takes Manhattan, the fans leave it.....................2006-06-29

I consider myself a pretty big Horror fan. I can enjoy many different kinds of Horror movies and usually find one or two things in a movie to make it worth watching. Sometimes it's an actor, sometimes it's just one gory scene, sometimes it's the atmosphere. Like I said, I usually find something to enjoy in a Horror movie no matter how bad it is. Sadly, I can't say the same for my friends or for the other Horror "fans" that I've met. Most of the time they're typical Horror fans who hate anything that isn't serious. Personally I think it's a self image thing for most people. They're afriad that someone might mistake them for being "mainstream" or corny when it comes down to their Horror opinion. If you judge a Horror movie on weather or not it scared the crap out of you, most of the time your going to be left high and dry. Horror movies come in many styles, the key is to understand that and just enjoy the ride. Friday the 13th part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan is one of those few 1980's gems that I hold close to my heart. It's a classic example of how dark and gritty the 80's Horror scene was back then. Jason Take Manhattan is chop full of dirty, brooding scenes of the city and it really helps set the stage for Jason to do what he does best! Chop, hack and stab his young victems! Looking for a plot? You won't find one here! This is your basic big hair, bad acting, 1980's slasher fest! Nothing about the movie is corny, back when they made the film is was thought of in a serious perspective. Times change and ideas change. Sure it might be outdated but it's a classic in my book. Long live Jason Voorhees!

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