Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is an American slasher horror movie in the Friday the 13th film series. It's a more comedic and corny approach to the series from director Rob Hedden. The film stars Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves, Peter Mark Richman, and Kane Hodder returning as the hockey-masked killer, Jason.

Released in theaters on July 28th, 1989 to dismal reviews, this film found more of an audience in the home video market. It’s widely known that this is the weakest of the series. It’s also the official end to the Friday the 13th franchise being produced by Paramount. The following movies would be Jason Goes to Hell, Freddy vs. Jason, and Jason X. But all of them drop the Friday designation.

I am watching the Amazon Prime Video standard stream. I didn’t believe an HD transfer would do much justice. It’s an hour and thirty-five minutes and features Amazon Video’s X-Ray feature that gives background and notes on the movie.

Synopsis

The infamous undead slasher of Crystal Lake returns, stowing away on a high school graduation cruise, from the lake he calls home, to New York City. During the cruise, Jason follows his usual M-O by murdering the mischievous teens one-by-one in pretty horrific fashion.

Analysis

It might have worked if it wasn’t a Friday the 13th franchise picture. But they shoehorned in a weak connection to the Crystal Lake massacres and now we have Jason killing people on a cruise ship and on the mean streets of nineteen-eighties New York City. They even work in some dark comedy to help make this entry one of the most WTF worthy of the series.

The majority of the film is set on a cruise ship with the final quarter of the picture taking place in Manhattan. The director has said that he is aware of the flaws and wishes that more of the movie was set in New York. However, budgetary restrictions would keep this picture on the cheap side.

Kane Hodder is the perfect Jason. He does everything right. It’s just the story and creative direction that I have an issue with. I think that the soundtrack features clips of Jason laughing. And that I couldn’t believe.

It’s the poor writing and weak story that pull this installment down.

Overall

You can usually let the Friday the 13th series get away with some wonkiness when it comes to filmmaking. These horror franchises are never given a proper budget. But the eighth installment of the Friday series is awful. It’s a disjointed mishmash of scenes and locations that don’t serve any real purpose. I can’t say I wouldn’t recommend it, as it’s part of the series. However, I am not going to have you watch it first. There are a lot of these movies and this isn’t a good one.