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

Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes a Boat.

Jason Vorhees is once again brought back to life and goes on a kill crazy spree aboard a boat bound for Manhattan.

As is the norm with the "Friday 13th" sequels, this one garners scorn and praise in equal measure, so you roll the dice and take your chance really. By now the makers were trying to come up with new ideas to keep the series afloat, here the gimmick is to take Vorhees out of his Camp Crystal Lake "comfort" zone, and pitch him on a boat - a boat which naturally is full of ripe high schoolers who are ripe for killing in variously gruesome ways.

The presence of Manhattan in the title is not wholly accurate since three quarters of the pic is set on the said boat, with standard series rules applying, though Vorhees seems to have at...

Absolutely ridiculous, and a totally misleading title. Jason still kills stuff, and that's fun I guess, but what a trashfire ending to an already pretty bad movie.

_Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._...

***Jason takes a cruise to the big city!***

Released in 1989, "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan" is a nice change of pace as the series was suffering from banality at this point; the previous installment is a prime example (people complain about Part V but at least it had an interesting new story angle with Tommy Jarvis going to the halfway house in the woods seeking succor for his psychological trauma, etc.). Part VII tried something new with the Carrie-like protagonist, and that entry has a great finale, but it was hampered by a subpar, amateurish script.

Part VIII changes things up by switching the normal location of Crystal Lake (and surrounding area) to a ship going to Manhattan with a group of high school kids and adults aboard. Of course, Jason also gets on th...