An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
No spoilers! If you would like spoilers – check out the Spoiler post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at the 8th film in the Friday the 13th series, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Jason returns to wreak havoc on Manhattan in New York City… sort of. Meanwhile, a graduating class must survive Jason hunting them on a boat.
Is Friday the 13th 8: Jason Takes Manhattan Scary?
No Friday the 13th 8: Jason Takes Manhattan is not scary, unless you find Jason’s design scary. Even if you live in Manhattan you won’t be scared of the film, mainly because the title is a lie but also because the movie doesn’t even try to scare you. There are no effective jump scares, no gore, and no tense scenes.
Overall in the end you won’t leave Friday the 13th 8: Jason Takes Manhattan scared of anything except being in a sewer at midnight because apparently toxic sludge time is a thing…
All Friday the 13th Explanations/Reviews:
Related Article: Friday the 13th (1980) No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Friday the 13th Part II (1981) No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Friday the 13th Part III (1982) No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984) No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985) No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday No Spoiler Review
Related Article: Friday the 13th (2009) No Spoiler Review
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan No Spoiler Review:
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is bad which is a shame since Parts 6 was one of the best of the series and, while 7 felt like a slight step down, I was hoping this would be good. Instead, it takes a shit on everything that makes the series good.
The are no interesting characters besides the main character but even then their backstory is basically the same as a previous protagonist in the series. While that’s not entirely bad especially if a sequel does it better but as you can guess, this sequel does it worse. The way it all plays out is just confusing and doesn’t make sense in the series’ own established logic.
We also jump in halfway through the main character’s character development so that makes them overall less interesting. We don’t even learn what their trauma is and when we do it doesn’t make sense based on the series timeline.
Apart from the characters, the setting of this entry is also boring. I understand trying to make it fresh by taking away Camp Crystal Lake but if your title is Jason Takes Manhattan and then you spend only a third of the film there while Jason barely does anything interesting, then you failed.
The last thing I’ll say about this film is that the ending is just confusing to the point of annoyance. I can’t say much because this is spoiler-free but it suffers from the same problems I mentioned above.
Overall I can’t recommend Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, just skip it unless you’re a completionist but don’t blame me if you feel anger by the end of it.
Cast IMDB