Regarded by most as the worst of the series, Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan is far from the worst. Storywise and in title maybe, I'll give you that, but this film is much more well-made and more interesting than the entry before it. The supreme letdown of the film taking place in New York City for only
the last 30 mins or so of the movie killed this movie's chances as it let all expectations of it down, and most wrote it off as nothing more than a marketing gimmick to get people in to see it. However in retrospect, I find it a bit more polished than most people are willing to give it credit for. It has some great gags and is genuinely creepy at times, even with a teleporting Jason (when did he learn to do that?). With a different subtitle and a different marketing campaign, this movie might have fared a bit better than it did. I can't praise it too highly though, because some of the story elements are a bit tedious. Again, we have a heroine lead with mind powers. They're not as prevalent as the previous film and there isn't really any telekinesis in use, but it does feel like it's drawing from the same well. The notion that she was almost drowned by Jason as a child and she has had a psychosis about it ever since which causes her to have visions of a young Jason crying for help was never really resolved the way it should have been. Besides, we later learn that Jason wasn't the one who caused the problem in the first place, so it feels shoehorned in rather than natural in the storytelling. The film also came under heavy scrutiny by the MPAA, so it's not as gory or violent as you might expect it to be. It takes place mostly on a cruise ship, but they change things up as the whole group is made aware of Jason early on, with the group taking him on (failing one by one, of course). It's nice that they switched it up for a change instead of just more camp murder hijinks. Maybe that's why I like it so much; that they tried to genuinely do something different with it. If you watch all of the films in a row, it shakes things up and keeps you interested. I'm not saying it's a great, but it is a bit underrated. It's also the last of the Paramount series, as well as the last film of the franchise (as of this writing) to show any kind of creativity or fun. From here on in, it's nothing but recycled idea after recycled idea.
March 25, 2007
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