And so, we reach the end of ‘The Paramount Years’ for the ‘Friday the 13th Franchise. and what better way to send the franchise off with a bang than by setting the film the furthest you could possibly get from Jasons natural habitat and then grossly misleading the audience in the marketing!

Because ‘Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan’ Should really be called ‘Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason takes over a small cruiser and then bumbles about Manhatten for 35 minutes’ Because thats basically what this movie is.

The film opens with a quick recap of the history of the series up to this point, as we join a young couple enjoying each others company on a boat on Crystal Lake, they accidentally run over a power cable which Jason is conveniently lying dead on. which ressurects him. He kills the couple on the boat and then…for some reason just…stays on the boat as it drifts out of Camp Crystal Lake and into what is clearly one of Camp Crystal Lakes MANY peninsula’s.

Its here we join a cruise liner heading out to Manhatten with a graduating class of ’89, chaperoned by a couple of teachers. Jason NOW decides to hop off the boat and hitches a ride on the side of the cruise liner…aaaand basically the rest of the plot is a mixture of ‘teen drama’ and Jason slowly picking off the grad’s for an hour…five minutes of the survivors bobbing along in the ocean, and 35 minutes of Jason literally getting into comedy hyjinks across Manhatten culminating in a very strange, campy but entertaining finale.

And while I think this is absolutely the worst way to end your 8 part long franchise, I cant deny that I find this thing SO enjoyable. Its campy, hammy. it gets pretty nasty in places and I really quite liked that they kept that supernatural element that began in part 6, but morphed it again into something a bit different, with Phantoms of Jason as a child appearing to try and warn the graduates that the real Jason was coming to cause trouble.

The script is of course terribly misleading, calling you film ‘Jason Takes Manhatten’ and then setting two of your three acts on a boat *HEADING* to Manhattan is a rather dirty trick on the part of the production. And it’s kind of a shame too because, while the boat stuff is fine…its ultimately a bit flat narrative wise, largely relying on the teen drama stuff to help carry the film for a big chunk of the runtime. Whereas, the second the action shifts to dry land in Manhatten, all this wonderful, colourful and eccentric character types come crawling out of the woodwork.

I almost wish they’d started the film with this kind of over the top tone and built from there, because what we’re left with is 2 acts that are just kind of ‘Okay’ in terms of their execution (FAR from the franchises best kills or plot developments) and an act thats total nonsensical fun.

The acts are a bit clunky with hard signalling for the changes which is a bit of a shame, the pacing is fairly pedestrian on the boat sections and then it suddenly gets 50k volts jolted up it for the Manhattan sequences. The films very self aware, which is a quality I actually really quite like about this entry in particular. It doesnt really care to try and play it cool. Its happy acknowledging that, by this point in the series Jasons been murdered 7 times over, turned into a zombie, drowned, electrocuted twice, hit in the head with an axe. It knows it’s ludicrous at this point, and it leans into it…to pretty solid effect i’d say.

The characters are a bit of a mixed bag, some of INCREDIBLY one note and dull, but these are also the characters most likely to be picked off, with the rest being actually kind of nuanced and subtle in giving them some complexities to work with.

I cant say I love the script for this one, but I can appreciate it as ‘a bit of a lark’ like I say, TERRIBLE ending to a franchise as successful as this, but as its own standalone entry (as it would go on to become) I think this is pretty much just the producers and paramount doing a bit of a goofy, self aware victory lap to celebrate 10 years of Jason.

The directions pretty solid. But it is a game of two halves, the boat sequences do feel a little on the drab side, Its aiming for low light mystery, especially on the segments below deck. but instead it just comes across as all very ‘one colour’, dark and uninteresting…I think they were trying to give ‘Freddys Boiler room’ vibes…but instead it just ends up looking like they didnt have enough lights to achieve what they wanted. I think they were aware that the boat scenes looked a little dull, because part way into the film, some scenes suddenly get ‘Suspiria’ style coloured lighting for NO reason at all!

By contrast, all the sequences in Manhattan are GORGEOUS. they’re grimey, dirty, nasty smokey neon lit goodness, they really capture a heavily styalized vibe and feel here thats PERFECT for this era of film making, They make the city look both beutiful and hideous in equal mesure and they they really work with colour (particularly around Jason) to help create something that hadnt been seen in any of the ‘Friday the 13th’ movies up to this point, it looks and feels distinct and it clearly had a very focussed vision in mind, which between the cast and crew, is realised pretty effectively.

The cine shines through too, as mentioned the use of coloured gels really helps give this thing a neon pop, but its the use of darkness contrasting these lighting choices that really helps give this film the stylistic contrast it needs to solidly define itself against the other entries. In a sea of entries consisting of. ‘greens, browns and beige’ this film is a neon soaked toxic green delight. Composition for the boat scenes are a little lacklustre, but they do have their moments, they do try to be creative on shot setups (with mixed results) and they do put the effort in.

But again, its the manhattan sequences that shine the brightest here, with several scenes getting very creative, experimentting with tracking shots, pans and angling to get the best they can out of making jason look menacing. They shot plenty of B-roll and it feels like all of it was VERY heavily considered, because the end result is an edit that moves along with a clip, but doesnt feel TOO snappy, and doesnt overstay its welcome.

If I was nitpicking? I’d maybe say at least 10-15 minutes of the boat footage could have been cut and that probably would have bumped this up another half star for me. It would address some of the pacing issues the boat sequences have, while also balancing the ‘Boat to Manhatten’ ratio out a little better AND it would help tighten up those first 2 acts, which do get a little bogged down in the ‘Teen Drama’ side of things.

Performance wise, I kinda got nothing, Peter Mark Richman as Charles is probably the strongest performer here, playing a somewhat malicious uncle to one of the graduates, he has a slimey quality that I feel oozes out wonderfully from him. But outside of him and Kane Hodder playing a blinder as Jason. There just…isnt much to say about the remaining cast members. Its one of the biggest porblems this franchise has, but it’s teen protagonists are often just…very one note and dull. They usually have some kind of gimmic (a fighter, a practical joker, a drug addict) and thats all there is. Im not saying they perform their roles badly, im just saying there isnt really all that much for them to do, but read their lines in a way that isnt dreadful, and pretty much kill time till they’re killed. its a shame really.

And the soundtrack! I think this is my favourite one of the whole series. If I had to pick one it’d certainly be a tossup between this and ‘Part 3’ thats for sure. it’s got that F13 quality, mashed up with some of THE hairiest Hair metal ballad and rock tracks i’ve ever heard. Cheesy as sin, its SUCH a fun little score an it INSTANTLY sets the tone and time this takes place (which is supposedly 1994 if you follow the timeline of the previous movies…ah well.)

I have a real soft spot for ‘Jason Takes Manhattan’ Its a film that doesnt take itself seriously, and while it does have MAJOR flaws…especially for a closing chapter. Its imperfections are kind of what draws me to it. It stands out, it looks and sounds great and it does something kind of interesting with its runtime, which other entries have only really flirted with.

I’d recommend ‘Jason Takes Manhattan’ But only after you’ve seen a couple of F13 movies and you know how the standards for these movies work. This is a subversive picture, and I think if you dont know how the F13 movies from 2-7 work…even in a vague sense…then a lot of what makes this one so fun will be lost in translation.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/friday-the-13th-part-viii-jason-takes-manhattan/