Vendredi 13, chapitre VIII : L'Ultime Retour

Not really taking Manhattan, because the majority of the movie is set on a ship... but it's fun. It's just an average sequel, nothing really memorable except some ship action and the last 30 minutes of Manhattan. The last one from the 80s, where they all should be.

Renowned film critic Leonard Maltin calls "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan" the highlight of the series. Of course Maltin rated virtually every other "Friday" film a dud, so that's not saying much. In any event, he's wrong. But while this eighth installment is comparatively inferior to most that preceded it, it's not as bad as reputed outside Maltin circles.

"Jason Takes Manhattan" is one of those movies that's impossible to love unconditionally. There are simply too many flaws, from ridiculous plot elements (Jason can teleport???) and an uneven pace to a lack of chills and incompatible attempts at humor. Indeed this entry represents a bitter come-down after the absolutely stellar parts VI and VII.

In many ways, "Jason Takes Manhattan" doesn't feel like part of the franchise. The Jason here isn't scary like we know he can be. His deadly moves, be it the electric guitar impaler or decapitatingly powerful right hook, seem contrived. Kane Hodder looks like a guy in a Jason suit rather than the real deal. Director Rob Hedden fell into the trap of gore for the sake of gore, but that's never been what "Friday the 13th" is all about. It's all in the build-up, and sometimes, even in low-budget '80s horror, less is more.

With all of that said, "Jason Takes Manhattan" isn't a total loss. The mere sight of the rapidly decaying villain storming through the mean streets of the Big Apple is worth at least four stars. Aside from the change of scenery, the film offers a semi-compelling storyline or two. And the masked one does have his frightening moments, smashing through portholes and firing harpoons at horny teens. As usual, the climax -- this time a chase through the city and sewer -- is the highlight.

For better or for worse, "Jason Takes Manhattan" marks the last true "Friday the 13th." This was Paramount's last stab (pun intended) at things before selling the rights to New Line Cinema, which basically destroyed the series with absurd ideas like Jason switching bodies and rampaging through spaceships. Not great, but not godawful, this film carries limited appeal outside of fanboy circles.

Another attempt to shake some life into the franchise, relocating Jason to a major city for the promise of unmitigated slaughter. Two problems: the film might have been more accurately titled Jason Takes (a cruise to) Manhattan, since he's ship-bound for all but the final half-hour, and he doesn't really concern himself with anyone apart from the vessel's survivors once he's there. This is a guy who's made a habit of ruthlessly eviscerating everyone he's ever encountered, yet now he passes harmlessly through a loaded subway car and cheerfully lifts his mask to scare a gang of punks like a haunted house denizen. Production values have taken a significant step up since Part VII, and the gore feels somewhat less censored, but it's failed by yet another repetitive, hole-laden plot and a reliably godawful set of actors.

Every movie series has its ups and downs. This was definitely Friday the 13th's "down" For some reason, this movie just wasn't that great. Don't get me wrong, I liked it and all...just didn't have that thrill that the others had. It shouldn't be called "Jason Takes Manhattan". Should be something like "Jason takes a cruise" or something. Although Kane Hodder played a great Jason, the character of Jason in this movie was disproportional. His abilities and whatnot. Some of the characters were the worst in this movie, the acting was pretty bad. I do like some scenes however. But they didn't fully redeem this movie from the horrific outcome. I give this a 5/10, this is probably my least favorite of the series.

'Friday the 13th' may have been panned by critics when first released but since then it is one of the most famous and influential horror films, the franchise containing one of horror's most iconic villains. The film is popular enough to become a franchise and spawn several sequels of varying quality and generally inferior to the one that started it all off.

'Jason Takes Manhattan', the seventh sequel and the eight film in the series, is one of the lowest rated 'Friday the 13th' films on IMDb. Apart from a couple of interest points, personally have to agree with those who consider 'Jason Takes Manhattan' one of the series' weakest (whether it's the very worst is debatable). It's not terrible and not quite as bad as some have said, but it is lacking in a lot of areas.

There are merits here. When it comes to the photography, 'Jason Takes Manhattan' is a strong contender for the best shot 'Friday the 13th' film, very stylish and crisp with a lot of atmosphere.

Regarding the music, the music has always been one of the best things consistently, that is the case here, once again being hauntingly eerie and quite catchy even.

Kane Hodder returns as Jason and does a valiant job, and very nearly is as spine chilling as he was in the previous film (the make-up lets him down though but the performance itself is spot on). A couple of the deaths are memorable.

It was also nice to have a change in location, the most interesting thing of 'Jason Takes Manhattan' and what makes it stand out among the rest in this regard.

However, 'Jason Takes Manhattan' has a lot of severe drawbacks. And no, the misleading misnomer of the film's title, considering there is too little of Manhattan and it takes too long to get there, is actually the least of its problems. Of the acting the only good performance comes from Hodder, everybody else is either irritating or with the range of a broomstick, meaning the film is one of the series' worst acted.

The dialogue also makes the film one of the series' worst-written, not just crude, tonally muddled and simplistic but sense is pretty much neglected. The stereotypical characters are the most bland and annoying ones of the series, with the most illogical and stupidest decision making. Am aware that these assets have rarely been strengths in the 'Friday the 13th' films, but not to this extent in comparison to the previous films.

Storytelling is also not great to put it mildly. It takes silliness and senselessness to extreme breaking point, the concept poses a lot of confusion and errors in continuity and too much of the film is too ridiculous to even be entertained by it let alone take seriously. The climax is one of the series' most confusing (incoherent even), head-scratching and laziest. One also feels every minute of the rather too long length, due to the story being a stale rehash pretty much that feels tired.

Make-up and effects are subpar, Jason looks both cheap and goofy, none of the unsettling gruesomeness of 'The New Blood'. Like that film, The humour is more goofy and annoying than tongue-in-cheek and witty (a big problem considering the over-reliance on it, some of the humour felt unintentional too), there is a real shortage of suspense, far too tame scares and the creativity and creepiness of the death scenes are wildly variable and even the best of them are nowhere near close to being on par with the series' most memorable.

Overall, not terrible but rather lacklustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox