Venerdì 13: parte VIII - Incubo a Manhattan

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is a better one out of the second half of the series. In this movie, Jason finds himself a stowaway on a cruise ship full of high schoolers bound for New York City. He slaughters his way around the ship, and when it ends up docking, he chases the final few survivors around New York. This as as good as you're going to get in the fatally flawed Friday series, so I suggest anyone that watches this movie just watch and enjoy without worrying about how unrealistic and hokey it is.

Kane Hodder, who played the best Jason, really took hold of the role in this movie. I'd give him credit for Part 7, but that movie sucked the big one. The other actors are okay for this movie, though naturally, it's not great. The plot and dialogue are also alright for this kind of movie. Like I say, this isn't the best movie in the series, but it's the only later one that I can say I was entertained by. Jason enters the realm of comic relief in this entry in two very funny scenes. One where he smashes through a box holding up some thug's boom box. The thug stands up to fight, and Jason turns and lifts his mask, scaring the thug off. The second where a guy is punching Jason in the face to no avail, and then Jason punches his head clear off his shoulders.

The one thing that bothered me about this entry is that the title is the most misleading title you'll ever see. When I first rented this, I was expecting the whole movie to be in New York. No, instead we have to sit through a long boring boat ride until the last 10 minutes of the movie when Jason finally sets foot on Manhattan Island. All in all an okay entry, but it's not great.

5/10

'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

I'd been told from multiple sources that Jason Takes Manhattan is a weak link in Jasons legacy. Though hardly impressive I'd say its no worse than many of the others.

Finally taking Jason away from the camps we see the majority of the movie take place on a ship with it's perhaps last third in the bustling city of New York.

Same cut away deaths, same lack of storyline, but same Friday 13th charm. Also Kane Hodder is Jason so that's an immediate win right there.

I do have to ask, what is it with Friday 13th and inconsistencies and poor endings? This one is no different and I feel like I could rant about it for an hour but will resist the urge.

Jason Takes Manhattan is a worthy addition to the franchise even if the events that transpired in the finale are not explained in part 9.

The Good:

Kelly Hu

Kane Hodder

Refreshing new setting

The Bad:

Why'd they have to kill off such a great character so early?

Ridiculous ending

Weak deaths

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is a guilty pleasure of mine. I know this movie was also cut by the MPAA like was Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood and it is most of people's at least favorite film mine isn't. I am one of the fan's that I think it is not that bad film at all, like many of people are claiming. I will admit Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason X are guilty pleasure of mine and In my opinion are not that bad of a films.

I know this film is more Jason Takes A Cruise Ship then Manhattan because 1 hr is mostly set on the cruise ship and the first hour goes slow around. This movie is slow and boring at first but when the characters come in to the city New York the film get's really quickly around and interesting yes I love movies in the city's. Predator 2 get's a bad rap because the story was set in the city. But in my opinion it is good and a great sci-fi action slasher film. Maniac Cop was also set in the city and it was a good action slasher film. Why everyone dislike this movie I don't know I thought it was an okay film.

Kane Hodder was good as Jason Voorhees I didn't mind him in this movie I thought he was an alright Jason. I like the kills I also like the cast and the soundtracks for this film.

I like Jensen Daggett and Scott Reeves in this movie they are not that bad, this movie also has some action like police car explosions I love that. In here we also have Kelly Hu when she wasn't famous but she is now. Saffron Henderson was hot babe in this movie too bad she was killed in the beginning of the film. Sharlene Martin was great hot sexy babe in this. The gore scenes in my opinion wasn't that bad but were still good.

The reason Part VII and VIII were so toned down in gore and violence is the MPAA took an absolute hatred and developed contempt for these movies. Their minds were already made up before they sat down to review it. Sad to have this kind of censorship in modern times.

I love the song Darkest Side Of The Night by Peter Freddette. Director Rob Hedden also wrote the song for this film Tamara's Bio Project and he performed.

I know I said I dislike Friday the 13th Part 3: 3D and Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning but in my opinion I have simply enjoy this movie more I really like that Jensen Daggett and Scott Reeves were on the train and Jason was chasing them, I like that Scott Reeves electrocuted him and Jason still walked ha ha that was funny.

I love that toxic waste killed Jason on the end of the film, but what was I confused was why Jason suddenly turned in to young boy after he was killed by toxic waste? I don't understand that at all. But the ending was satisfying for me I didn't except a lot but it was alright and it has happy ending. I like happy endings in horror movies and I was rooting for the good guys.

The reason why this movie was on a cruise ship and was filmed in Canada was because they run out of the money so they filmed on a cruise ship mostly scenes in Canada because it was cheap. The last scenes were filmed in New York they didn't had properly money to make it as an awesome movie but I like it.

It is not great but it is at least watchable tough it doesn't take place in Crystal Lake. Before I forgot I love that funny scene in which we see Jason with Hockey Mask and we just see with hockey mask a poster hanging on it and he looks right in the camera boy was I laughing that scene was entertaining.

This movie get's C+ 6/10 the most underrated movie ever this is guilty pleasure of mine I am still going to watch it when I will have time.

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.