Written And Directed by Rob Hedden
Rennie (re Jason): "Look, you don't understand. There is a maniac trying to kill us."
Waitress: "Welcome to New York."
After seven movies of Crystal Lake being the hotbed of terror from Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder), his mommy and a copycat killer for that one movie, this movie traded a cursed campsite for the Big Apple. Let's just say the results are not that great.
First of all, I don't mind a departure from Crystal Lake but you can definitely tell that the budget wasn't really large enough for them to get the best movie based in one of the most iconic cities in the way. Still though, it tries to have a good time.
Sadly though, it's largely very flat. Anyways electricity in the water frees/revives Jason and he's soon stowed away on a boat called the SS Lazarus with a bunch of teenagers and their chaperones. You can see where this is going.
The teenagers are either having sex with each other or being mean to the new protagonist of the movie. This one being a young girl named Rennie (Jensen Daggett) who has a well meaning but not very helpful guardian in Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman). The same guardian who in one bizarre gets honey trapped by a bitchy student before Jason killed her off.
For the most part, it's really the SS Lazarus that's the central hub of the film, which does help to add a certain amount of claustrophobic tension on board as Jason dispatched of most of the very bland support cast here.
Rennie does have an ally in her boyfriend Sean (Scott Reeves) and yet again, there's a belief of Jason being done for good. Except it's very short-lived given that the movie ended with him being very much alive in New York - a city we don't really see enough of here.
- Despite it's title, it was largely filmed in Vancouver with some stuff filmed in New York and Los Angeles.
- Ken Kirzinger actually appeared in this one. He'd later play Jason in Freddy Vs. Jason.
- The New York Tourism Committee weren't impressed with some of the marketing for this one.
- Chronology: Unspecified time since the previous one.
Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan on paper sounded like a great idea. It's just a shame the script is mostly bad and the budget constraints limited it's overall potential. Such a missed opportunity.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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