Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

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Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

R

Released Jul 28, 1989

1h 40m

Horror

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Popcornmeter

11%

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27 Reviews

26%

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50,000+ Ratings

Mass murderer Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) is resurrected from the bottom of Crystal Lake. After he kills a passing boat's occupants, he stows away on a cruise ship filled with a high-school graduating class bound for New York City. Biology teacher Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman) is on board with his niece, Rennie (Jensen Daggett), who has visions of Jason drowning as a child. They escape his bloody shipboard rampage, but, when Rennie and Charles reach Manhattan, Jason is close by.

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Critics Consensus

Jason terrorizes a ship and nearly sinks the franchise in a clunky sequel that feels like self-parody without the charm.

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Austin Chronicle

Rated: 0/5

Sep 3, 2011

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Trevor Johnston

Time Out

For what it's worth (very little), probably the best in the series.

Jan 26, 2006

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Ed Gonzalez

Slant Magazine

Director Rob Hedden may have been onto something: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan, the series itself was always drowning in ****.

Rated: .5/4

Sep 25, 2004

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Kat Halstead

Common Sense Media

For a start, the characters don't even make it to Manhattan until more than an hour into the film and Jason doesn't exactly "take" it when he arrives -- things get pretty tiresome pretty fast in the city that never sleeps.

Feb 8, 2024

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Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

This awful movie barely has anything to do with Manhattan. [Full review in Spanish]

Jul 12, 2022

Full Review

Nick Rogers

Midwest Film Journal

It's pretty boring for a slasher movie. Case in point: You will feel nothing when Jason sinks a scalding sauna stone into someone's solar plexus. But as a movie about terrifying rites of passage about what happens to you after high school, it's good.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 1, 2021

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Justin T

This starts badly with the worst opening yet, it’s just stock footage of New York, almost like an omen for the stock acting and stock boredom to come. The audio at the docks sounds really distracting. The Jason sound cues are also a bit silly in places but overall the sound design is good enough. This is the worst Jason film so far (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) isn’t a Jason film). The violence goes back to feeling muted. On the plus side, this franchise has probably the best and most consistent nudity. Having Jason brightly lit kills the atmosphere and the blocking of where he stands is simply bad. Plus how does he keep teleporting? It does have some of my favourite use of steadicam, certainly in a horror film. I don’t think it was trying to be funny but it came across as bad comedy. The fodder for the first hour feels meaningless as they are not in Manhattan yet. The acting is terrible. Even when they get to ‘New York‘ it’s not good (I believe most of it was actually filmed in Vancouver). What was that young Jason flashback about, it looked bad, and how does this fit into the timeline, was she at camp with Jason? Much as I didn’t like this film at all I have to say that it has one of the funniest interactions ever, the ghetto blaster mask lift is genius and the ending is pretty awesome but overall the weakest of the series so far.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/25

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Audience Member

first time i watched this while on a vacation IN manhattan it pissed me off so much.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/10/25

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Aedan B

Best character in franchise history with an empowering scene of Julius standing up to Jason. Scorsese’s best film pales into comparison to the likes of this film

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/21/24

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Jerod S

The worst chapter of Jason so far - when he stows himself on a ship and makes his way to the Big Apple.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

12/14/24

Full Review

Audience M

An amusingly chaotic finale featuring Jason rampaging through downtown New York sadly isn't enough to rescue the eighth unnecessary instalment in an exhausted franchise. Still, at least they tried something a little different.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/19/25

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Jorge Rubin N

This movie is overrated by Jason fans, if you see the movie as a non-fan you will understand this movie is a nefarious product induced by the modern consumism and the non-sensical idea of “enjoying cause its fun”. Pacing is bad, there are inconsistencies regarding Jason’s killings, deaths do not make sense, and the plot behind his killings is uninteresting. 0/10, this movie is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

11/11/24

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Rob Hedden

Director

Jensen Daggett

Rennie Wickham

Scott Reeves

Sean Robertson

Kane Hodder

Jason Voorhees

Peter Mark Richman

Charles McCulloch

Barbara Bingham

Miss Colleen Van Deusen

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Murder Caught on Tape

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Seductive Anatomy Lesson

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Knockout!

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Jason vs. Toxic Waste

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Jason vs. New York

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Drowned in Toxic Waste

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Subway Chase

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Two for One Slaying

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Killer Dance Moves

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Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan: Official Clip - Jason Says No to Drugs

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Movieclips: Jason's Best Kills

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Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Mass murderer Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) is resurrected from the bottom of Crystal Lake. After he kills a passing boat's occupants, he stows away on a cruise ship filled with a high-school graduating class bound for New York City. Biology teacher Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman) is on board with his niece, Rennie (Jensen Daggett), who has visions of Jason drowning as a child. They escape his bloody shipboard rampage, but, when Rennie and Charles reach Manhattan, Jason is close by.

Director: Rob Hedden
Producer: Randy Cheveldave
Screenwriter: Victor Miller, Rob Hedden
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount Pictures, Horror Films
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 28, 1989, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 10, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $14.3M
Runtime: 1h 40m
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo, Mono, Ultra-Stereo

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