Every ‘Friday the 13th’ Film, Ranked
By Jeremy Dick
7. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
After the Jason vs. Carrie experiment that was The New Blood, the Friday the 13th film series thought it’d provide another new idea for Jason Voorhees. Always seemingly trapped in the confines of Camp Crystal Lake and its surrounding forest, Jason would be able to extend his bloody massacre to the big city of Manhattan by hitching a ride on a senior high school class’s cruise ship.
The film was not as exciting as it should have been. Originally written with two-thirds of the movie set in the big city, with Jason visiting such iconic locations as Madison Square Garden, budget constraints forced script changes to cut down on scenes in New York. As a result, Jason spends a lot of time on the cruise ship instead, and doesn’t manage to cause as much mayhem there as he definitely should have.
Still, it’s Kane Hodder in the iconic Jason mask killing teenagers in horrific ways, so in that sense it can still please fans of the series. Maybe he didn’t quite “take” Manhattan as the subtitle of the film would suggest, but the film still gave him several new notches in his belt.
Next: Number 6