Jason Takes Manhattan is the eighth entry in the Friday the 13th series. It’s also the fourth movie on my challenge to watch a Horror I haven’t seen before in October.
Directed by Rob Hedden, it sees the return of Kane Hodder as Jason. Every entry requires the audience to stop thinking, but this one takes the biscuit. Jason is resurrected because an anchor conveniently hits underwater cables.
Basically, the villain returns in the same way as Jason Lives. This time, Jason kills two lovers on a boat, hijacks it then climbs aboard a cruise ship set for New York. As always, the best thing about it is the imaginative killings.
If you’re looking forward to seeing Jason takes Manhattan, you’ll be disappointed. The New York setting only lasts for the last half-an-hour, if that, of the movie. Most of it is spent on the cruise ship.
Moreover, it’s riddled with plotholes and makes the audience question too many things. A shiphand continuously tells everyone Jason is onboard. He even watches him do it at the beginning, yet he stays on.
Instead, he becomes this movie’s person who is blamed for the killings.
Every Friday the 13th movie follows the same logic: Jason kills, someone else gets blamed, nobody believes them until Jason eventually shows himself near the end.
For its fault though, there are moments I enjoy. Jason’s waterlogged zombified look only serves to make him more menacing. If there’s one thing Friday the 13th does well, it’s making their villain imposing.
I don’t know anyone who’d want to go toe to toe with Jason Voorhees.
All in all, Jason Takes Manhattan doesn’t live up to its premise, nor does it make use of its settings as well it could.
