Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan ** (1989, Jensen Daggett, Kane Hodder, Todd Caldecott ) – Classic Movie Review 1817

Friday the 13th Part VIII is a typically bloody and repetitious stalk and slash horror movie, in which stowaway hockey masked serial killer Jason Voorhees (again played by Kane Hodder) systematically tries to murder an entire graduating class of Crystal Lake high school students aboard a luxury cruise ship bound for New York. A long epic battle for survival and supremacy between the students and Jason ensues.

Writer-director Rob Hedden’s unhealthy 1989 film’s ingenuity consists almost entirely in its devising of cruel and unusual ways of murdering about 17 or so people. With the official body count at 17 plus three unconfirmed kills (the thug smashed into the pipe, the cop dragged into the alley and the cook thrown over the counter in the diner) Part VIII surpasses the body count in Part VI, which holds the highest body count till Jason X.

One or two decent performances, especially by main star Jensen Daggett as the heroine Rennie Wickham who believes she was almost drowned by Jason as a child, and debut director Hedden’s film-making skills help to keep it afloat.

Peter Mark Richman, Scott Reeves, Barbara Bingham, VC Dupree, Sharlene Martin and Martin Cummins also star.

After disappointing results at the box office, Paramount decided to sell the Friday the 13th series to New Line Cinema, making this their last feature until the 2009 remake. Even so, it made over $19million on a budget of $5million.

The series continues with Friday the 13th Part 9: Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday in 1993 and Jason X in 2001 and the reboot of Friday the 13th in 2009.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1817

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