Generally speaking, I avoid the majority of slasher films. It's nothing against the subgenre - they just never did anything for me. However, I wanted to see what an objective look at Friday the 13th Part VIII, the most reviled entry in the series, would be like from a newcomer's perspective.

Though the subtitle reads Jason Goes to Manhattan, the big zombie serial killer doesn't spend very much time in the Big Apple. Actually, he's mostly found on a cruise ship; maybe this should have been Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Ahoy! Oh, I kill myself. In any case, he kills by the standard rules set up by Michael Myers, which are fairly simple. If you have sex (or even any real sex appeal), you're dead. If you use drugs, you're dead. If you're an asshole, unlikable person, or just somebody that no emotional attachment has been written in for, then you can kiss this sorry world goodbye. Early in the film I made a list of who would live and who was Jason-fodder...at the end, I was right, save one person.

As long as they were going to telegraph the victims, they might have used some suspense. Obviously, part of the appeal behind the F13 films is that they substitute gore and sex for any real sense of terror, but even that appears to be lacking in comparison to many much better gory films. If I wanna watch exploitative trash, I'll watch it unrated, thank you.

There are some good parts. Most of the cast, while not great by any means, aren't wooden, and manage to deliver their lines with some amount of believability. A few of them even managed to have careers after this (most notably the lead actress, Jensen Daggett, who does lots of TV movies and series work). Kane Hodder, who plays Jason, does his job well, for what it's worth. He stands menacingly. He walks slowly. He shoves sharp instruments into victims. He even gets one really good funny moment once the film hits New York City.

And when it does, then a new set of problems begin. The inherent problem with setting a lumbering and not-very intelligent serial killer like Jason Voorhees in the middle of a city like NYC, is that Manhattan (at least in the late 80s) is much scarier than he is. He looks out of place, and he doesn't even really take advantage of the much higher victim-in-waiting count such a huge metropolis has to offer.

There are a lot of stupid things in this movie, too. A guy who is hunting down Jason brings a shotgun AND his camcorder (which leads to one of the great missed opportunities in slasher film history). When a fire starts on the boat, Jason is considerate enough to hit the alarm. A group being stalked decides to split up. If it didn't work for Scooby and the gang, how is it going to work here?

One final note to the makeup men: who designed the unmasked Jason look? It's really pitiful.

Jason Takes Manhattan is nowhere near as bad as you may have heard it is. However, this still doesn't mean it's a good movie. It's a 50 cent rental at best. Anybody who wants to buy it should probably only do so to complete their Friday the 13th collection. Otherwise, it just isn't worth the dough.