History YMMV / FridayThe13thPartVIIIJasonTakesManhattan

* TooCool to Live:
** [[spoiler: Julius and JJ.]]

** In a twisted sort of way, [=Principal McCulloch=]. Sure, he's a complete asshole and deserves the death he gets, but he's also one of the few people who manages to bring any life to the film's middle section when being a pompous ObstructiveBureaucrat courtesy of veteran theatre, film and television character actor Peter Mark Richman's performance in the role.
*** Not only that, but the fact that he's the only person being even remotely responsible (even if it is in an over-bearing way), refusing to listen to outlandish panic-inducing theories (even though they turn out to be true) and insisting on keeping a level head no matter how bad things are, while ''actually doing his job'' by stopping the underage students from drinking and doing drugs... it's hard not to root for him, if only because he's the OnlySaneMan in the entire film!

* HilariousInHindsight:
** Jason (played by Creator/KaneHodder) chases the protagonists to a diner, where a huge chef tries stop him and gets thrown across the room for his trouble. Actor playing that huge chef? Ken Kirzinger, the stuntman who would later '''replace''' Kane Hodder as Jason in ''Film/FreddyVsJason''.
** This wouldn't be the last time Creator/KellyHu would appear in something with Jason, as ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' had her voicing D'Vorah, while Jason himself would show up as a DLC character, therefore allowing her to have a rematch in a way with Jason.
*** It also wouldn't be a character of hers last time going up against a villain in an [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords iconic mask]]. Darth Nihlus' mask even looks a bit like a "[[Franchise/StarWars Star Warsy]]" version of a hockey mask.
*** Hu also voiced the character Cheshire in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' whose father Sportsmaster wore a hockey mask.
** During the opening credits featuring New York City's Time Square, a huge ''Film/Batman1989'' poster is clearly visible. [=Principal McCulloch=]'s actor, Peter Mark Richman would later voice act in [[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE14RiddlersReform one]] [[Recap/BatmanBeyondS3E6Inqueling episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', which are both part of the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse, with the former initially acting as a tie-in to the 1989 Creator/TimBurton film and its sequel ''Film/BatmanReturns''. Also, Richman's son-in-law Creator/LorenLester would later be known for voicing Dick Grayson/ComicBook/{{Robin}}/ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} in the DCAU.

** The unmasked Jason's head just looks like a lump of clay, which is all the more disappointing considering how well he was realized in the previous film.

* LoveToHate: Tamara, her lackey Eva and Charles are the movie's {{Hate Sink}}s, but for some reason are also {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s (see above in the aforementioned bullet).

* FridgeBrilliance: Jason is shown as a normal boy drowning during a night swim in the prologue, when it's been established he was deformed and drowned during the day. However, the storyteller is quite sure it's just a local urban legend, therefore his mind filled in the blanks with a child like him. Presumably Jason would have been depicted as a black kid or a girl if a black man or a woman was telling the story.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: [=Principal McCulloch=]. The audience is supposed to hate him for his {{Jerkass}} behavior and [[spoiler:causing Rennie's fear of drowning by throwing her into water, in an attempt to teach her how to swim as a child]]. Yet to many people, his past actions seems to be an act of ToughLove gone wrong at worst, and certainly does not warrant Rennie and Sean leaving him behind to die at the hands of a pursuing Jason. And it doesn't help that [=McCulloch=]'s [[JerkassHasAPoint jerkass points actually make sense]], pointing out the uselessness of anchoring in the middle of a storm, and that they should seek police help when Rennie got kidnapped by the thugs instead of going in blind, or that [[EveryoneHasStandards he conducts himself to the responsibilities and standards of his job]], such as when he swiftly and rightly pushes off Tamara when she's attempting to seduce and blackmail.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: [=Principal McCulloch=]. The audience is supposed to hate him for his {{Jerkass}} behavior and [[spoiler:causing Rennie's fear of drowning by throwing her into water, in an attempt to teach her how to swim as a child]]. Yet to many people, his past actions seems to be an act of ToughLove gone wrong at worst, and certainly does not warrant Rennie and Sean leaving him behind to die at the hands of a pursuing Jason. And it doesn't help that [=McCulloch=]'s [[JerkassHasAPoint jerkass points actually make sense]], pointing out the uselessness of anchoring in the middle of a storm, and that they should seek police help when Rennie got kidnapped by the thugs instead of going in blind, or that [[EveryoneHasStandards he conducts himself to the responsibilities and standards of his job]], such as when he swiftly and rightly pushes off Tamara when she's attempting to seduce and blackmail.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: [=Principal McCulloch=]. The audience is supposed to hate him for his {{Jerkass}} behavior and [[spoiler:causing Rennie's fear of drowning by throwing her into water, in an attempt to teach her how to swim as a child]]. Yet to many people, his past actions seems to be an act of ToughLove gone wrong at worst, and certainly does not warrant Rennie and Sean leaving him behind to die at the hands of a pursuing Jason. And it doesn't help that [=McCulloch=]'s [[JerkassHasAPoint jerkass points actually make sense]], pointing out the uselessness of anchoring in the middle of a storm, and that they should seek police help when Rennie got kidnapped by the thugs instead of going in blind, or that [[EveryoneHasStandards he conducts himself to the responsibilities and standards of his job]], such as when he swiftly and rightly scolds Tamara for her attempt to seduce and blackmail him.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: [=Principal McCulloch=]. The audience is supposed to hate him for his {{Jerkass}} behavior and [[spoiler:causing Rennie's fear of drowning by throwing her into water, in an attempt to teach her how to swim as a child]]. Yet to many people, his past actions seems to be an act of ToughLove gone wrong at worst, and certainly does not warrant Rennie and Sean leaving him behind to die at the hands of a pursuing Jason. And it doesn't help that [=McCulloch=]'s [[JerkassHasAPoint jerkass points actually make sense]], pointing out the uselessness of anchoring in the middle of a storm, and that they should seek police help when Rennie got kidnapped by the thugs instead of going in blind.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: While not completely superfluous to the plot, Rennie's AttemptedRape scene seems ''very'' out of place in the franchise. It also leads to the only act of VillainousRescue Jason performs in the entire franchise (albeit unintentionally).

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** Fred Mollin's score is hit-or-miss...but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TW-VXYkGLU the jazzy piece]] that plays when Rennie and Sean are in Times Square is so bittersweetly beautiful it can bring '''tears''' to your eyes.
** Likewise, the music [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=415--9WqGrc from the trailer]].
** Metropolis' "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHLQLkFU-pE The Darkest Side of the Night]]", used to both open and close the film. The song itself literally screams mid to late [[TheEighties '80s]] and that it fits quite very well with the opening of the film as it shows both the landscape and atmosphere of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity at night.

* {{Narm}}:
** Jason screaming in some odd animal noise after his mask is removed.
** Jason pushing the fire alarm after a fire started.....that he caused.
** In one scene, Jason attacks Rennie in her cabin. He smashes her window with his head, and reaches through...only the actress is standing too far away, so we get a shot of her ''backing up to get within Jason's reach'' so he can actually grab her.
** Jason ignoring all the hundreds of people in New York to chase a few specific ones across it.
** The fact New York City's sewers flood with toxic waste every night. There's also random barrels of it in alleys.
** Similar to [[Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning the mask used in Part V]], the red markings on the side of the mask make it look like Jason has a mustache in this movie.
** Speaking of the hockey mask, Jim having one to scare his girlfriend at the beginning makes sense...but when you look at it closely, you’ll see that he ''deliberately'' put the axe mark from [[Film/FridayThe13thPartIII Part III]] in there, for no reason other than to be a ContinuityNod, but given it's not the original mask Jason's worn since Part III, it makes it all the more sillier that it’s even on this one to begin with.
** Most viewers agree that it's pretty ridiculous how, instead of running for the door, [[spoiler:Tamara]] just curls up in a corner and repeatedly yells "No" for about ten seconds as Jason gets a weapon to kill her with, even though he is neither blocking her path nor facing her. Four words come to mind: TooDumbToLive.

* TheWoobie: Rennie. Like her or not, it's hard not to feel bad, do to her fear of drowning, which the AlphaBitch uses to get back at her for no reason, and TheReveal that [[spoiler: [=McCulloch=] is indirectly responsible for her phobia, do to almost drowning her in an attempt to teach her how to swim.]] Later, she is drugged by two local thugs in Manhattan, who would have raped and presumably killed her if not for [[VillainousRescue Jason showing up unexpectedly.]]

* TheScrappy:
** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with Rennie. No one really hates her per say, as many do agree that [[TheWoobie her backstory is decently handled]], and some even agree [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking that she's cute]]. But when compared to the rest of the final girls in the series, she's universally seen as the weakest link, with many criticizing her rather plain-jane personality and being void of any emotion throughout most of the film. It doesn't help that she came right after [[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIITheNewBlood Tina]], who is quite popular with the fandom thanks to the beating she gave Jason with her PsychicPowers and also by Creator/LarParkLincoln's LargeHam performance.
** Sean gets hit with this status rather hard, usually unfavorably compared to [[Film/FridayThe13thPartIII Rick]] and [[Film/FreddyVsJason Will]] as the worst male lead in the series. He’s generally disliked for his lack of empathy for those he’s lost to Jason’s wrath, including his ''own father'' and doesn’t make an attempt to step up and take charge when things get bad.

*** Hu also voiced the character Cheshire in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' whose father Sportsmaster wore a hockey mask.

* {{Sequelitis}}: This film tends to be the one most often pointed to as the worst film of the series. Whereas the other unpopular entries in the series tend to be disliked for one particular reason -- ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning A New Beginning]]'' for having [[spoiler:Roy as the killer instead of Jason]], ''[[Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday Jason Goes to Hell]]'' for screwing around with the series' continuity, and ''Film/JasonX'' for its absurd "[[RecycledInSpace Jason in space]]" premise -- this one tends to be considered much more of an all-around failure, in addition to missing the potential of its premise.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** [[AlphaBitch Tamara]] and [[Creator/KellyHu Eva]]. Some agree those two should have at least made it to Manhattan and, in Eva's case, been the FinalGirl. There's also rocker girl J.J., who only had about five minutes of screen time before Jason bashed her head in.
** The producers had originally planned to bring [[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIITheNewBlood Tina]] back to this movie and even planned different plots before finally giving up and creating a new plot with new characters.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** ''Jason Takes Manhattan''. A talented and ambitious screenwriter with a large budget available could have made an exceptional movie with this premise. We could have Jason out of his natural habitat, getting used to the new scenario and creating new tactics to capture his victims; Jason creating chaos and destruction in New York City, with police, criminals, and civilians [[EnemyMine all coming together]] to defeat the new threat; even iconic scenes like Jason in the Statue of Liberty, but despite the title, only a 1/3 of the film happens in Manhattan.
** This movie has a literal [[{{Pun}} boatload of teenagers]]. The opportunities of how Jason picks off each teen one by one are endless, yet out of the over 100 teens onboard the ''Lazarus'', only about a quarter percent, maybe even less, are killed onscreen. The rest of the teens were killed by the boat flooding off-screen.
** Some fans don’t mind the idea of taking him out of Camp Crystal Lake, but felt the film could’ve benefitted more on Jason killing teens on a cruise ship rather than going to Manhattan.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Jason sails a boat to the local harbor...from a lake. He sails a boat...to the ocean...from a closed body of water in the middle of a forest.

* EndingAversion: There are many who feel the first two acts are the better part of the movie as its more in tune to the past entries (teleportating Jason notwithstanding), believing the movie wears out its welcome once it actually gets to Manhattan.

** Why did Julius let Jason take a shot at him? Was he TooDumbToLive by [[HonorBeforeReason trying to make it like a fair boxing match]]? Or did he realize that after his punches had no effect on Jason, he accepted the fact that he wasn't going to get out of his situation alive and just wanted Jason to end it quickly? Considering Julius didn’t even flinch when Jason grabbed him most likely it is the latter.

* CriticalBacklash: Some fans of the franchise ''hate'' this film with a passion, mainly due to the fact that it fails to live up to its impossibly promising premise: [[HypeBacklash Jason in the Big Apple]]. The audience is forced to sit through over 1 hour on the boat before anything interesting happens (wouldn't be the last time [[{{Film/KingKong2005}} cinema-goers had to put up with that underwhelming nonsense of a storyline]]). Some avid critics actually rank this lower than Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning. Yes, that bad.

* CriticalBacklash: Fans of the franchise ''hate'' this film with a passion, mainly due to the fact that it fails to live up to its impossibly promising premise: [[HypeBacklash Jason in the Big Apple]]. The audience is forced to sit through over 1 hour on the boat before anything interesting happens (wouldn't be the last time [[{{Film/KingKong2005}} cinema-goers had to put up with that underwhelming nonsense of a storyline]]). Some avid critics actually rank this lower than Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning. Yes it's that bad.