10 Horror Movies That Lied About Their Premise

2. Jason Takes (A Small Part Of) Manhattan... Eventually

From The Depths
Paramount

It's admittedly a huge guilty pleasure of your writer, but there's no denying that so much of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan just makes absolutely no sense.

What horror hounds were promised, was a movie where Jason is rampaging in the Big Apple, slicing 'n' dicing any poor souls who happen to get in his way. Instead, what audiences actually got, is a picture which spends barely 20 minutes of its 100-minute run time in New York City.

How exactly does Jason take Manhattan? Like, he kicks some kid's boombox over, kills a cop, and famously punches the head off the shoulders of V.C. Dupree's Julius. Can that be classed as a taking of Manhattan? Of course not. It's the sheer lack of time in NYC that's the real kicker, though, for this eighth Friday the 13th film was billed as Camp Crystal Lake's most iconic son on a lengthy tear through Times Square and beyond.

Added to the utter confusion of this offering, when did Camp Crystal Lake become attached to the ocean, why was it deemed logical to sail to New York rather than go by car or train, and why the f**k did somebody think it was wise to develop a movie that basically dumped Jason on the Loveboat?!

Still, 100% a guilty pleasure film.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.