10 Terrible Horror Movies With Amazing Concepts
9. Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Given that the Friday the 13th franchise managed to deliver a fun "Jason in Space" movie in Jason X, plonking the big guy in the middle of Manhattan should've been a friggin' cakewalk. Yet Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan fritters the potential-riddled premise of finally moving far away from Camp Crystal Lake and having Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) slice his way through the Big Apple by... actually setting most of the movie somewhere else entirely.
The film's $5.5 million budget didn't allow for extensive location shooting in New York, and so the overwhelming majority of Jason Takes Manhattan is set on a boat heading to the borough.
Only a scattered few minutes near the end of the movie are demonstrably set in New York, and aside from neat moments like Jason turning up in Times Square and stalking through a subway car full of utterly unbothered New Yorkers, the film does nothing fun or interesting with the idea. Hell, the climax takes place not on or around a famous NYC landmark but... a random sewer. Great.
If Paramount hadn't been so damn cheap with the budget - despite this admittedly being the most expensive Friday film at that point - it might've actually lived up to its glorious title.