Because today is a like a full blown holiday in the world of horror, and because it is also Sci-Fi horror month here on A Slice of Horror, we are excited to do a special extra review this week. And, as it is the most fitting movie in the Friday the 13th series for science fiction, we are reviewing Jason X!
Jason X is like the odd child of the entire Friday the 13th franchise. The whole story, the entire concept in fact, doesn't really fit with the true Jason lore. It doesn't connect to any of the previous films and certainly does not, and will never, have connections to any movies that come afterwards.
For most horror fans Jason X is an abomination. It is the least loved movie in the series, except for perhaps the remake--but that comparison is a pretty close call. Jason X takes us out of the camp ground, out of the wilderness, and out of this world. Jason X should have basically just been named Friday the 13th Part 10: Jason Goes to Space.
Jump ahead 445 years and a small ship full of teenage science majors land on the planet Earth. They find he cryo-chamber room and bring the lab assistant and Jason on board their ship. They revive the lab assistant and she tells them that Jason is dangerous and shouldn't be allowed on the ship. But, for the sake of science, the crew (stupidly) decides to keep him on board.
The movie after this point turns into the strangest Alien ripoff in horror history. Jason thaws from him stasis and begins to kill everyone on the ship. But, what is worse, is that Jason eventually "gets an upgrade." He is reconstructed as a crazy superhuman monster that could kill anyone and anything that gets in his way. It comes to the small remnants left of the crew to survive his onslaught and get rid of Jason once and for all.
Jason X is in fact a strange installment that in many ways doesn't deserve the title of Friday the 13th. Instead, it feels like we are reading a Jason meets Aliens fanfiction piece. The writing, including the plot, the characters, and the dialogue, all come off in an fairly amateur manner. Ultimately, this is just poorly written an Alien clone.
However, thanks to Kane Hodder who played Jason, the movie has some small redeeming qualities. See Hodder as Jason is just pure fun. Even if he is in space--which is ludicrous--some of the kill scenes were fun to watch. And seeing mega Jason step out of the regeneration chamber and come after the kids was pretty damn cool. However, the times they used CGI for the kills were fairly horrid looking.
The biggest kicker that sinks this film is that Jason--the only cool/entertaining/redeeming quality of the movie--could be easily replaced with almost any other villain, alien, or killer. The is a movie that is fairly wrote and cliche but just happens to have our favorite psychopath, Jason, in it.
Summing It Up
Deaths: 27
Language: 4
Gore Factor: 4
Sex Factor: 3
Scare Factor: 3
Fun Factor: 2
Overall Rating: 3