Jason X - FRIDAY THE 13th X (2001)
Starring: Kane Hodder, Lexa Doig, Jonathan Potts, Peter Mensah, Melyssa Ade
Director: James Isaac
Synopsis: Jason makes history as the first masked psycho to slice and dice in space
Review by Omar Khan

It's been an age since we last saw Jason Voorhees donning his familiar hockey mask and merrily slicing, hacking, skewering and impaling his way through another collection of unfortunate teenagers. By now his body count comfortably exceeds the hundred mark after nine previous *Friday the 13th* adventures.

 

As every horror fan knows, Jason's troubles began back in the 1950s when a group of amorous camp counsellors became so distracted by one another that they neglected the unfortunate youngster, allowing him to drown in the waters of Camp Crystal Lake. Jason himself made only the briefest appearance in the original *Friday the 13th*, with the real villain being his gloriously deranged mother, Mrs Voorhees, played so memorably by Betsy Palmer.

Ever since *Friday the 13th Part 2*, however, Jason has become the unstoppable monster who simply refuses to die.

Or, perhaps more accurately, refuses to die for as long as the box office keeps generating revenue.

Many moons—and indeed many Friday the 13ths—have passed since *Jason Goes to Hell* limped into cinemas back in 1993. The franchise's box-office returns had steadily declined, while the quality had somehow managed to spiral even further downward, a feat that previously seemed almost impossible.

By the early 1990s Jason had evolved from one of horror cinema's great bogeymen into something approaching self-parody. Yet despite the law of diminishing returns, the series continued to command an astonishingly loyal following. Spend five minutes leafing through an issue of *Fangoria* and it quickly becomes apparent that Jason remains one of horror's most recognisable icons, rubbing shoulders with Dracula, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers.

Arguably, only Madonna and Michael Jackson enjoyed greater worldwide recognition at the time—although Jackson was considerably more frightening than Jason ever managed to be.

*Jason X* arrives after years of rumours, abandoned scripts, production delays and repeated announcements that the project had been shelved altogether. Then came Columbine, followed by 9/11, both of which delayed the release still further because of the film's violent content.

Officially scheduled for theatrical release during 2002, the film nevertheless reached eager audiences the traditional way—through remarkably decent-quality pirate VCDs that appeared almost immediately.

Normally I avoid pirated releases like the plague. Anyone who willingly watched Peter Jackson's magnificent *The Lord of the Rings* on VCD deserves little sympathy. *Jason X*, however, was rather different. Firstly, it still hadn't been officially released. Secondly, one suspected that the film's visual splendour would consist largely of dark corridors, copious blood and Jason's machete.

Proceedings begin aboard a futuristic research facility where several unfortunate scientists are conducting experiments on Jason's supposedly lifeless body. Poking hypodermic needles into the eyes of a homicidal serial killer is, predictably enough, not one of modern medicine's better ideas.

Within minutes Jason awakens, retrieves his trusty machete and enthusiastically butchers everyone in sight.

One scantily clad heroine survives long enough for the entire installation to explode, releasing a mysterious cryogenic gas that freezes both beauty and beast for several centuries.

The year is now 2455.

A spaceship crew discovers the frozen pair drifting through space and, displaying the sort of breathtaking scientific judgement normally reserved for horror films, promptly brings them aboard and thaws them out.

The beautiful heroine recovers almost immediately.

Naturally, everyone assumes Jason won't.

Naturally, everyone is wrong.

What follows is essentially *Friday the 13th* meets *Alien*, with generous helpings of *Star Trek*, *Lost in Space*, *The Matrix* and whatever other science-fiction films happened to be lying around the writers' room that week.

Jason promptly resumes his favourite hobby.

Victims are impaled upon giant screws, frozen heads are smashed into glittering fragments, assorted limbs are hacked off and bodies accumulate with admirable efficiency. Later, Jason even receives a futuristic makeover, emerging as something resembling a cross between RoboCop and the Terminator complete with an aerodynamic metallic mask.

To the filmmakers' credit, they never appear to take any of this remotely seriously.

The script delivers one groan-inducing line after another, and I choose to believe that this was entirely intentional. The dialogue is spectacularly dreadful, while many of the situations descend into levels of absurdity rarely witnessed even within this gloriously disreputable genre.

At one point two hormonally distracted student medics are actually instructed to take a break and have sex because they are incapable of concentrating on their work otherwise.

If this wasn't written as a parody, one is left almost speechless.

There are the customary inventive killings, a surprisingly entertaining robotic heroine who dishes out considerable punishment, and enough mayhem to satisfy even devoted Jason enthusiasts. Ultimately, though, the film belongs entirely to its title character, who comfortably pushes his career body count beyond three figures while achieving the unique distinction of becoming cinema's first masked serial killer to terrorise outer space.

It is rather astonishing that this franchise has survived for over two decades and continues shambling onward with the same determination as Jason himself.

Even more amusing is the fact that these films are clearly aimed squarely at the 11–16 age group—the very audience the censors will inevitably try hardest to prevent from seeing them.

Fear not.

This gloriously brain-dead turkey will almost certainly find its way onto video sooner rather than later.

Objectively it's dreadful.

As a future cult movie, however, it may yet have a life beyond the grave—rather like Jason himself.