You know a franchise is on the rise when they finally make it to space. I mean all the best horror movies take place in space with Alien, Aliens, Event Horizon and that’s really about it. I guess I could Leprechaun in Space on this list, but I don’t want to do it, not right away anyways. But this was really the only logic place that they could take the Jason franchise after he took Manhattan or whatever. So prepare for a journey into a terribly bad, but entertaining movie.
Early in the 21st century, Jason is experimented upon by army technocrats who hope to turn his supernatural invulnerability into a military application. Most of them meet a swift and bloody end — except Rowan (Lexa Doig), a beautiful functionary, who traps the killer in a cryogenic stasis chamber. Unfortunately, she takes a machete blow in the process, gets frozen herself, and wakes up on a spaceship in the year 2455. The earth has long since been rendered uninhabitable, but the survivors include a group of archaeological students headed by Professor Lowe (Jonathan Potts), who hopes to make a quick buck by selling the corpse of the historical serial killer. The kids re-animate Rowan with the help of nanotechnology. Little do they know that a mere thaw job is enough to resuscitate Jason and reawaken his bloodthirst. Soon, the comely students and their space-marine protectors are being dispatched one by one. Help arrives in the form of a holographic chamber and an android named Kay-Em 14 (Lisa Ryder). Soon, though, Jason himself gets an upgrade — just as the spaceship is getting ready to self-destruct. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
This movie lands squarely on my so bad it’s good film list. The series had what, one maybe two good movies in the franchise? Make no mistake that the series really just becomes a parody of itself while still delivering enjoyable horror movie kills from the masked killer himself. They definitely up the graphic nature of the kills and series does become far more comical because of the increasing tropes that are used to lengthen the lifespan of a series. You know you reach a funny apex when they have to make the villain even more godlike and then take the setting to an even more extreme location like space or underwater. It’s the last gasp of a franchise that realizes that to stay relevant, they have to become a parody of itself.
But this movie some how understands that realization and embraces it, as Jason X is is god awful, but surprising fun and exciting to watch. They realize what they are doing and give us, the audience, the kills and cheap thrills we want. I love it for that. The deaths are wanton in their display of the brutality and comical effects that he dispatches people. For a giant, lumbering death machine, he moves like a fucking ninja in this movie. I swear, he is able to sneak up and break necks on people without making a sound. The movie has two awesome kills, mainly the face smashing scene and then when Jason himself, in the non-upgrade form, is being blown up bit by bit. It’s satisfying and there was clearly more thought put into the deaths than the story or everything else.
Jason X is a horror movie…I guess…but it’s really just another entry in the franchise that gives us really what we want. I mean the first movie did the job of setting up the lore of Jason, so we can be grateful for that at least. It’s a fun movie to watch, no doubt about it since the premise of the movie is Jason in space, therefore everything goes out the window. The hapless teens are just toes the line between compelling and cannon-fodder, never minding when their dramatic death comes up. It’s the perfect midnight watch, mixing the comedic value of a cybernetic Jason and idiotic teens picking up a well known serial killer who is practically invincible and then the pure cheese of the horror elements and that Jason we all know and love.
