JASON X (2001)

 

DIRECTED by Jim Issac

SCREENPLAY by Todd Farmer based on characters created by Victor Miller

STARRING  - Kane Hodder as Jason Vorhees/Uber Jason,  Lexa Doig as Rowan LaFontaine,  Lisa Ryder as Kay Em 14,  Chuck Campbell as Tsunaron Peyton,  Melyssa Ade as Janessa Zachary,  Peter Mensah as Sargeant Elijah Brodsky,  Melody Johnson as Kirra "Kinsa" Cooper,  Derwin Jordan as Waylander,  Jonathan Potts as Professor Brandon Lowe,  Phillip Williams as Trevor "Crutch" Crutchfield,  Dov Tiefenbach as Azrael Benrubi,  Kristi Angus as Adrienne Thomas,  Yani Gellman as Stoney,  David Cronenberg as Dr. Aloysius Wimmer,  Boyd Banks as Louis "Fat Lou" Goddard.

PLOT - The year 2008 - Mass killer Jason Vorhees is finally captured and imprisoned in the Crystal Lake Research Facility, it is hoped that his supernatural regenerative abilities can be harnessed for the good of medical science...

The year 2010 - Jason attempts to escape. He is thwarted by research scientist Rowan LaFontaine who cryogenically freezes Jason. However Rowan is injured in the process and ends up accidentally freezing herself also...

The year 2455 - Planet Earth is a polluted dead world. Mankind now lives amongst the stars. A group of archaeology students led by the unscrupulous Professor Brandon Lowe arrive on Earth on a field trip. They enter the long abandoned Crystal Lake Research Facility and find the frozen bodies of Jason and Rowan.

Taking the bodies back to thier spacecraft- The Grendel - Rowan is revived by nanotechnology. Unfortunately Jason is also revived and soon embarks on a new killing spree in the lonely depths of space.

Can the newly awakened Rowan and the frightened teens survive ? And what will happen when the ship's computer decides to "upgrade" Jason Vorhees ? If you thought Jason was bad, just wait until you meet Uber Jason...

PERFORMANCES  - Stuntman actor Kane Hodder returns for the final time to play Jason Vorhees in this tenth entry in the series. Out of the several actors to have donned the famous hockey mask over the years, Hodder is the name most associated with the role and seems to be the fan favourite. 

It's easy to see why - Hodder manages to imbue Jason with a lot more personality than the other actors portraying him did. Hodder's Jason isn't just a remorseless, lumbering, undead psychopath - he's a remorseless, lumbering, undead psychopath with attitude. Hodder's Jason always seems to be in a bad mood and ALWAYS seems to be having just as bad a day as the various unfortunate victims that he stalks, slashes and generally hacks into little bits. It's a small thing but it makes this version of Jason seem a lot more human in his way and is definitely a lot more fun to watch. Also Hodder is built like a brick shithouse which definitely makes his Jason the most physically intimidating of the lot...especially when he gets jacked up even further into his cyborg "Uber Jason" form.

Every good slasher villian needs a decent final girl and we get one here in the form of Lexa Doig as Rowan LaFontaine. 

Doig is pretty good in the role - she's actually pretty much a "double final girl" really - she's the only survivor of the massacre at the Crystal Lake Research Facility which takes place in the film's prologue and then she's also the final human female survivor at the end of the film (human female survivor you say ? Yes, the female android Kay Em 14 survives but her body is destroyed and she only survives in the form of a sentient severed head, presumably her boyfriend/inventor Tsunaron (Chuck Campbell) will build her a new body). Throughout the film Rowan is shown to be resourceful and strong (she'd need to be going up against Uber Jason). 

My only beef with the character is that she's a little bit too cool about everything. She doesn't even get slightly fazed by the fact that she's been revived hundreds of years in her future, that her homeworld is a wrecked polluted mess and that everyone and everything she's ever known is long dead and gone. Didn't she have a family or friends that she's going to miss and mourn ? A boyfriend ? Lovers ? A cat or dog ? Even a slight acknowledgement of the life she's lost would have been nice and added tons more depth to the character...but nope...nothing. 

There are some decent supporting characters, including Jonathan Potts as Professor Brandon Lowe (a real sleazebag who sleeps with students and is constantly out for himself. At one point he even tries to cut a deal with Jason to save his own skin... It doesn't go well). Melyssa Ade plays Janessa (who is having an affair with Lowe solely so she can pass her course - she's quite fiesty and very easy on the eye)...

We also get Peter Mensah as Sargeant Elijah Brodsky - a tough, no nonsense space marine who finally takes down Uber Jason. Seeing as this film is set at the furthest point in the far off future and there have yet to be any more sequals, is Brodsky the man who finally succeeds in killing Jason Vorhees ? I guess only time will tell...

We also get a cameo in the prologue by horror director David Cronenberg playing Dr Wimmer. He doesn't last long but its always good to see him turn his hand to acting as he has quite a menacing screen presence in his own right.

SFX  - Lots of the typical blood and guts that you'd expect in a slasher movie.

Jason gets two designs in this film - a modified version of his usual look (he seems to have more hair than we usually see him with). You also get to see more of his eyes than you do in some of the other Jason movies. This is a good thing as it allows Hodder to emote a bit more and give Jason more personality.

And then there's his cyborg "Uber Jason" form...

We get a CGI alien monster at one point. It's not aged well and looks like something out of a late 90's console game, however - seeing as the monster is a creation of the Grendel's holodeck (and is supposed to be computer generated anyway) this isn't so much of a problem as it otherwise would be.

Speaking of dodgy CGI - the nanobot scenes all look a bit dated and ropey (as does some of the holodeck "gore")...

We also get some halfway decent spaceships and space station shots.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - At one point we get to see what Janessa and Professor Lowe get up to when they're not accidentally excavating frozen undead serial killers. It basically involves Janessa wearing a leather dominatrix outfit and using nipple clamps on Professor Lowe. He seems to quite enjoy this.

A pair of students having slightly more conventional sex is what finally awakens Jason from his centuries of cryogenic slumber. Well it would do wouldn't it...we all know where Mr Vorhees stands on the issue of premarital sex.

At one point Jason gets taunted by a pair of topless female holograms when he finds himself back on the holodeck. He doesn't think much of it...

As for violence, Jason X probably has the biggest bodycount of any of the Friday The 13th movies, so I'll just tell you about some of the best kills.

David Cronenberg gets impaled...

A girl gets her face dunked in liquid nitrogen causing her head to freeze and then be shattered into a million frozen bloody pieces...

A space marine gets impaled on a giant corkscrew. "He's screwed" quips his platoon mate in a line worthy of the great Arnie Schwarzenegger himself.

Jason gets into a fight with sexy android Kay Em 14 and gets blown to a bloody pulp. Unfortunately, the ship's computer mistakes him for a crew member and uses nanotechnology to revive him as Uber Jason. Who said A.I. was a good thing ?

Uber Jason doesn't take kindly to being chatted up by naked female holograms and proceeds to beat them to death by smashing them together in thier own sleeping bags...

Jason punches a hole in the spaceship's wall and Janessa gets sucked into space but gets shredded through the hole first...

Finally Jason gets ejected into space and (using his Jetpack) Brodsky manoeuvres both himself and Jason into the atmosphere of a nearby planet, causing Jason and himself to burn up on re-entry.

RATING  - Depending on how you look at it Jason X is either the best or the absolute worst Friday The 13th movie.

Some fans hate it because it strays too far away from the series' more traditional horror trappings and treads too far into outright sci-fi territory. Other fans like it because it tries something different.

Me ? I'm definitely in the second category. Jason X is a fun, silly, sci-fi/horror romp that has it's tongue placed firmly in it's cheek. Jason in space sounds ridiculous precisely because it is and this film KNOWS that and that's why its entertaining from start to finish. 

4 and a half cyborg maniacs out of 5.

ART - 

Below - various covers to the (inevitable) comic book spin-off series and a further series of prose novels. Just goes to show you can't keep a good (bad) man down...but are they canon ? Who knows...who cares ?