When I was growing up in Illinois in the 90s, the local TV stations had specialized daytime programming blocks on Saturdays. After the cartoons and kid’s game shows were finished at noon, they would air a sci-fi/fantasy block until 4pm. I have distinct memories of watching shows like Xena: Warrior Princess and Stargate SG1 as the sun shifted in the sky to shine through the slats in the blinds onto the TV, making the darker bits of the shows nearly impossible to watch. Those shows all had a feel to them that came from occasionally hokey acting (intentional or otherwise) and budget-stretching special effects. Now, whenever I see something made in the vein of those Saturday afternoon shows, like Jason X, I’m brought right back to those lazy weekends, laying on the floor with my toys and half-watching the weird sci-fi show on the old television set.
Jason X is a 2001 sci-fi/horror film directed by Jim Isaac, who previously had worked on the special effects for films like Return of the Jedi and Gremlins. It was written by first-time screenwriter Todd Farmer, who had the monumental task of writing the tenth installment in the Friday the 13th series as well as reviving the dormant franchise. Did he succeed? Um… Let’s talk about that…
It’s now said that when a series has no place left to go, it goes to space. Leprechaun did it and it worked, so why not Jason? Farmer had to write a stand-alone Jason movie that wouldn’t clash with Freddy vs. Jason, which was still in development at that time, so not only was space a fresh playground for Jason to play in, it avoided any potential continuity issues (Pffft! Ha ha ha ha! *wipes tear) with FvJ. What could go wrong?
TL;DR: A lot.
To clear the air, I’m not writing a scathing review of this film. The intent of this article is not to tear this movie apart for all its faults, but rather to account for those faults as part of the overall enjoyment experience.
After Jason Goes to Hell did an excellent job of explaining Jason and his powers (he’s a Deadite!) and took him out for good, they had to find a way to bring him back. How do we do that? “Eh, he’s just back and don’t ask questions.” See, somehow Jason came back from hell (remember, Jason X came out two years before Freddy vs. Jason, so his resurrection wasn’t yet explained) and he’s being held captive in a secret facility in Crystal Lake, the ever-changing idyllic murder capital of New Jersey. He’s supposed to be cryogenically frozen, but the government intervenes and wants to use him as a weapon. Well, surprise! Jason escapes and murders his way through the facility until the scientist Rowan (played by Lexa Doig) tricks Jason into the cryogenic chamber and, after being stabbed through the chamber door by Jason, freezes him in stasis before seemingly succumbing to her wounds.
Oh, see, now THERE'S your problem.
Fast forward 400+ years and a team of student researchers discovers the cryogenically frozen Jason and Rowan (in the chamber that somehow wasn’t disturbed for centuries and still has power) and decides to bring them back to the ship to revive Rowan and study Jason. Here’s where the movie really gives me that old Saturday afternoon feeling.
The space ship and all the crew are VERY early 00s. The clothing (including the seemingly mandatory bare mid-rifts for the ladies), the ship’s aesthetic, the pew pew guns, the ATTITUDES, all of it feels very “of its time” stylistically. You see this too with 70’s sci-fi like Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. It all has a “feel” of that decade that bleeds through despite it being set in the future (or long ago in a galaxy far, far away). This stylistic perception is likely lost on a younger generation that hadn’t lived it or has seen as many movies as your truly has, but to those who remember, you’re taken right back.
Jason is not gonna approve, young lady.
I mentioned how the ship’s aesthetic plays into the stylistic perception of the early 00s, but it also is a symptom of writing to create a space for one specific thing, which in this case is killing. Jason is not as dead as the crew thought and now he’s loose on the ship, after having woken up just as everyone was having some hugging and kissing time, and is tearing his way through sexy co-eds and buff soldiers (who are totally LEGALY DISTINCT from the Space Marines in Aliens) in a spaceship that has everything an undying murder-man could want. It’s got cargo holds that resemble laser tag arenas. It’s got very large and very dangerous rusty four-pronged cargo hooks, it’s got doors that just can’t seem to stop him, and when they do, there’s conveniently a window for him to smash through. It definitely feels like the design of the spaceship was pieced together scene by scene, with its overall layout getting neglected to allow Jason and his victims to get from point A to B and so on.
One co-ed down. And she was actually working and NOT hugging and kissing.
Oh, and speaking of points, Jason gets a space machete that’s apparently a surgical tool. Not sure how it’s used for surgery and I’m not sure I want to know, but it sure looks cool and goes with his extreme new look!
See, Jason ends up being defeated 3/4s of the way through the movie by an android (that is totally LEGALY DISTINCT from the androids in Aliens) and is left in a seemingly destroyed surgical bay. Our heroes neglect to move the body, so the damaged machinery thinks it has a patient and releases nanobots to save them. But oh no! They resurrected Jason and gave him an upgrade! He’s now Mecha Jason and he wants revenge!
Mecha Jason Activate!
This movie is overall a mostly-unintentional silly mess, but there’s no denying that Mecha Jason is hella fun in a way that far outweighs just how stupid the whole idea is. Points are due for going all out with the crazy notion to make Jason a cyborg. He looks cool and the idea of this legendary killer being infused with super-everything is straight out of the finest fan fiction the (then budding) internet could supply. On paper it sounds great, but in practice here, in this movie, it’s hilariously bonkers.
Once Mecha Jason appears, this is where the movie kind of starts to lean into being a parody of itself. Prior to this it played things mostly straightforward as a sci-fi/horror film that’s largely going through the checklist of what the audience expects. However, now it feels as if Todd Farmer is writing the movie very tongue-in-cheek as a knowing wink to how cheesy and silly the whole thing is. One scene (which is one of two memes this film produced) makes this theory very apparent, when in an attempt to distract Mecha Jason, he is lured into a simulation of Crystal Lake in the 80s. There he sees two scantily-clad coeds who engage him. They take their tops off and ask Jason if he likes “doing drugs and having premarital sex” before getting into their sleeping bags so Jason can kill them. In the context of the film, it’s an approximation of what the “advanced” space-farers know about the past. But to the viewer, it’s a sly acknowledgment to the inane premise and history of the character we all love.
We're in trouble...
And we do love Jason. Which is why we can still enjoy the absolutely bonkers installment in the franchise that is Jason X. It’s not a good movie. We KNOW that. That’s not why we watch it. We watch it because it puts the character in a completely insane situation and lets him run free. We’re not watching for the character development or to see a reflection of our lives in the story. We’re watching to see an undying cyborg serial killer run amok with deadly futuristic weapons, racking up kill after unique kill, whittling down the group of co-eds until a hero emerges to stop him forever.*
*Or until they get the rights sorted out and are able to make a sequel, which as of writing looks to be happening as a TV show. Though I’m not saying it’s happening until it actually airs, because we all know how these things go….