You are never truly dead until the killing stops, and that seems to be the motto for your standard slasher flick. Nothing typifies this basic premise more than the Friday 13th films. After nine films Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) has done it all and with more than 240 dead bodies to his credit, killed them all.
He slain them on the summer camp circuit, grilled them on the cruise ship circuit, and knocked them dead in Manhattan, what’s next for Jason to do? Why Space of course.After trying to hang him, electrocute him, kill him with a firing squad and blowing him up, the military decides that since they can’t kill evil, the best they can hope for is containment. So they decide the best option is to freeze him in a cryogenic chamber and hold him in a military bunker underground. At least that was the original plan, until a Doctor (a funny cameo appearance by director David Cronenberg) has other plans, he would rather study him. Team leader Rowan (Lexa Doig), and of course the audience knows this is a very bad idea. Somehow Jason and Rowan end up frozen and get thawed out 450 years later, and wind up on spaceship and the killing starts again.Ok, that’s enough of the plot, what you really care about are the death totals, and the style of dispatches. On this score, Jason X kind of falls down on the bloodlust. Sure there are a few good moments, such as when he smashes a victims frozen head into the table, or when he beats two women with a sleeping bag, those were inspired moments, the rest of his 25 kills are all “”by the numbers”” – walk up behind slit the throat, choking, or the always effective machete through the back, type of stuff. While I dreaded watching this film, as I’m not a fan of the genre. To be honest, just watching a Friday 13th trailer is enough to give me nightmares for a few days; I was pleasantly surprised by Jason X. They had the nerve to go all high-tech on us, and give us some brilliant sci-fi style special effects (for a slasher film, and a Friday 13th film no less) and dare I say it? The acting and directing was also pretty stellar (again for the genre), and as much as I dislike Jason as a character, in Jason X there was a real “”logic”” to everything that he did. Jason X doesn’t take the slasher genre to any new heights, but it also doesn’t sink to new lows either, if you are a fan of horror films, especially ones that mix a little sci-fi into it, then this movie is worth checking out. Movie Grade C+ DVD EXTRASNewline Cinema knows DVDs, and knows how to make them great buys. The Jason X DVD is not as packed as Newline’s other Platinum Edition DVDs, but the little that is there, is very good. There’s a great 1/2 hour documentary that goes into the history of Jason X, and there’s a nice 19 minute behind the scenes documentary, a couple of commentary tracks, and a nifty little “”jump to a death”” feature that allows you to skip to a death scene. The overall presentation of the menu screens and extras work well with this disk, though due to the lack of extras, this package doesn’t really deserve the “”Platinum Edition Label.”” Extra Features Grade B FINAL PACKAGE GRADE C+