Jason X

Review by By Clint Morris

Exploded with dynamite, electrocuted, drowned, pipped apart, beheaded, shot-up by a firing squad... Enough to kill anyone a million times over.

But for Friday the 13th villain, Jason Voohees, it's merely a case of pins and needles. Now in his 10th jaunt, the hockey-masked super slasher has a new playground to slice and dice in -- Space.

And here, no one can hear you scream...

Forgetting that Jason Goes to Hell ever happened, the folks at New Line have Vorhees, complete with every limb, silently waiting to be poked and probed at the Crystal Lake research centre.

Naturally, our avenger sets himself free, cuts up anyone in his way and gets himself cryogenically frozen in a chamber, at the same time causing Rowan (Lexa Doig), one of the scientists, to enter such a frozen state too.

Cut to 2455 A.D, some 540 years later.

A spaceship's crew stumbles upon the frozen duo and brings them aboard their craft. They resurrect Rowan, but leave the grisly looking Jason Voorhes in the state he was bought in. Naturally, Jason's not going to have a piece of this and thaws himself back into a state of indubitable psychosis.

Before we know it, this craft has a madman aboard slicing and dicing any youngster - especially the promiscuous ones - who get in his way.

Jim Isaac's Jason X, while being one of the most inventive of the last 9 sequels in the series, is still a pretty average movie. The cast are obviously extras from Baywatch, except perhaps for Kane Hodder, as Jason, who still strikes a chilling figure in a dark corridor. Perhaps the long-awaited Freddy vs. Jason might do his shapely presence more justice?

Fans will exult a couple of newer elements here, however. The special effects look quite good; spaceships, space stations, the atmosphere... All crafted rather well. The new supped-up looking Jason, who we are introduced to near the film's finale - although looking like a more toned Spawn - is quite a hoot, too.

But best of all is a virtual reality sequence where Jason is presented with a V.R stage of Camp Crystal Lake, used by the prey to deter the killing machine from their tails. It's also nice to see a female character, android Kay-Em 14 (Lisa Ryder), able to hold her own against the menacing Jason.

If the majority of Jason X had been as fresh as it's few surprises, we could have had a conqueror here. Unfortunately, it will probably get passed off as little more than 'just another' chapter in the Friday the 13th series.

Its main problems are the somewhat insupportable dialogue - as cheesy as ever - the token sex scenes we are all so tired of by now, and the lack of insight into the mind and motives of the man that is Jason Voohees.

For a series that was ripped directly from John Carpenter's Halloween, Friday the 13th has had a good run. But with Jason X, it looks like this locomotion has finally run out of steam.

2.5 out of 5

Jason X
Australian release: Thursday August 15
Cast: Kane Hodder, Lexa Doig, Lisa Ryder, Jonathan Potts, Melyssa Ade, Peter Menash, David Cronenberg.
Director: Jim Isaac.
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