Chkk-chkk-chkk, Aah-ah-ah. In space!
It’s tempting to catalogue all of the idiotic things that happen in Jason X, but I’m not going to. First, I don’t have the constitution to make this post 10,000 words. Second, I think that’s kind of missing the point. I get the sense that Jason X knows precisely how idiotic it is, and leans into that idiocy with gusto. This is a movie that orchestrates a virtual reality scenario where two topless women offer Jason a beer and a joint, before inviting him to have some premarital sex (“We love premarital sex!”) and crawling into their sleeping bags in order to give him the opportunity to riff on one of the most famous deaths in the entire series. I see what you’re doing, movie.
I always felt like the Friday the Thirteenth series exemplified the type of horror movie where fans tuned in for the kills, ostensibly cheering for the villain. By the tenth installment of the franchise, Jason has made it several hundred years into the future and traveled to space, but that basic truth is even more evident. The whole thing feels like fan service: Novel death scenes (the one involving liquid nitrogen is hall of fame-worthy); Knowing winks to the audience; References to the broader horror universe (including an extended Aliens-inspired sequence and a cameo from David Cronenberg.) Also, Jason is even more unstoppable than before. Towards the end of the film, he gets a cybernetic upgrade that is supposed to make him even more bad-ass, but considering he’s already bullet and explosion proof, it’s hard to tell what that really means.
I don’t really mind the fan-service, either. It makes for a very breezy and fun romp that allows you to disconnect your brain. The approach does sacrifice even the slightest possibility of horror, but its honestly not the scariest franchise to begin with. And it’s sure as hell more fun than some of the other late-entry Friday movies (I’m looking at you Jason Goes to Hell.)
Comments