In the year 2010 at the Crystal Lake Research Center, Jason Voorhees is being kept prisoner. After numerous failed attempts at killing him, the research facility has decided if they can't kill him, they'll freeze him in a cryogenic container, forever. But as always, someone decides that maybe it's better to keep the killer alive, and of course, he escapes. After he's done slaughtering a few people, the one scientist who wanted him frozen, Rowan (Lexa Doig) manages to get Jason into the cryogenic container, but then she herself is stabbed and frozen right along with Jason. Fast forward to 2455 and a group of space student finds these frozen treats and brings them aboard the spaceship. Rowan is revived, and they think Jason is beyond repair, but no, he too rises from the dead and starts killing everyone on board. How will they get rid of Jason this time? They almost succeed by blowing his head apart, but since this is the future, he manages not only to come back to life, but this time, with an upgraded outfit. Out of the dozen or so people we're introduced to in the film, only 2 (and a quarter) survive. And the movie ends with a wide open ending, leaving up waiting anxiously for the 11th chapter in Jason's life.

The only real entertainment I think a person could get from Jason X, is to go with a bunch of buddies and start betting on who will be the next to die. They happen quickly at times, so it'll be important to make your wagers fast. Another good bet would be to wait till you're introduced to all the space ship people, and then make one large wager on who you think will be alive at the end. I was by myself when I saw this movie, and out of the 3 I picked, I only got 1 right, so apparently I need some more work on my horror film picking.

First off, the good points. Let's see, the good points... all the girls were pretty hot, so that was a plus. There was a nice flashback/scene of gratuitous nudity towards the end that I thought was pretty funny. And in that scene they replayed one of my all time favorite Friday the 13th scenes with Jason swinging a girl inside of a sleeping bag into a tree. Can't remember which film that was from but I always liked it. My other favorite Friday the 13th scene came from Jason Takes Manhattan when Jason was on top of a roof and in a fight with some guy. The guy thinks he can outbox Jason so he starts punching, and Jason just stands there taking it, then Jason hits the guy once, and the guy's head flies off. That was pretty funny, and that happened in this film too.

Now the bad points. I can't name them all without having you all fall asleep, so I'll name just a few. The acting was pretty frightening, even for a horror film with no name stars in it. It wasn't all the actors fault, the writing was pretty hammy as well. Heck the entire story was rather annoying. Taking Jason into the future and killing people on a space ship. Was there nothing they could find for him on Earth? A friend of mine the other day said something to me that made a lot of sense. The reason the older horror films like the original Friday the 13th, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street or Texas Chainsaw Massacre were so scary was because it happened to real, everyday people, and in theory could happen to anyone watching the film. Heck, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was even based on a true event. I mean, how many of us went to summer camp? Watching the original Friday the 13th, at least you could believe that in all possibility a deranged mother would come back to the camp her son died in, and exact her revenge on the most recent set of camp counselors (lest we forget Jason wasn't in the original film). But now this icon of horror is taken away from his familiar surroundings and placed in outer space, where none of us will be in our lifetime. While this may be reading too much into a cheesy horror film I thought it was a valid point.

The other thing that I really noticed was the music. Or rather, the lack of it. A good horror film has good horror film music in it to add suspense to the action. This movie seemed to lack anything like that so whenever Jason would suddenly appear from the shadows, it was more like, oh, yeah, there he is again. There wasn't even a hint of trying to scare the audience. The one thing I really liked about Halloween: H20 was that they used old school techniques to scare people. Michael standing in the shadows, thunder in the background, a lightning bolt suddenly lights Michael up, and then when the dead person to be turns around, Michael's disappeared, only to be right behind the victim when he turns around again. Then the music hits and people scream. In Jason X there was no screaming, no reason to scream even.

Overall, Jason X was a bad misstep in the Friday the 13th series. At least the ending gave you a hope of another sequel that could take us back to the glory days of horror films, as long as the right person comes along and makes it. Even the nostalgia factor couldn't save this movie from itself.

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