I’m a huge Friday the 13th fan. I remember the first time I saw Jason Voorhees on screen was in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (my mom basically stole it after I neglected to return it to West Coast Video); I instantly fell in love.
As a kid I enjoyed the gore, violence, nudity and the occasional humor. The franchise has always gotten a bad rep from non-horror fans (which is to be expected). Though, a few films in the franchise get hated on even within the horror community. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning often gets criticized for not featuring the actual Jason.
The film that inspires the most vitriol is the tenth entry of the series, fittingly titled Jason X. The movie finds Jason being sent into outer space. Sounds stupid? That’s because it is; incredibly so. I have no intentions of trying to defend this film in any way, but I will say that the film is not completely without merit. As far as B-horror movies go with camp, and cheese, this isn’t bad.
Wait, would that be considered defending this movie? Screw it, today we’re going to look at some of the lamest/awesome reasons to re-watch Jason X tonight.
5. David Cronenberg
You forgot he played in this movie, didn’t you? David Cronenberg has directed some of our favorite horror films of all time; from Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), A History of Violence (2005) and endless others. It is a rare thing to see him on the other side of the camera.
In Jason X, Cronenberg plays Dr. Wimmer, a member of the government who idiotically is under the believe that he has Jason properly under captivity. He of course doesn’t; Jason breaks free of his restraints and kills everybody in the room. Dr Wimmer gets a machete through the back. Cronenberg isn’t a particularly good actor, but it’s still kind of cool to watch him get brutally murdered.
4. The Liquid Nitrogen Kill
When Jason is revived in the year 2455 he wastes no time and promptly takes out his first victim. In one of the greatest death scenes of the entire franchise Jason takes a poor interns head, freezes it in liquid nitrogen and smashes it on a counter. You can hate the movie all you want, but you cant deny the awesomeness of this kill!
3. KM 14
KM 14 is an android who upgrades halfway through the movie from an uninteresting robot to a sexy badass motherf*****! Watching her ridiculously and hilariously kick Jason’s ass is truly a sight to see. It’s so stupid it’s actually great.
2. Hologram Boobies
One of the perks of setting a movie in the future is guessing what futuristic technology will be like. The future according to Jason X will feature holograms that can resemble hot babes quite accurately. During the climax of the film, the would be victims try to distract Jason with two hologram girls. These girls offer Jason a beer, some pot, they strip naked and then proclaim, “we love premarital sex.”. Jason, of course isn’t a fan of any such thing. He promptly dispatches them.
1. It’s Kane Hodder’s Last Outing As Jason
Kane Hodder has played Jason Voorhees in four F13 movies; Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) and of course Jason X. Hodder is widely considered to be the greatest actor to portray the character; ironic considering he starred in some of the worst of the franchise.
Nevertheless, this final entry on the list is meant to strike a nostalgic chord more than anything else. Hodder wouldn’t don the mask again until that very awkward sex scene with Danielle Harris on Fearnet’s Holliston. If you’re a fan of the Friday the 13th films, and more importantly a fan of Hodder’s, give this film a re-visit. He’s just as good in it as he was in any of the previous films. He couldn’t help it if the film was utterly preposterous. Well, I guess he could have agreed not to do it. But, that’s neither here nor there.
Jesse Gumbarge is editor-in-chief at JarvisCity. He’s a fan of old-school horror flicks and starting pointless debates. You can contact him at JesseGumbarge@JarvisCity.com.
Maybe it was the nostalgic memory of being surrounded by my now-distant cousins while having watched it, i loved that movie.
It’s amazing how much the environment/people we watched a movie with can affect our lasting impression of the film.
Thank you for picking the Liquid Nitrogen Kill scene as one of the best kill scenes of the series. But I would have to say that kill scene is one of the most clever ways I’ve seen someone killed in all movies, quite frankly. That was awesome…….
Can’t believe the writer didn’t mention the call-back to the infamous
Sleeping Bag kill from Part VII – best part of the Hologram scene,
probably the best part of the whole flick.