Jason X is the tenth instalment in the Friday The 13th series and if you think it's going to stop before it reaches the cheesy high point of Friday The 13th part 13 then you are seriously deluded. However this bloody minded devotion to the cult of silly titles that has probably been the saving grace of the series to date has now been joined by an attempt at originality, of a form. Jason X is worthy of passing mention thanks to the producers junking the formula they'd done to death in the past 9 films and instead making a sci-fi movie with a post-ironic Scream sensibility.
In the year 2045 (think how many the series will be up to by then!) Earth is no longer habitable and so humans now live out in the reaches of space. A team goes back to Earth and uncovers two cryogenically frozen body. One belongs to an improbably good looking woman who seems to have a penchant for displaying her assets (shall we say) and the other turns out to be Jason, everyone's favourite psycho killer. Before you know it people's guts are no longer on the insides of their bodies and it's time to start making bets on which poor sap is going to die next.
Ever since Wes Craven unleashed the genre re-defining Scream makers of trash horror have had to make the choice of whether to play it straight and risk looking a but dull and anal or to whoop it up in the hope the audience won't mind how trashy the film becomes. Jason X goes for the latter and sometimes it is difficult to determine when the film is trying to be intentionally funny and when it is just being playing stupid.. My personal favourite of the one liners is when a far too clean cut Hollywood starlet type has just enough time to shout "This sucks on so many levels" before being mutilated and killed in spectacular fashion. Seriously, horror movies don't get much more fun than that.
The Bond franchise may be ten films ahead in terms of quantity and light years ahead in quality, but then again they did have a 20 year head start and a decent premise to start with. Jason X cannot really be recommended as a well-made piece of entertainment, but if you are in the right mood or are drunk enough it will pass 90 minutes pretty effectively.