Jason X Script Review

The Arrow's Jason X Script Review

JASON X: Script Review

JASON X (The Tenth Friday The 13th movie) is scheduled to be released on August 17, 2001. It’s directed by James Isaac who only has one other directing title to his credit: The Horror Show (House Part 3). The script is written by Todd Farmer. When I first heard that Jason was gonna be slapped in space, I cringed (think Leprechaun 4, Hellraiser 4, Critters 4) but after reading the rough draft of the script, a glimmer of hope came to my eye. Let's check out Jason X.

PLOT CRUNCH: It’s the year 2455. A group of teachers, students and soldiers are visiting “old earth”, kind of a school dig. They come across two bodies that are cryogenically frozen. One is a beautiful girl, the other looks like a hockey player. They bring both bodies back on their ship and thaw them out. When the “hockey player” awakens, he goes on a bloody rampage never equaled by any member of the NHL. You got it: the man is JASON VOORHEES.

LOWDOWN: What would happen if Jason would step on the ALIENS set? What would happen if the screenwriter smoked lots of weed and stopped jerking off, not satisfying his horny needs?? This would happen!

ALIENS: Ripley is found cryogenically frozen, she’s been out for a while. She’s thawed out and due to her knowledge of the creatures (she faced one of them in Alien) she eventually takes charge. Ripley and a bunch of marines go hunt down the beasts. Oh and there’s a slimy executive who keeps on double crossing them cause he wants the creatures alive so they can make him famous.

JASON X: Rowan is found cryogenically frozen (along with Jason), she’s been out for a while. She’s thawed out and due to her knowledge of Mr. Voorhess (she faced him in the past) she eventually takes charge. Rowan, some students and a bunch of soldiers go hunt down hockey puss. Oh and there’s a slimy teacher who keeps on double crossing them cause he wants Jason alive so he can make him famous.

See what I mean? There’s not much originality when it comes to the Jason X plot, specially if you know your Sci-Fi. What makes this flick different is that it’s served with a different kind of sauce.

First, the slasher flick spice is tossed in (This is after all, Friday The 13^th Part 10). And if the movie is anything like this draft, get ready for a blood fest. I won’t spoil any of the murders but I’ll say that they’re very excessive in a “Peter Jackson’ kind of way. Jason is royally pissed off here.

The humor is also very prominent. It follows the current trend of toilet, sex oriented humor “American Pie” style. I personally think it's overdone here. F--king must be the only form of amusement in the future (or maybe the screenwriter didn't perform his daily whacks…”joke”) cause all everybody has on the fritz is sex. If they’re not doing it, they’re talking about it…ALL THE TIME! The students do it, the female Android won’t shut up about it (running joke)…everybody is a horn dog! The dirty talk is sometimes spat out at the most inappropriate moments (like right after a fellow student just got whacked) and that elevates the comedic aspect almost to a kitschy level. The script loses grasp on its humor. One of the last frames of the film echoes a scene from “Dr. Strangelove”, except here it's not a rocket the man is riding…it's Jason Voorhees. I will admit liking the “Sergeant” that just won’t die stuff. It made me laugh but is pretty “Naked Gun”-ish. (remember the O.J. character that would take a beating but never die…same here)

On the other hand the script delivers lots of goods. I already spoke about the gore and we also get crazy sequences in a virtual reality holodeck, Jason playing “Rambo” hunting down the soldiers (Jason is smarter here), a fight sequence that happens in a ZERO gravity environment, a re-visit to “Crystal Lake”, Jason getting a “Terminator” like upgrade which leads him to a fierce battle (lots of rat-tat-tat) against the ships “Android” (Bishop with tits and a foul mouth).

Did I mention that Jason’s mother makes a cameo (Jason NOT happy to see mum), that there’s a shuttle crash, plenty of explosions and enough gun action to make Schwarzenegger jealous?

BOTTOM LINE: If they tone down the humor, this might be one for the books. It's not very original but originality has nothing to do with the fun factor. The script is axed on action and it doesn’t pretend to be anything else but a good, fun time. I don’t expect the film to be as gory as the script (If Cherry Falls couldn’t make it past the censors I doubt this one will) but if they get to keep half of the gore that’s in the script, we’ll be ok. Jason X has the possibility of being great, I just hope they get a handle on that humor! Dr. Dre is not always right…you don’t have to smoke weed EVERYDAY!

A character in the movie is named Adrienne, an homage to Adrienne King, the star of the first Friday flick.

The scene with Jason's mother has been cut out (cause Betsy Palmer wouldn't reprise the role) instead Jas redoes that "sleeping bag" murder bit he did so well in Part 7.