After Jason Goes To Hell arrived in 1993, horror audiences were stoked for the Freddy Vs. Jason film teased in the finale. For nearly a decade, that clash of horror icons was stuck in New Line’s Development Hell. Producer Sean S. Cunningham was able to get a new film about Jason Voorhees made to make sure people didn’t forget about Friday The 13th. Instead of setting the action back in Crystal Lake, they took Jason to the final frontier….space! This wasn’t too unusual for horror films at this time since it had previously been done with Pinhead and Leprechaun. But unlike those two nightmare beings who stayed the same when in orbit, Jason found a new lease on his undead life when he got into zero gravity during Jason X.
Things aren’t looking good for Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) as he’s chained up by the federal government in a special lab in Crystal Lake. While nobody has a clue how to destroy the evil menace, scientist Rowan LaFontaine (Andromeda‘s Lexi Doig) is going to cryogenically freeze him until a time comes when they can snuff him. This great idea gets wrecked when Dr. Wimmer (Videodrome‘s David Cronenberg) arrives with his troops. He needs to perform experiments on Jason to see how he heals so swiftly so they can produce super soldiers. This ultimately means Jason gets loose thanks the troops screwing things up. Jason slices up the elite troops. Rowan saves the day by freezing Jason. The only downside is she also turned into an Otter Pop. The two are frozen in time as centuries past. A lot of things change including the Earth being too nasty for humanity so they find an Earth 2. A group of youngsters visit the original Earth on a research mission in 2455. They uncover the iced over Jason and Rowan. None of the teenagers in the future went camping and heard the campfire stories about Jason. The visitors foolishly bring Jason and Rowan onto the spaceship so they can be a part of Earth 2. The people of the future make the ultimate mistake of letting Jason defrost. Even though he’s in a brave new world, Jason quickly learns that space age teenagers can get hacked up just like the old fashioned teenagers he slaughtered back in Crystal Lake. Are they really going to be able to stop him with their futuristic ways and weapons?
This is not the usual Friday The 13th film as it strays from the earthbound formula that worked for the first 8 installments in the series. This does have the unexpected twists that were found in Jason Goes To Hell. The movie changes up Jason by giving him a new physique and an intense replacement for his hockey mask thanks to future technology. He doesn’t look like a schlub with a machete in the future. He’s a lean mean killing machine as he goes around the spaceship surprising fresh victims. He does get a surprise from one of his targets. But let’s not give that away.
When Jason X came out in 2002, I thought the teenage characters of the future couldn’t possibly be this stupid. Are we really supposed to believe they’d not only bring Jason into space, but allow him to defrost? Living in 2025, I can now see that screenwriter (and star) Todd Farmer nailed how dumb people of the future could be. We’re 23 years closers to 2455. I can imagine this would happen especially if there’s a defrost a serial killing monster social media challenge happening. Jason X is more real now than when it was released.
It should be noted that soon after the release of Jason X, New Line got the ball rolling and horror fans finally received Freddy Vs. Jason on the big screen.
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfer bring out the new and improved Jason on the spaceship. The 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible). The Audio is DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 stereo. Both mixes sound good when Jason hacks away on the space teenagers. The movie is subtitled in English.
Introduction to the film by actor Kane Hodder (0:43) has a happy message from the star of Jason X.
Brand new audio commentary with film historians Michael Felsher and Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton gives a sense of context to Jason X in the Friday The 13th universe which was rather wide at this point since he was floating in space.
Archival audio commentary with writer Todd Farmer and author Peter Bracke goes into the science fiction elements in the film.
Archival audio commentary with director Jim Isaac, writer Todd Farmer and producer Noel Cunningham gets to what the creative team were trying to do when taking Jason into space. This is great to have since Jim Isaac passed away in 2012. If you want to know how David Cronenberg ended up in the opening of the film, Isaac had been working with him. Cronenberg told him he needed to be a director and not just work in special effects.
Scoring the Stars (9:53) is a fresh interview with composer Harry Manfredini. He talks about his surprise that they were making a Friday The 13th Part 2. But he learned to stop questioning the sequels.
Outta Space: The Making of Jason X (33:10) features interviews with producers Noel Cunningham and Sean S. Cunningham, actor Kane Hodder and writer Todd Farmer. They talk about the frustrations of Freddy Vs. Jason. They talk about Scream changed the horror business at studios. The frustration of getting the faceoff made, had them going back to another solo Jason movie. They talk of a couple other ideas for the film including a snowy slaughter. But space was the place. They came up with a script that they wanted to see. They had to do science fiction effects on a tight budget. Farmer admits where he stole the structure of his script. Hodder was unsure how to make Jason scary in space at first. The film was shoot on 35mm, but making a HD digital negative to save on the effects budget.
In Space No One Can Hear You Scream (23:11) has writer and actor Todd Farmer discuss how the film seems to have aged better. He started working with Sean Cunningham years before they talked about doing a Jason movie.
Kristi Is a Headbanger (11:13) lets actor Kristi Angus admit that she only saw the first three Friday The 13th movies. But hadn’t seen the others when she was cast in Jason X. She has seen them all by now. She went in for a different part. She gets into working with Jason in space.
Jason Rebooted (15:33) has Sean S. Cunningham get into making Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X at New Line. Paramount was never excited about making the first eight films. He thought of the battle between Freddy and Jason. He arranged New Line to make the film, but it wasn’t as smooth as he imagined. Thus he ended up with two Jason movies before the major meeting.
The Many Lives of Jason Voorhees (29:55) gives us the history of the character from when he emerged from Crystal Lake until he shot into space. Joe Bob Briggs is part of the people talking about how Friday The 13th dominated the screens. We also get the American Movie duo. We see the ways Tom Savini devised the special effects for the first movie. Paramount was going at providing the low budget for additional sequels. This was made to promote Jason X.
By Any Means Necessary: The Making of Jason X (17:35) is the original behind the scenes special about the film. Jason Isaac talks about how the idea of putting Jason into space evolved.
Cast and crew interviews (51:42) seems to be the raw interview footage that was used in the making of special.
Behind-the-scenes footage (56:48) has Kane Hodder working with the director on blocking a scene.
Electronic Press Kit (24:49) has all the raw elements your local TV station needs to make a special segment on Jason X hitting theaters. There’s even footage of David Cronenberg smiling on the soundstage.
Theatrical trailers (5:51) has three trailers that let us know bringing Jason into space is not a rocket scientist move.
TV spots (3:18) promises Jason getting an upgrade in the eight commercials that ran on cable. 2455
Stills Gallery includes over 250 images from the production.
Behind-the-scenes and poster galleries has over 50 images of the posters from around the world, lobby cards and the director at work stills.
Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin is suitable for framing.
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new essays by Matt Donato and JA Kerswell.
Arrow Video presents Jason X: Limited Edition. Directed by Jim Isaac. Screenplay by Todd Farmer. Starring Kane Hodder, Lexa Doig, Lisa Ryder, Chuck Campbell, Melyssa Ade, Peter Mensah, Melody Johnson, Derwin Jordan, Jonathan Potts, Phillip Williams, Dov Tiefenbach, Kristi Angus, Dylan Bierk, Amanda Brugel, Yani Gellman, Todd Farmer, Thomas Seniuk, Steve Lucescu and David Cronenberg. Running Time: 92 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Release Date: May 20, 2025.
