Jason X

Development of Jason X began in the late 1990s while Freddy vs. Jason was still in development hell. With Freddy vs. Jason not moving forward, Jim Isaac and Sean S. Cunningham decided that they wanted another Friday the 13th film made to retain audience interest in the character. The film was conceived by Todd Farmer, who plays "Dallas" in the film, and was the only pitch he gave to the studio for the movie, having suggested sending Jason into space as a means to advance the film series.[7]

The film was filmed during the summer of 1999 in Toronto.[8] The film score was composed and conducted by Harry Manfredini. It was released by Varèse Sarabande on May 14, 2002.[9]

Jason X was released in November 2001 in Spain,[10] and on 26 April 2002 in Los Angeles and New York.[11] A theatrical trailer was released on 9 November 2001.[12][13]

The film was released on VHS and DVD on October 8, 2002.[14] It was released on Blu-ray in 2013, with all of the films in the Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection set.[15]

The film made $13.1 million in the U.S. and $3.8 million internationally for a worldwide gross of $16.9 million, becoming one of the worst-performing films in the series, after Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason Goes to Hell, which made $14.3 million and $15.9 million, respectively.[2]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 20% based on 108 reviews and an average rating of 3.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Jason goes to the future, but the story is still stuck in the past".[16] On Metacritic the film has a score of 25 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.[18]

Roger Ebert gave the movie 0.5 stars out of 4, quoting one of the film's lines: "This sucks on so many levels."[19]

However, the film was better received in the United Kingdom, gaining positive reviews from the country's two major film magazines, Total Film[20] and Empire.[21] Empire's review by Kim Newman in particular praised Jason X as "Wittily scripted, smartly directed and well-played by an unfamiliar cast, this is a real treat for all those who have suffered through the story so far."

Despite the initially negative reception from critics, the film has recently seen a retrospective growth in popularity, particularly among younger fans of the series.[22][23] Praise has been directed at the film's ability to poke fun at itself and the film series as a whole, as well as inventive death scenes; Adrienne's death in particular (head frozen in liquid nitrogen, and then shattered against a table) is often singled out as a highlight, and was even tested on an episode of MythBusters in 2009.[24]

In 2005, Avatar Press published the comic book Jason X Special as a direct sequel to the movie, written by Brian Pulido, with art by Sebastian Fumara and coloring by Mark Sweeney. The comic reveals that a scientist named Kristen intercepted the Grendel's communications and became interested in learning the secrets of Jason's regenerative abilities so she could save her lover Neil as well as the human race, which is still an endangered species barely surviving. To trick the Grendel survivors into bringing Jason to her, she faked the rescue transmission and hacked into their system, using their own holographic technology to convince them they were escaping to Earth Two. This resulted in the deaths of all aboard the Grendel. Aboard her own ship, Kristen then attempts to study Jason X, referring to him as "Uber-Jason." Jason X's new cyborg abilities allow him to take control of Kristen's technology. When she attempts to pass on his regenerative abilities to Neil, the nanites in Jason X's blood corrupt's the man's mind and he stabs her. Kristen's ship then comes across a hedonistic pleasure spaceship called Fun Club. After docking, Jason boards the Fun Club and begins killing the hedonists, ending the story.

In 2006, Avatar Press released a licensed two-issue comic book mini-series called Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Jason X, written and illustrated by Mike Wolfer, with Andrew Dalhouse as colorist. Advertised as a fight between Jason and "Uber-Jason," the mini-series is a continuation of the comic Jason X Special. While Jason X is aboard the Fun Club, the story returns to the Grendel drifting in space where a malfunctioning medical station attempts to revive the half of Jason's head that KM-14 shot off in the movie. Since the nanites cannot revive only "13%" of Jason's body mass into a full living being, it collects the remains of other dead bodies aboard the ship and uses them as raw material. As a result, another version of Jason is resurrected, one who resembles the traditional version. When scavengers board the Grendel, the traditional Jason attacks and then uses their shuttle to reach the nearest ship, the Fun Club pleasure cruiser. There, the revived Jason finds the cyborg Jason X and the two fight while also killing all passengers they come across. Each killer is revealed to have only part of the mind and memory of the original Jason. The battle ends when Jason X defeats and rips out the brain matter of the traditional Jason, merging it with his own and restoring his full memories and personality. The ship crashes on Earth Two and Jason X leaves the wreckage to explore a nearby forest.[5]

After the 2017 release of Friday the 13th: The Game, it was teased that the cyborg Jason X incarnation would be playable in the game the following year. However, Victor Miller, screenwriter of the original film Friday the 13th, exercised his legal creative rights and served a lawsuit regarding residual profits he felt he was owed by the film franchise and tie-in media that resulted from the original movie. As a result, the game halted the release of new characters and features.[25] Although a partial version of Jason X already existed in the game's files and could be activated with a hack, the fully playable version of Jason X was never released for the game.[6]