IHR Induction #20: "Night of the Living Dead" (1968, George Romero)

So we're past the "Friday the 13th" franchise, which is henceforth to be dead and buried...for good. And I'm not going to lie, it feels fantastic. It had gotten to the point where I had dreams involving big-breasted bimbos coming on to me, followed by yours truly being interrupted mid-coitus by Mr. Voorhees himself and stabbed repeatedly with various slashy implements. In short, F13, I love you, but it's good to have you completely exorcised.

So, we go from my favorite subgenre of horror (slasher cinema) to my least favorite (zombie films). Ugh, zombie films. It seems like there have been approximately 15,000 zombie films in the last year ALONE, and for the life of me I just cannot see why so many people see them as awesomeness personified. For the most part, they're incredibly one-note. Humanity as a whole, or at least a country, is threatened by zombie apocalypse, group of survivors band together, followed by a 99% likeliness that said group of survivors will bicker to no end, ironic/tragic ending where either (a) the zombies win, or (b) the humans beat themselves.

I even routinely trash some of the movies that various horror nerd/internet fanboys hold up as de facto sacred cows. Want some examples? I've seen Lucio Fulci's "Zombi" once, and that was enough. Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" has plenty of blood and guts, sure, but little other redeeming value beyond that. Then there's the series that's loved by GEEKS, NERDS and POINDEXTERS (to channel R.D. Reynolds here for a moment) everywhere - Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" series. Its hordes of marauding fans love to slather praise on due to Bruce Campbell's acting (if you want to call it that), the greatness of Ash as a hero character, and its "awesome blend of horror and comedy" when really its only defining characteristic is that it was the series of movies that could never decide what it wanted to be, and had to morph into full-on comedic cheesefest due to the fact that Raimi failed in such an epic fashion at crafting a horror film with the original "Evil Dead" that the sequels became comedies by default.

But zombie movies are here, and they're here to stay. So, you want to know where this endlessly repeated convention came from? Look no further. To be sure, "Night of the Living Dead" is one of the most influential movies of all time, so much so that it's broad, sweeping effect is still felt today in the countless movies featuring flesh-eating ghouls seen today. In fact, pretty much any "survival horror" movie involving a band of hero-ish characters trapped together while fending off some kind of evil invasion owes a debt to this movie, as do the "Resident Evil" series of video games. Influence aside, the movie itself is also pretty damn good, although not QUITE the universal classic that some critics label it.

So...THE MOVIE!!

"Night of the Living Dead" wastes little time getting to its intended purpose - to scare the hell out of the audience. A brother and sister are headed to the cemetery to visit the remains of their deceased father when a strange man attacks the sister, named Barbra, and eventually overpowers the brother. In a panicked state, Barbra (played by Judith O'Dea) makes her way to an apparently empty house, where she encounters Ben (Duane Jones, who is aces in this role). Courageous, heady, and resourceful, Ben is really the force that drives this movie forward. He defends the house against not only Barbra's attacker but a small squad of what Ben can only call "those things" - people who aren't really people who, for whatever reason, are suddenly craving the taste of human flesh. Nope, the "Z" word is never used in this movie.

After boarding themselves into the house, the real meat of the story unfolds. Ben and Barbra are not the only inhabitants of the house. In addition, two families - one with a young daughter who has been bitten by the creatures - are hiding in the cellar of the farmhouse. Eventually, these characters come together, and in a move that won't surprise anybody who has seen the 50,000 ripoffs that this movie has inspired over the years immediately begin bickering, offering their theories as to what they face and what they should do, and in general being dicks to each other (with the exception of heroic Ben, who remains practical and thoughtful throughout the course of the movie's running time).

That, in essence, is your plot - bickering survivors vs. undead terrors, with the tension coming not necessarily from the external threat of the zombies but from the internal battle as we wonder whether or not our group of humans will put their differences aside and work together to escape their situation. Since this was 1969, in the midst of Vietnam and racial tension, it comes as little surprise when we get a very bleak ending (*SPOILER ALERT*) involving Ben getting shot by a traveling anti-zombie posse (*END SPOILER*), but what works in "Night of the Living Dead", for me, isn't it's overall structure and effect, but its little moments.

There have been people who have written some very heady stuff about this movie. I've seen more than a few reports that are damn near novel-length that ridiculously assert that this movie is on par with "Citizen Kane" when it comes to hidden meaning and subtext, and that everything George Romero was doing when shooting the movie was meant to convey those hidden meanings so film snobs could dissect its various parts ad nauseum today. Me? I just like to look at this film as a story. You know what else? I can virtually guarantee that if you look at the film this way, it becomes more enjoyable. What's there, despite its miniscule budget, black and white format, and occasionally questionable acting is quite the tense little yarn, very enjoyable and certainly one of the best movies for Halloween night viewing (and it's not a coincidence that AMC showed this bitch uninterrupted for 24 hours this previous October 31st).

For starters, despite all the wannabes, "Night of the Living Dead" still does a good job in creeping you out in regards to its situation. The scene where the characters gather around the TV, where we get all the explanation we'll ever get in this seemingly never-ending series of movies as to just WHY the undead have begun to rise from their graves, is stirring, intense stuff that really ties the audience into a knot. The movie's claustrophobic feel is also to be commended; the scenes involving the characters doing little more than boarding up a house makes for riveting cinema, particularly in those moments when characters round corners, assuming they are safe, only for one of the creature's arms to come careening into the shot, accompanied by loud music stingers meant to convey the threat worse than death. If these things bite you, you become one of them. Them, as in an italicized them. Now that's a scary thought.

There's also the immortal scene when the more dislikable of the two families meet their end at the hands of their own daughter. I won't give away the specifics for anyone who hasn't seen this movie, but this is the stuff nightmares are made of. Revolting, horrifying, and truly powerful stuff.

So yes, despite my anti-zombie bias, "Night of the Living Dead" is a great film, although not an indispensable one. It accomplishes its goal; it works as a thriller, while also throwing in some subtle messages about people being their own worst enemy in as an added bonus. It deserves its spot in horror history for its ability to creep you the f**k out, for George Romero's endless invention with his tiny budget, and for the majority of the cast's ability to endear the individual personalities to the audience.

Of course, I also need to point out that Romero would turn this movie into the film franchise equivalent of the very "things" that the human characters in this movie hated so much. Yes, folks, this became THE SERIES THAT WOULD NOT DIE. With each sequel ("Dawn," "Day," "Land," "Diary" and "Survival," with "Of the Dead" following each of those words), Romero would in turn make the series more and more didactic, pounding anti-capitalism and, dare I say it, anti-human messages at you with all the subtlety of a a croquet mallet shot to the balls. What makes it even sadder is that this goes against precisely what makes this movie so powerful and influential - that it didn't need to yell and scream its soapbox polemic to achieve notoriety, and realized that if you told a good story, the message would rise from its own grave.

F13 Megareview: "Friday the 13th" (2009, Marcus Nispel)

First things first - when I type that final key of this review, I'm done with the "Friday the 13th" megareview. The reason is obvious - there aren't any more flicks that need reviewing, and not a moment too soon. I've absorbed so much hockey mask action in the previous three months that I see the serial killing momma's boy in my sleep. Even more than I did during the period when I routinely fell asleep with my F13 boxset playing in the background.

Second thing - I want to talk at you about remakes for a while. To understate it as much as humanly possible, I've taken part in quite a few internet fanboy debates about the subject of remakes. I've done, in essence, a complete 180 on the issue in the past three years, mainly due to my revelation one hot July night that the original "Nightmare on Elm Street" sucked and could use a remake. Like, badly. That little epiphany really made me take a good, hard look at my previous stance of "I'm swearing off any and all horror remakes!! They are the sux~~or~zz!!1!!" to the point where I'm now one of the biggest supporters of the current wave of '80s slasher film redux versions.

While it's true that there have always been remakes (trivia: the movie that you know, and love, as "The Wizard of Oz" is a remake), they've definitely saturated the market in the previous decade. The reason for this has been simple. Money. In a culture where the latest, most edgy and original horror projects often quickly get apathy-d out of existence, many movie moguls would rather go back to things that audiences enjoyed in the past.

Is there even an obligatory movie that I can point to as the "first" major horror remake that started this trend? As far as I can tell, the "remake trend" actually ties in with the earlier-in-the-decade "Japan-style horror" trend, where we got American versions of Asian horror films like "Ringu," "Ju-On" and "Dark Water" (which gave us "The Ring," "The Grudge," and...uh..."Dark Water"). As far as the remakes that we all know and love/loathe today - read, the reimaginings of classic American schlock/slasher flicks - the first one I can think of is "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," version 2004, directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes team. Of course, the movie was a big hit, despite its suckiness, and PD has since become the de facto horror remake kings, churning out a prequel to "TCM," two "Hills Have Eyes" 21st century editions, a very blase version of "Amityville Horror, a new, updated versions of "The Hitcher" and the upcoming "Nightmare on Elm Street" remake. There have also been remakes of "Black Christmas," "House on Sorority Row," "The Stepfather," "Dawn of the Dead," "The Omen," "When a Stranger Calls," "Prom Night," and seemingly 96,817 other films since PD unleashed its slickified version of "TCM" on us. Of those movies named above, only Zack Snyder's awesome "Dawn of the Dead" and the first "Hills Have Eyes" film were any good, with the exception of this movie.

When the news broke that Platinum Dunes had acquired the rights to the defunct "Friday the 13th" franchise name, admittedly, my hopes were very low. I remember saying to more than a few online friends that we were about to witness the complete fagification/emasculation of Jason Voorhees, just as Marcus Nispel (who was also slated to direct this film) had done to Leatherface, what with a stringy, wispy model-type chick beating the crap out of ol' Chainy. Shockingly, the 2009 version of "Friday the 13th" was a shocking reversal of company policy. I can't say if this will be a lasting trend, since some of the information that I've read about the new "Nightmare" film is pretty, um, interesting, but this is nonetheless the only one of the wave of slasher remakes that truly seemed to get the charm surrounding the original. Admittedly, the "Friday the 13th" formula isn't a hard one to follow, but it's pretty admirable that Nispel and the PD crew managed to take this formula and replicate it without too much mucking.

So - onto the movie!

For lack of a better explanation, this flick is the first three "Fridays" all rolled up into one. We get a very brief introductory scene showing Pamela Voorhees stalking a young coed and quickly getting beheaded. There's your backstory, kids. Then we get an extended sequence that introduces us to several college-age happy-go-luckers, including some very lovely use of GRATUITOUS NUDITY (capitalized because this was something sorely lacking in horror films of the '00s - not to sound like a sexist pig, but slasher films just don't seem right without chicks getting naked, so sue me), before a sack-masked Jason Voorhees (an homage to his look in "Friday the 13th Part 2") decimates the entire group.

From here, we're introduced to the CURRENT group of idiots that we're going to spend the movie with, and it's here where this really starts to feel like a "Friday the 13th" movie. It's been a long time since I've been able to type this sentence, but here we go: a group of young partyers is headed out to the lake for some fun, not knowing that Jason is there waiting for them. In fact, it had 20 YEARS since we'd seen this plot on film. Nope. What we got instead was Jason Takes the Cruise Ship...Jason re-playing "The Hidden"...Jason in Space...and Jason in Elm Street. To put it bluntly, it felt f**king good to get back to "Jason kills people at Crystal Lake."

These characters aren't quite as memorable as some of the batches we got in those early, immortal "human Jason" films. The two that I remember by name are Clay (played by "Supernatural" actor Jared Padalecki), a character on the trail of his sister, who just so happens to be one of the people in that first group of victims, and Chewie (Aaron Yoo), a fun-loving stoner kid just hoping to get some. There's the usual bunch of CW castoffs that the Platinum Dunes remakes are famous/infamous for, but I'll give them this - this movie doesn't skimp on the hot chicks. The "Friday the 13th" series was noted for two things: (1) explicit death scenes, and (2) explicit nudity. So yes, we get to enjoy not just one but THREE sets of cans in this film. Model America Olivo, singer Willa Ford, and actress Julianna Guill are your admirably non-prudish thespians who get to ply their trade at F13 sex-and-death this time around, and for this, the screenwriter of this film is greatly appreciated.

Where this film falls flat is in the horror element. In between the 20 years between "Jason in the forest" films, it seemed that horror directors forgot how to build up chase scenes in shock flicks, and decided instead that it was much easier to fire off bazookas in the audience's collective eardrums and call their movies scary simply because of that. Yes, there are a lot of "jump scares" in the 2009 version of "Friday the 13th." We hear them early and often, and my packed house during the Horror Nerd-sanctioned theater viewing of this film began groaning every time they popped up.

In addition, perhaps the defining characteristic of the series - the kills - are very pedestrian in this go-round. They're essentially your basic stab-and-slice deaths, and coming from the series that gave us the classic "sleeping bag kill," I expected some awesome things from the higher budget and a production team with Michael "Antichrist" Bay as its CEO and Chief Operating Officer.

One thing, however, that isn't pedestrian is the actor chosen for the role of Jason. I was very sore when it was announced that Kane Hodder wasn't there for the Jason role in "Freddy vs. Jason," but in the six years between that movie and this one, I got over it. Derek Mears isn't quite as good as Hodder, but he's something else, and easily ranks as one of the more menacing Jasons of the series. He's not quite as large, but he's resourceful, he's quick and athletic, and he's got a lethal cunning that seems to ply his trade in more than a few of the AFOREMENTIONED "stab-and-slice" deaths. Despite its comparatively low gore-quotient, the "bow-and-arrow" death is one of the highlights of the movie, and something that we thought we'd never see from the character of Jason Voorhees. So points for the PD portrayal of Jason - he most assuredly wasn't emasculated.

Platinum Dunes' "Friday the 13th" is a movie with weaknesses, but I walked away from my theater viewing pleasantly surprised. Not shockingly, there's also a sequel to this movie coming up, and also not shockingly, the PD group has stated that it will be the FINAL "Friday" film. Like, ever. There have been cries of protest from the horror community in regards to that news, but to them I say...don't worry about it. "Friday the 13th" is the movie series that will ALWAYS rise again. It has survived a 3D entry, a haphazard plot twist in the middle that never came to fruition, that goofy "IN SPACE!" entry, and going to hell and back. In short, "Friday the 13th" is immortal.

And that's all for the Horror Nerd's F13 Megareview. It's been three months of Jason madness. I've done my best to actually tell a story with this series of reviews, and hopefully I haven't let you down in a big way. I can only hope that I've been as successful as selling you on the merits of this series as the series itself has been with me. The "Friday the 13th" films have legitimately played a pretty big role in my life. They were there for me as a fourth grader terrified of the cheesy action, as an awkward middle-schooler all hopped up on teen angst, as a college student viewing them through the guise of intellectual criticism, and as an adult whose brother had just died seeking something...anything...for something that gave me solace in the past. And I'm only one story. "Friday the 13th" has been there for many fans all across the world, and there's a reason why Jason Voorhees will never truly die. As long as campfire scary stories exist, there will be a "Friday the 13th." And if you disagree with that...KI KI KI KI MA MA MA MA.....

F13 Megareview: "Freddy vs. Jason" (2003, Ronny Yu)

We're there already? And it only took ten movies (17 if you count the previous "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise entries), approximately fifty scripts, and about 15 years of development hell? It was that simple?

You know, the long, bloody story of how this movie came to be could really fill a book in and of itself. You know, there's a book that all horror fans MUST own called "Crystal Lake Memories" that gives us, in excruciating detail, the thought process, casting couch discussions, and creative directions that every single movie in the "Friday the 13th" franchise took. While the entire book is golden, the chapter on this particular movie is an absolutely fascinating read. This movie was nothing less than the culmination of a decade-and-a-half's worth of effort by not only the different directors attached to it at one point or another (including GEORGE FRIGGIN' ROMERO), but horror fans as well. Rest assured, it was the fans that saw to it that this film was produced, and it's a tribute to the passion of we the horror faithful that this flick saw the light of day in such a wide release.

And lo and behold, it doesn't suck. In fact, it's damn near flawless. Folks, the "Freddy vs. Jason" that was delivered to us in theaters in August of '03 was the absolute best movie that we could have gotten out of this storyline. Because let me tell you something (brother), there were tons of possible abortions to be had out of this idea. While I'm not one of the incredibly insane (as opposed to moderately insane) fans who scour the message boards on a daily basis for any and all information on my upcoming movies, I DID read a few of the spec scripts for this particular movie - and egads, a couple of them were mind-numbingly terrible. I can't remember the exact details on all of them, but there was one draft in particular for this movie that featured an INCREDIBLY sympathetic version of Jason in which Freddy utilizes him in a much more masochistic fashion than he does in the finished film, leading to a finale where Jason is clearly the winner (as opposed to the ambiguous nature of this film's ending). Just to cap off the cheesiness, the movie ends with a very maudelin fade-in shot of the little kid version of Jason, complete with tender, tinkly wishy-wash music. So, so bad.

You know the FIRST thing I noticed about this movie, and appreciated on a very Horror Nerd level? It was rated R, and took that rating seriously. We live in a day and age where more and more horror films aim for the PG-13 rating to reach as wide of an audience as possible. While PG-13 ghost stories are perfectly acceptable, PG-13 slashers are, for lack of a better word, incredibly lame. There's certain things that we horror fans expect out of slasher films, not the least of which is plenty of gratuitous nudity and gore. It's part of the shared experience of these films; many of us became horror fans as children, when these movies became are entryway into adulthood, and our first dose of things that we probably shouldn't be seeing. As such, that very same nudity and gore that the public (and most general morons, for that matter) decry is a vital component in the enjoyment of these films. Or something. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass, which is far and away the most likely scenario.

So here we were. August of '03 at the multiplex, and the years of speculation had finally led to this night. It immediately became apparent that the people in charge of this movie paid some TLC to the stories of the previous films, as it tied the franchises together in very neat fashion. Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund - this series of reviews is about F13, so I'll spare the lengthy dissertation on Mr. Englund, but suffice to say he's awesome, and there will never be a better Freddy Krueger), famed dream stalker of Springwood, Illinois, is caught in a kind of purgatory. Blessed/cursed with the power to kill people from within their dreams after being lynched for molestation in his previous life, it seems that the town has managed to devise a way to cast him out of the memories of the town's children, and thus send him away. Only he has a secret weapon - the recently "killed" Jason Voorhees (from the events of "Jason Goes to Hell"), whom he plans to resurrect and send to Springwood to make the kids of the town remember him.

Our protagonist for this go-round is Lori (smokin' hot model Monica Keena). While you can say what you want about Keena's acting ability, the character is more than serviceable for the requisite final girl in this go-round, and the script actually does a decent job making us care about her. She's got a great tragic past that keeps getting pulled up as the story unfolds, as well as a former boyfriend (Jason Ritter) in the nuthouse for being one of the only kids in town refusing to let go of the memories of Mr. Krueger. There's also two immortal characters in Kia (Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child - and the "Crystal Lake Memories" book has this great anecdote about how the producers originally wanted Pink for the role but rejected her after finding out she couldn't "act her way out of a wet paper bag"), a vanity-obsessed hotty with an attitude, and LINDERMAN (Chris Marquete, and I CAPS-locked the name because every time I see Mr. Marquete in another movie I have to yell his name in this movie at top volume), nerdy loser who has the hots for Lori, much to the chagrin of overprotective Kia. It speaks volumes about the quality of this movie that I actually remember the names of all the members of the main "group" of characters in the flick by name, making it one of the only horror movies of the previous decade to boast that honor.

So now that we've got our characters, the mayhem is about to be unleashed. The opening goings of the movie belong to Jason, as he shuffles around Elm Street (Freddy's former stomping grounds) offing the local teens in incredibly efficient fashion. The kills are not only brutal, but fun, calling to mind the Paramount entries of the series when we knew that some of these gorier moments would be cut by the MPAA. We also get some glimpses of Freddy trying to maim a few of the lesser characters with no success - while Jason has drummed up some fear, he's still not powerful enough. Eventually, however, enough people DO die (and start digging into Springwood's murky past) that he does gain his former strength, and it's at this point when the whole "Frankenstein's monster" dynamic of the film takes center stage. Freddy brought Jason back to life, but he doesn't want to go away. His creation has run amok, and now he must stop it.

The showdown/throwdown between the two characters lasts the entire final trimester of the movie. To be blunt, we horror fans expected quite a bit from these scenes, and truth be told, it would have been very easy for us to feel let down. I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but I personally did not feel let down by the fight scenes in the film. "Freddy vs. Jason" was directed by Ronny Yu, a man who cut his teeth in horror films previously on 1998's "Bride of Chucky" and is quite the visual artist, has tons of fun with the wackiness of the potential situation while also remembering to make it deadly serious on occasion. The fight scenes not only seem organic, but very well-planned, as well, pausing just long enough so that the events are not only exciting, but tell a story.

There's not really a whole lot negative I can say about this movie. Well, there is one thing. This was the first movie with a "Friday the 13th" connection in 15 years to not feature Kane Hodder behind the mask, and it's a slight distraction to the action. I understand the thought process behind casting stuntman Ken Kirzinger as Mr. Voorhees. They wanted someone who towered over Freddy, and Kane Hodder was almost on equal footing with the late-'50s character actor, as opposed to the towering Kirzinger. Since I've made it a point to "review" all of the Jason actors thus far, I think Kirzinger does a serviceable job - but he's no Hodder. I think, since we got Robert Englund as Freddy, fans also deserved to see the definitive Jason in this long-awaited smash-up, as well.

It's a minor complaint, however. I was super-stoked to buy a ticket almost seven years ago, and it seems to hold up pretty well upon repeat viewings (including the one yesterday in preparation for this review - the things I do for YOU PEOPLE).

So I've got one movie to go, huh?

F13 Megareview: "Jason X" (2002, James Isaac)

So we're up to Jason in Space, huh?

Before I get the hell going on this particular "Friday" review, a little fascinating (okay, maybe not) info about yours truly: I've reviewed the "Friday the 13th" flicks TWICE before for various online places/publications, and on both of those occasions I said "screw it" after "Jason Takes Manhattan" rolled around. The reasons were many. I thought the series would have ended just fine after "Jason Takes Manhattan." I hated the fact that Sean Cunningham came along after many years of disassociating himself with the series that I grew up loving and, in essence, trashing it. And I HATED the self-referential/jokey tone that the New Line entries had. In essence, I really, really detested this period in "Friday the 13th" lore.

Eventually, I DID write a review of "Jason Goes to Hell" on an online forum, but unless you're one of the loyal posters at the official wrestlecrap forums, you'd never seen me review "JGTH" before...but this one escaped me. Until now. Yes, folks, this is the first time that your humble host has ever written a review of "Jason X," so now that I've officially raised the expectations pretty high for this momentous occasion, prepare to be disappointed.

Despite this flick's status as the FIRST "Friday the 13th" film we got in nearly a ten-year period, for some reason, it's always been just kind of there for me. This has got to be some kind of major accomplishment - the movie is about friggin' JASON VOORHEES TROMPING AROUND IN A SPACE STATION, for Christ's sakes. It's not supposed to be dull and monotonous, but nonetheless, that's what we get with this movie. The characters, with one notable exception, are entirely forgettable, and the writing is fairly moronic. Okay, maybe not fairly - it's fully, 100% moronic. Still, for all intents and purposes, I didn't hate "Jason X," and with my third viewing of the movie coming just yesterday in anticipation of this review (I hope you're happy, loyal cavalcade of three fans), it's got a few things going for it that I'll get to in a bit.

The lone Horror Nerd interesting fact about the production of this movie - believe it or not, Sean Cunningham decided to produce this film because "Freddy vs. Jason" had been in development hell for so long that he thought another "Friday" film would be fun to do. Color me impressed, Mr. "Get this guy the hell out of the hockey mask."

Okay, the story. I don't know, do you really need a story? Isn't "Jason in Space" really all the story you need? You want more? Okay. It's the year 2008, and Jason Voorhees (once again played by Kane Hodder, and once again we get to witness the hulking stuntman/character actor absolutely nail the silent role) has been captured by the U.S. government. It seems that scientists want to study his strange regenerative powers. Of course, horrific accidents occur wherein our hockey-masked hero (it feels really good to type those two words after the review of "JGTH," it really does) causes all sorts of havoc, and eventually wounds up cryogenically frozen with one of researchers.

Flash forward to 2455. Humanity has taken to the stars, or something. Actually, it is explained - the real Earth has become polluted to the point that human beings can't survive there anymore. Happy, plot completists? Anyway, a group of students find the research facility, unthaw Jason, and bring him aboard their ship. Of this group of characters, the only one even worth mentioning is Kay-Em 14, a shapely robot chick the researchers have with them as an assistant. She's the only one you'll remember by name at the conclusion of the film; the rest of the cast is murder fodder.

At that level, though, this film is infinitely better than "Jason Goes to Hell." Two main improvements that the creators of the series made from the previous installment:

(1) Much more screen time for Kane Hodder. Forgive me for beating the dead horse, but the man IS Jason, and his presence and malice - sorely missed for 13 years - is back in full-form this go 'round.

(2) Awesome kills. Two in particular really stand out in this flick - the "frozen face smash" and the "back breaker" deaths. The former is easily the most memorable kill since the immortal "sleeping bag of death" kill from "Friday the 13th Part VII." So huzzah to writer Todd Farmer for that.

Oh, and then there's the "Virtual Camp Crystal Lake" sequence, damn near worth the price of admission alone. While some critics point to the scene as too tongue-in-cheek, I chuckle every time I see it. The material that we're parodying here isn't Shakespeare, after all; it's a silly slasher series. A lot of fans (myself included) got a kick out of the familiarity of the scene, and it was quite the interesting little sidebar.

Unfortunately, there really isn't a whole lot else to say about "Jason X." It's Jason in Space. It's campy, somewhat fun, a little ridiculous, but overall a pretty forgettable little film with plenty of completely disposable characters whose names you can't even remember 24 hours after watching it. It's definitely not the worst movie in the series, but nowhere near almost ALL of the Paramount films, and it's easy to see how this flew in and out of theaters as quickly as it did. In short, it's just as mediocre as this review.