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After nine years you may have thought the Friday the 13th franchise was dead
and forgotten. If only!
Now Jason returns in this post-apocalyptic thriller
with the standard formula relocated in space. Oh boy. We start in the
present day, when a team of scientists cryogenically freeze the murderous,
unstoppable, mysteriously regenerative Jason Voorhees (Hodder). After a lab
catastrophe (due to a greedy madman, played by Cronenberg), one of the
scientists (Doig) is frozen along with Jason. Jump forward 455 years to a
salvage crew searching the desolate remains of earth, where they find and
then thaw out the duo. Bad move. Especially since their ship is full of
those nubile early-20somethings Jason loves to eviscerate.
This film is only watchable because the cast and crew are fully aware of how
silly it all is, and they go for a goofy B-movie vibe in the set design
(think Alien on a budget), wink-wink acting and dialog, and effects that
look like they were done on a home computer. But it somehow works.
The
characters are funny, the plot is relentless and energetic (although not
remotely scary), and the gruesome killing is cruelly inventive, and often
followed by a one-line groaner. The greedy professor (Potts) compromising
their safety is more than a little unnecessary, as is the even more fiendish
"Uber-Jason" that brutally bludgeons the film's final act.
But there are
decent performances throughout, some decent comic relief (Ryder's
smart-talking robot is hilarious, as is a holodeck recreation of the
lakeside camp from the early films, complete with topless coeds). As a
thriller franchise film it's pretty terrible really. But as a comedy spoof,
it's quite good fun.
[15 themes and innuendo, gruesome violence, language]
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