Jason X (2001)

He’s back!

Jason Voorhees, iconic movie villain, returns to the screen after a nine-year absence in the 10th installment of the classic Friday the 13th film series (the first film was released in 1980). First-time director Jim Isaac, who has an extensive background working in special effects, had been looking for an original angle to update the character of Jason, while still retaining the visceral thrills that fans of the series have come to expect. Isaac approached series creator Sean Cunningham, with whom he had collaborated previously. As it turns out, Cunningham was also imagining fresh and exciting ways to reinvent the character.

The two filmmakers, along with producer Noel Cunningham and screenwriter Todd Farmer, arranged for a spirited brainstorming session where a variety of ideas were tossed around. As Noel Cunningham remembers, "we spent hours talking about what we liked about the Friday the 13th movies and what we thought would make it better and different, and ‘Jason in Space’ was one of the ideas that came up. We all looked at each other and said, ‘Hey now, this one could be pretty interesting.’"

According to Jim Isaac, "we all left the meeting with this crazy sci-fi idea about a bunch of kids in the future on an archeological field trip to a dead planet – Old Earth – which has been devastated by global warming. The students dig up a bunch of trinkets and end up discovering a frozen Jason and taking him back to their spacecraft, where all hell breaks loose."

"We all had the same vision for the movie," producer Noel Cunningham said, "which made it easy to go forward with because we all liked the concept – a good scary, fun, funny, sexy, action-horror movie in space. Sean and I had known Jim Isaac for about twelve years, and with his effects background, he was the perfect person to direct Jason X. It’s a very effects-heavy film, so Jim’s expertise was really important. He really has a feel for the material."

When he read the resulting script, says executive producer Sean S. Cunningham, "I got very excited. I wanted to take Jason X to a completely new level, like nothing anyone has ever seen before, with lots of unexpected twists and turns. But more importantly, I wanted to give the characters and story a real innovative jolt of creativity and depth. So when I saw what Jim Isaac, Todd Farmer and Noel Cunningham had done with the new material, I knew that we really had something special."

Key to the success of the film was the participation of Kane Hodder, the actor who had, over the three previous installments, managed to bring life to the infamous character of Jason Voorhees, a relentless figure of evil who wears a hockey mask and carries a razor-sharp machete.

"I love my work," Kane Hodder said, lowering his voice to a menacing tone. "I've been a stunt man for twenty-three years and a stunt coordinator. I think that's probably the best background to have when you play a character like Jason. It's all physical and there’s no dialogue to remember!"

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