HOLLYWOOD - In space no one can hear you snap a neck.The last we saw of Friday the 13th's Jason Voorhees, the hockey-masked maniac seemed destined for a bloody showdown with Freddy Krueger.
That's no longer the case. In its second attempt to revive the aging Friday the 13th franchise, New Line rips off Alien by blasting Jason into outer space some 450 years in the future. Rather than terrorize the horny teens of Camp Crystal Lake, Jason now stalks the horny crew of a research vessel that had the misfortune to thaw out the cryogenically frozen murderer.
Jason X represents the 10th chapter in a series that can't be killed, much like its infamous antagonist. You could count on an annual visit to Camp Crystal Lake in the 1980s, but the series quickly experienced diminishing returns. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, released in 1989, opened with an OK $6.2 million but soon faded out with a total $14.3 million.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, the sole Friday the 13th offering of the 1990s and the first from New Line, fared no better. The ninth Friday the 13th, released in 1993, earned just $15.5 million.
The change in hunting grounds, coupled with Jason's high-tech modifications, should result in the best gross for the series since 1984's erroneously titled Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter ($32.6 million). It also helps in this post-Scream era that Jason X has a much-needed sense of humor about itself. Debuting at 1,800 theaters, Jason X should match Jason Goes to Hell's $7.5 million opening.
A quick death, though, is certain. Jason X, which sat on the shelf for one year, won't buck the trend of losing half its audience in its second weekend, as most horror films endure. Blade 2, which has $77.8 million through Wednesday, is a good example of that.
Besides, there are only so many people who find pleasure in the monotony of watching Jason kill, die, return to life, kill, die, return to life ...