Although Jason X was not the first time a slasher villain showed up in space, the maligned franchise outing poignantly underlines why interstellar slasher sequels are never well-received. In recent years, Jason X has undergone something of a critical revival and has garnered a cult following thanks to the Friday the 13th sequel's unique setting and zany characters. Articles praising the movie have also pointed to its goofy sense of humor, memorable deaths, and meta-jokes as some of Jason X’s redeeming features in contemporary culture.
However, even articles arguing that Jason X is secretly the most underrated Friday the 13th movie make sure to stress that the space-set sequel is in no way scary. This is a strange yet necessary clarification since the Friday the 13th series has always been a slasher franchise, first and foremost. However, like other space-set slasher sequels, Jason X conceded early on that the movie would never be authentically scary and suspenseful—and there’s a reason for that.
Like the earlier Leprechaun in Space and Hellraiser: Bloodline before it, Jason X failed to scare viewers and fell flat for many critics because the sequel didn’t even try to create much in the way of genuine fear. The reason behind this creative choice is that the sci-fi horror aesthetic of slashers set in space inevitably reminds harks back to movies like Pandorum (which initially seems to be a monster movie but later turns out to be a killer-in-space horror) flopped at the box office in 2009.
While Friday the 13th franchise menace. Namely, the Leprechaun, Jason, and Pinhead were all scarier on Earth than they were in space, with each of these slasher villains paling in comparison to the existential dread that the vast expanse of space engenders.
In contrast, on Earth, Jason had Camp Crystal Lake to himself, the Leprechaun could wreak havoc anywhere from a remote farm to the inner-city, and Pinhead was able to appear anywhere that a character was foolish enough to open the Lament Configuration. On Earth, all of these slasher villains are clearly the gruesome stars of their stories, whereas once they show up in space, any standard slasher sequel struggles to take advantage of this new setting without involving cosmic-scale horrors - rendering these villains comparatively weak. In this way, bringing space into the otherwise highly successful Friday the 13th franchise was always going to outshine a villain who is essentially still only a man (albeit a supernaturally strong one), resulting in Jason X being a critical flop upon release.
