A Nightmare from Friday to Halloween - Jason X (2001)

The three most prominent American horror franchises (Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street) have influenced American cinema even beyond the horror genre. As of 2021, there are exactly 31 movies across all three franchises, and I am going to attempt to watch all of them, for this Halloween, one per day.

This may be the first movie in any of these franchises that would benefit from a bad movie night. One could argue that Friday the 13th jumped the shark many times (going to Manhattan, taking out Jason altogether.) But it seems to be a commonly agreed upon opinion that when a franchise that has nothing to do with space decides to go there is when the creators are fresh out of ideas. This movie features a hot, young cast of pretty mediocre actors and a lot of annoying attempts to make it seem relevant to a young audience (mostly horny teenage boys). There’s a VR room and an annoying stoner-adjacent character that’s supposed to be relatable. Also, the women in this movie are treated like pieces of meat to be gawked at. Even the main female character, who is supposed to be a government scientist, is forced to wear something revealing, rather than be a real character with competence. This last concern would be the main reason I would not do a bad movie night with certain people, because I could just anticipate the misogynistic comments that (mostly) bros would fling at the screen at the actresses instead of the many other legitimate reasons that this movie does not work. This movie is for horny, straight teenage boys, which is why I do not care if this franchise ever gets successfully rebooted (I guess I’ll find out soon enough).