ROBIN COOK:
I didn't end up casting the parts for that sequence. I just wouldn't. My casting assistant ended up doing them. I just felt that scene was gratuitous. Jim Isaac didn't want to do it, either. But the producers felt it was important. Because, quite frankly, it helps foreign sales if you have a few seconds of nudity. I didn't want any part of that.
JIM ISAAC:
It wasn't like I was against seeing breasts. I like breasts. There's no problem there. I just didn't want to have nudity in the film for the sake of it. But if we were going to do it, I wanted to have fun with it, and make it really silly. And, after all, we are doing a Friday the 13th movie—I didn't want to pretend otherwise. Ultimately, I think the scene works really well and always gets a great response from the audience.
If production on Jason X had been a painful—if not occasionally excruciating—experience, then at least post-production allowed for a little respite from the madness that had preceded it. While neither Jim Isaac nor Noel Cunningham were completely happy with the raw footage they had amassed, Jason X was still a pioneer of a new wave of digital filmmaking. Shot on film, then converted entirely to high-definition video to aid in the creation of its extensive and elaborate visual effects shots, Jason X has the distinction of being the first feature-length film ever to be completed entirely in the digital realm. It was also brighter, glossier and slicker than most of the dark, noir-ish science fiction fare that followed in the wake of such trailblazing genre films as Blade Runner and ALIEN. The film's unique visual style also earned some unexpected leniency from the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board. Perhaps the Friday the 13th film that suffered the least due to restrictions imposed by the MPAA, the final cut of Jason X would remain largely intact on its journey to an R rating—much to the surprise of its producers.
NOEL CUNNINGHAM:
To be honest, after we finished principal photography I wasn't jumping up and down. I was happy with some of the stuff we got. And we really did attempt something very ambitious, not only for a Friday the 13th movie, but for a smaller-budgeted sci-fi action film. We prepped the thing for like eight months, and we had our computer guys working for over a year on the CGI effects. With Jason Takes Manhattan they tried to widen the franchise. But unless you really make the commitment to that, it just doesn't work. We made that commitment, whatever one thinks of the final outcome.
JIM ISAAC:
There was a misconception when Jason X came out that it was shot on high-definition video. It wasn't. Jason X was shot on 35mm film, and then transferred to high-definition. The reason I did that was that I had so many visual effects in the movie that it would have been impossible to do all that I wanted in film resolution. We first did a test, and then decided that was indeed the way to go. And once we started going down that road, my feeling was, well, what if we did that to the entire film? What if we were to shoot it, take it to digital, do all the work, plus the timing and the effects, and then scan the entire movie back onto film? What would happen? No one had done it at that point. And I think the movie looks beautiful. It's got depth, and I was able to do some very cool things with the color timing. I do love that about Jason X.
"The great thing about UberJason is that it gave us free reign," says makeup effects supervisor Stephan Dupuis. "Not only to redesign his appearance, but to outfit him with new weapons. Of course, Jason without a machete is like Freddy without his razor fingers. So we created some great new machetes for Jason, too."
KELLY LEPKOWSKY:
For the non-technical movie viewer, it probably doesn't mean anything, which is good, because it should look just like any other picture that they've seen. But what it meant for the future is that it could allow films that have a lower budget to be able to do the kinds of spectacular effects that we're used to seeing in big Hollywood productions. I do truly think Jason X helped open a lot of possibilities for filmmakers, because one of the challenges we had set for ourselves was that we wanted the film to look big and exciting on a budget that's much more modest than a Hollywood spectacular. If anything, it showed people that you could have a whole new level of control in post-production.
NOEL CUNNINGHAM:
We were there before the technology really existed. We never even printed dailies to film, and I know we were the first show to do that. Instead, we would watch our dailies on a very large digital monitor from Beta SP that had been transferred down from the high-def masters. We didn't even have Firewire or anything like that feeding us digital information. It did allow us phenomenal control. For example, there were shots where you had two guys standing right next to each other, one is slightly behind the other one. The guy in the background is a little dark. We could bring up the exposure of just that portion of the frame so that it matched. All with a couple of keystrokes. And the videogame sequence where the guy's in that yellowish room? That was originally shot blue, so we just took all the blue out and cranked up the yellow a little bit to give it that weird otherworldly kind of feel. That took 20 minutes. This is stuff you could never do in a traditional film lab.
DENNIS BERARDI:
We had done a lot of research leading up to Jason X to provide a very similar look to the movie as could be traditionally captured with a motion picture camera with the celluloid printing process that we'd all come to grow and know and love. To kind of mimic that digitally—that wonderful grain structure, and things like motion blur and depth of field. Those wonderful photographic properties that everyone is still trying to retain digitally. And since this was a Jason movie, it is a very dark movie, with, you know, Jason's lurking in the shadows. One of the challenges was to maintain that photographic integrity in the shadows while still having enough dynamic range and enough color information to still have highlights. Digitally, at the time, it was not a well-established process. So most of our research was needed to maintain that across the entire process, from digitizing to compositing, manipulating the image, and then finally re-outputting it back onto the film medium.
DAVID HANDMAN:
I think the visuals and the humor are what helped us on Jason X with the ratings board. The movie has got a storybook quality to it that I think got us through a lot of the potential problems with the content. And it's set in the future. It wasn't like the more typical in-your-face slasher type of stuff.
The changes we had to make for the MPAA were very minor. Certainly far, far less than Jason Goes to Hell. But little has changed about how the ratings board works. They still don't give any guidelines. They just say, "This is unacceptable. Show us a different version." You have no idea how far and you don't want to go back any further than you have to. Where's the line? Personally, on Jason X, I think we took out more than we probably needed to in the first place. Because we had no idea how they would respond.
GEOFF GARRETT, Associate Producer:
Originally, the MPAA were only supposed to deal with Sean and Jim Isaac, but it ended up being me who had to keep the relationship with the ratings board. After we first submitted it to them, they called and said, "We have a couple of things before we can rate it R that we need to talk about." And even before that phone call I was nervous. The Friday movies have always been problematic for the MPAA, and Sean has had a tumultuous relationship with them that dates all the way back to Last House on the Left. So here I was on the phone, trying to keep the most business-professional attitude I could. And then the guy on the phone from the MPAA goes, "You know what? We really had a good time. You have a fun little movie here." And I didn't know how to respond! I was so not expecting them to comment on the quality of the film at all. I was expecting them to tell me, "This is an NC-17." But they ended up being really great to the film.
I remember the blood on David Cronenberg when he gets speared—that was digitally enhanced. The MPAA did say that was way too much, so we just removed the blood we added. The smashing of the face on the counter after the liquid nitrogen, ironically enough, when we went back and recut that kill, the cut looked
even better. We also had to lose one revolution of the "screw kill." But that was it. We almost felt like we were getting away with something. I was sitting there going, "Did you not see the guy crawling along the ground with his guts hanging on the ground, or the dead body of the pilot spread across the console?"
NOEL CUNNINGHAM:
If you go for exploitation, the MPAA will be harder on you, but if you're trying to do a good job and the violence is just part of the movie, they're much more lenient about it because they understand. Saving Private Ryan, for example. There is so much gore in that. But it's there for a reason—to show the horror of war. It's "legitimate." It's only if you get too crazy with it that they object. It's the same thing with video games now—the same claptrap's going on.
TODD FARMER:
The whole end sequence of the movie was kind of slapped together because I'm pretty sure everything was rewritten the day before they shot it. And that's why some of the effects shots don't look as good as they could, because the effects guys—bless their hearts—didn't have enough time to do the work. The last version I actually wrote had the kids all setting charges around the ship, then they realized there was no way they were going to be able to stop Jason so the only thing they could do was destroy themselves. But the rescue ship shows up and it turns into a race as the ship's blowing up and they try to get out.
While there were a lot of changes made to Jason X throughout the entire process, there weren't really a lot of changes to the actual ending. Jason always burned up in the atmosphere. Then the kids in Crystal Lake see it in the sky. It just seemed like the natural thing to do with the ending of Jason X, to take it back home.
From left: Domestic one-sheet; domestic video poster; Japanese video poster.
GEOFF GARRETT:
There was a scene that was cut out of the movie with all these mirrors, during the Kay-Em and Jason fight. And there was a moment where Kane was walking along with all these mirrors beside him, and in one take, Kane is going along and doing his Jason thing and then he looks over into the mirrors and looks at himself. And goes, like, "Oooh!" He scares himself. It was just this little gag that Kane did and we just cracked up.
We also wanted to put together a little blooper reel or something for the DVD, but because we had a group of mostly young actors that really are into what they're doing, they were about goofing up and getting into giggle fits. They were very serious, were here to do a good job, and the last thing they wanted was to be perceived as being silly. I always thought, "What a great easter egg for the DVD." But that never ended up on there.
Although Jason had finally won a battle with the MPAA, there was still one more obstacle to overcome. Jim Isaac and Noel Cunningham had always envisioned Jason X as a sequel that looked more to the future than the past—and that included its soundtrack. Harry Manfredini, despite having composed the scores for eight of the previous nine installments of the series, was far from the filmmakers' ideal choice. Ultimately, it was Sean Cunningham's insistence on using his trusted veteran composer that ensured Manfredini would get the job at all.
DAVID HANDMAN:
If you ask Jim what he regrets most about the movie, I think it's the music. Harry Manfredini was the wrong composer. Everybody wanted a fresh take and Harry didn't really deliver anything fresh. Unfortunately, Harry took us back into old Friday the 13th territory. To me, his score sounds like he had the movie playing and he was just writing along to it. It isn't really a conceptual score. There were no themes at all—each character should have a theme. I found it to be the weakest aspect of the whole movie.
JIM ISAAC:
Sean was just over Friday the 13th. He was tired of it, he'd done it, it's not his scene. Horror films aren't his thing, and he's the first guy to admit it. I'm not saying he's not a filmmaker—he loves the process—but he really wants to do serious dramas and work with actors and all those things. But a hip, sexy, weird, edgy, scary horror film? That's not Sean. He even said it directly, "I'm not gonna be involved creatively with Jason X."
So it was very frustrating to then not be given the freedom we wanted with the score. I really wanted the music to be intense. I also wanted to go with some actual songs—I wanted to make Jason X really hip. This is nothing against the score we did get, or Harry's music. I think the music that he did on the other movies is great. I just wanted a different signature for Jason X.
NOEL CUNNINGHAM:
My father showed up about a month before principal photography started. He had been dealing with another film he was working on. And he'd always said he was going to be totally hands-off. But there were certain times where we disagreed enormously, and other times he really helped out. There is no one better than Sean when it comes to the money. But the fact is that we had two different goals, both in how we thought the movie should be made and what movies we liked to go see. We're two different generations, of different schools of thought. Harry's always been involved with the Friday films and Sean wanted to bring back the regulars. That was a decision Sean made unilaterally that really pissed off Jim and I. We wanted a much more techno score.
Still, part of the situation was my fault. Even under the best of circumstances, I still think Harry's score would have been lacking, but he was not aware of the post-production schedule. It was unfortunate. It was insanely rushed. We kept asking him and telling him and saying, "We need to hear some stuff." And he had just rebuilt his studio and was having problems with it. Finally, it was like, "Harry, when are we going to hear some stuff?" And he was like, "How about the weekend of the 12th?" We'd be like, "Harry, that's opening weekend!" And he's like, "What!?" It was one of those 'i's I never dotted or 't's I never crossed. As a producer, the responsibility for any deficiencies in the score ultimately fell on me.
HARRY MANFREDINI, Composer:
Over the years, I've learned there are good things about the movie business and bad things about the movie business. One of the bad things is that there are few people who are truly loyal. But Sean's always been loyal. Even as far back as A Stranger is Watching, he really pushed to hire me. He hasn't always succeeded, but one of the things I value most about my Friday the 13th experience is the friendships I've made. That is something I cherish.
With Jason X, I liked having the chance to write different types of music, to make the film about more than just Jason. I also liked that the characters were so sure they had superiority over Jason, and tried to be proactive. And I loved Jim Issac. As for the themes, I did come up with softer ones. I just made them up. I get the feeling, and the dramatic sense of the piece, and then I start to listen in my head. There were also certainly musical considerations I made for the Lexa Doig character, as well as the pomposity of the teacher, and the coolness of the robot.
GEOFF GARRETT:
I really wish I could have convinced New Line to get us a great rock song. If Jason X had been a studio movie, we could have budgeted the money from the get-go. Jim Isaac is even friends with the guitarist from the group Train, and Jim was going to get them to contribute a song. Instead, we ended up having Ethan Wiley and his partner put together a little something for the film.
ETHAN WILEY:
I'd written the screenplay for House, and directed House II: The Second Story, for Sean Cunningham. I'm also a musician and had recently put out my own CD. Jim Isaac called me and they were already in final mixing on Jason X, but he said that they wanted something dark and very brooding for the end credits—something upbeat and energetic for when the audience was leaving the theater. Almost, "gothic-horror-rock-sci-fi," as Jim put it.
I ultimately composed two songs for the movie with my co-writer John Sholle—"X is the Loneliest Number" and "Jason's Jam." We literally came up with the concepts for the tracks in a couple of hours, and recorded them over a weekend. But I think Jim was pleasantly surprised, because after he heard them he called and said, "It's perfect—exactly what we need." So at least that aspect of the soundtrack worked out really well.
Despite it's
lack of box office success, Jason X has amassed its own dedicated fan following, and inspired a series of spin-off comic books and young adult novels.
Even if Jason X had been an ordeal for its makers, there was only more insult and injury to come. During the film's yearlong production, massive changes had taken place in the upper executive ranks of New Line Cinema. In a much-publicized, highly acrimonious split, Michael De Luca would exit his position as President of Production in early 2000, and with him went Jason X's biggest champion at the studio. With no one within the company immediately stepping up to support the film, Jason X would suffer the humiliation of being left on the shelf for over two years. By the time New Line released the film on April 26, 2002, much had changed both in the world of digital filmmaking and in the sensibilities and expectations of the moviegoing public. The art of computer-generated effects was growing by leaps and bounds, and younger audiences, weaned on such visually stunning action spectaculars as The Matrix and Spider-Man, cared little about budgetary battles and behind-the-scenes feuding. There was also a question as to whether or not there was still an audience for the further adventures of Jason—much less "Jason in space." It had been almost a decade since Jason Goes to Hell, and even if the PlayStation generation was still discovering the Friday the 13th films on home video and cable, to many, Jason Voorhees represented a face of cinema's past, not its present. Moreover, the gore quotient in motion pictures had also lost its ability to shock, with the average videogame filled with far more graphic and violent imagery than anything that could pass muster with the MPAA. Regrettably, Jason X was in danger of seeming like a dated anachronism even before it hit cinemas.
Opening on 1,878 screens across the United States, Jason X failed to ignite the box office. It pulled in a mere $6.6 million in its first three days, landing a distant third behind Paramount's thriller Changing Lanes and the first-place finisher, Universal's The Scorpion King, which took in more than $18 million in its second weekend. But Jason X would fare even worse in the long term. By its second weekend, faced with the onslaught of Sony's Spider-Man, the film lost 65 percent of its audience. With a final gross of only $13.1 million, for 2.2 million paid admissions, Jason X retains the unfortunate distinction of being the lowest-grossing and least-attended entry in the franchise. Although the film found a second life on DVD, selling more than half a million copies, Jason X was nevertheless regarded as an interstellar dud.
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Enhanced Edition) Page 80
