Easily the fifth or sixth time Friday the 13th has jumped the shark, this time pulling a double corkscrew backflip along the way. Following in the hallowed footsteps of Leprechaun 4, Hellraiser: Bloodline and Critters 4, this installment finds Jason cryogenically frozen for four hundred years and defrosted aboard a lightly-staffed spacecraft. No explanation is offered for his abrupt return from the depths of the nether, where he was unceremoniously dumped at the end of Jason Goes to Hell, though I'm not sure that really would've made a difference.

This is a willfully stupid playground for half-baked science fiction ideas, terrible wardrobe choices and budget special effects; a cut-rate production that would feel right at home on the Sci-Fi Channel at 3am. Predictable to the end, it touches all the bases with gratuitous nudity, shallow characters, mysterious returns from certain doom and a truckload of dismemberments / decapitations / deaths. The only thing we're missing is the trademarked screeching cat fake-out, presumably because no self-respecting animal would be seen in such a production.

Apart from one fleeting moment of self-deprecating parody near the end - which is totally out of place, but admittedly had me howling - there's no reason for this to exist. It's the kind of thing that would've thrived on the bootleg circuit, akin to Roger Corman's unreleased Fantastic Four, but by actually sending it to theaters, New Line took the wind out of those sails. The best thing I can say here is, hey, at least it's better than the last one.