Spooktober: Freddy vs Jason

Freddy vs Jason
Directed by: Ronny Yu
Starring: Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger
Released: 2003

A burnt child murderer vs an immortal super strong mentally stunted lad. Not much of a match up. After rewatching this movie with a friend I described it as an unfortunate child of it's time, and I think that's the best way to put it. Freddy vs Jason is an interesting movie, that could have lead the way for more fun horror crossovers, but didn't. Jaws vs Terminators! C'mon!

Before I even get into it, just know this synopsis will sounds much better than the movie is actually executed. That isn't to say that it isn't worth watching, but there are many cringe inducing moments. Some of it can be chalked up to being a horror film and it's basically tradition at this point, while others you think by 2003 the people involved would have done better. But I digress.

Freddy Krueger is from A Nightmare on Elm Street, and if you aren't familiar he killed a ton of kids (possibly raped them, but that's never confirmed) and the parents wound up burning him to death as punishment. Freddy came back as a nightmare and was able to inflict pain and even kill his victims through their dreams. But now no one remembers who he is. So he has been rendered effectively powerless. Lucky for him there's someone who he can trick into making people remember. Jason Vorheez.

Jason's is a sad story. Born physically deformed he was an outcast from birth, with only his mother ever treating him well. Needing money to survive she got a job at Camp Crystal Lake, and one day the cruel campers bullied Jason, where he eventually wound up drowning in the lake. His mother got revenge on the camp counselor's and continued to stalk the camp until the events of Friday the 13th. From their Jason mysteriously reappears, super strong and seemingly unkillable.

Appearing to Jason in the form of his mother in his dreams Freddy manages to force Jason's healing factor to kick in and bring him to Elm Street to bring fear back to the neighborhood where Freddy lived. Jason managed to rile the police up enough, and one of the survivors of his first attack hears mention of someone named Freddy. This is enough to allow Freddy into her dreams, but not enough to harm her, yet. Jason continues his killing spree, to the point of stealing kills from Freddy.

Freddy won't stand for this, and the short lived team-up turns into the titular versus match. Through contrived means, the teenage "protagonists" knock Jason out and bring him back to Crystal Lake, while planning on dragging Freddy out of the realm of dreams. After a dream fight where Freddy has the upper hand they fight in the real world. Freddy relying on tricks for the most part as he's completely outmatched otherwise. The confrontation ends with the disgruntled teens tired of their shit blowing them up with conveniently placed explosives.

As they huddle together one of the monsters slowly trudges towards them with machete in hand. Freddy lifts it, smiling, ready to kill again, as his own claws are forced through his stomach, Jason used the last of his energy to shove his lopped off hand through Freddy as he collapses. Freddy drops the machete to which our survivor girl chops of his head. They leave, but the movie ends with Jason walking out of the water with Freddy's head in hand. I'm not sure if they're working together again, or what, but as of yet no film sequel has released.

My favorite aspect is Elm Street's town has stopped Freddy. While barbaric, the adults involved have shoved all the kids affected by his dreams over the years into a mental asylum where they forced them to take dream cancelling drugs. I'm not sure if the adults also took these drugs, of if Freddy just refuses to attack adults in their dreams, but this has lead to Freddy's sordid state at the beginning of the film. It's pretty basic, but I really enjoyed all the scenes with the cops demanding no one talk about what's going on in an attempt to keep Freddy from returning.

There are a lot of silly moments in the movie, and some of them work, but many fall flat. You might have noticed I didn't really talk about the "heroes" of the movie, and that's because they're just horrible. It feels like they're almost worse than usual horror movie protagonists, the stoner archetype in particular is irritating. I really don't like thinking about this part of the movie, so I'll just leave say that at one point a character tries to give Jason mouth to mouth. Fucking why?

Another major problem for me is after they drag Freddy out of the dream world, there should not have been a fight. Freddy is essentially powerless outside of dreams, like he could kill some normal people, but Jason is able to lift trees out of the ground and throw them an unreasonable distance. Jason would have hacked him to bits immediately with little to no struggle. The ending too felt really cheap, why is Jason carrying Freddy? I don't get it, by that point he'd seen through Freddy's facade and while Jason is simple, mother fucker knows how to hold a grudge.

Oh, and the cheap metal music during fight scenes towards the end are just unfortunate now. Who knew it'd age so poorly?

This movie is definitely a mixed bag. It's a great idea, with some great scenes, but anytime the movie isn't focusing on one of the two eponymous characters it really drags, even if some of those scenes explain how Freddy got depowered. I don't strongly recommend it, but you could do far worse. Any fan of these characters has probably already seen this, but if you haven't it's worth a watch, even with a bit of cringe.

Did you know this was supposed to be Freddy vs Jason vs Ash (of Evil Dead)? Did you know they made two comic series about that? While I haven't read them, that concept sounds splendid.