Freddy vs Jason

“Freddy vs. Jason,” released in 2003, is a horror film for people who don’t really hate the genre in general but find themselves annoyed and underwhelmed by it more often than not. Mark Dujsik said in his review, “This is a movie that I remember hearing rumors about when I was young—let's say a little over a decade ago.” It finally got made, not as a horror film, but as a tribute to everything we’ve come to expect from horror movies and little nods in the core to those same moments. This was teased at ever since Freddy's glove came out of the ground and drag Jason's hockey mask down with him at the end of "Jason Goes to Hell." Didn't take them until 10 years later to finally get this movie made. Director Ronny Yu plays with the clichés, from the superfluous nudity to the bizarre death scenes to the teenage evil that leads the nonstop murders to cause punishment, and gives us one of the better examples of the post-modern (Dujsik asked, “or would this be post-post-modern now that it's going back to the genre's modern roots?”) school of horror creation. Yu and screenwriters David S. Goyer, Damian Shannon, and Mark Swift manage – either by some skilled work or an incredibly convenient twist – to suck us into the complete and total craziness of the film gradually, working over our expectations, giving us to discover the film’s sense of humor, and finishing off with the superb main fight of two horror icons.

Freddy Krueger of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise has been dead for a long time, but what’s even worse for the nightmare serial killer is that nobody remembers him. Without fear, Freddy cannot come into the nightmares of those he wants to torture and kill. In order to help people remember him, he invades the dreams of fellow murderer Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) of the “Friday the 13^th” franchise, as Jason’s mother (Paula Shaw), who has also been dead for a long time, to convince him to start a mass murder on Freddy’s old neighborhood on Elm Street. There we meet the usual variety of potential victims, including Lori (Monica Keena), the desperate protagonist with a dead in the past, Kia (Kelly Rowland), the narcissistic one, and Gibb (Katharine Isabelle), the tomboy. Needless to say, Jason kills a couple of unimportant characters (David Kopp, Jesse Hutch, Zack Ward and Odessa Munroe), and the police try to not believe that Freddy has come back. All of that will be for nothing when Will (Jason Ritter) and Mark (Brendan Fletcher) escape from an asylum to make sure Lori, Will’s childhood girlfriend, is safe.

The movie begins mainly as the next “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie, but it slowly gets to the movie the title says. The movie’s diabolical sense of humor is made right away with a needless skinny dipping/murder scene with the hot Odessa Munroe who also morphs into Blake Mawson and Jamie Mayo. A few violent deaths follow, which include the sandwiching of a bed and a decapitated head as a practical but useless shield, and Yu makes fun of the rule that bad behavior goes to violent payback. Dujsik said, “Note the way that Jason's signature breathing appears immediately after one victim takes a swig from a flask.” Yu also smartly realizes the nightmare scenes, giving them a real sense of horror. However, it’s when Freddy and Jason start to in some way compete against one another for victims in a cornfield part scene that movie finds its balance. Dujsik said, “I can and would not deny that my face was stuck in a big, goofy smile from this sequence on. Freddy has a passed-out partier trapped in a nightmare warehouse, and Jason is stalking around, searching for debauchery. And when he finds it, the body count swiftly rises (I doubt this is the most squibs ever used in a movie, but I can't remember this much blood spraying in a while).”

Once it scores a basket, the movie takes on the look of the old monster fight movies. It lets each villain do their own killings and then has them come together in a long fight. Dujsik said, “The screenwriters are smart to give us the monsters' back story, especially for those who—like me—haven't been completely loyal to either series, and to simplify their motivations and methods.” Jason is a giant, misunderstood klutz who kills because it’s the only thing he can do. Freddy is the rough, misogynistic person who kills because it’s what he does best. On a humor level, Freddy is the funny one and Jason is the silent one. The story with the teenagers continues, but it comes more and more ridiculous and, as Yu has put us in the right state, even funnier. Eventually, Freddy and Jason find themselves fighting in Freddy’s warehouse and Jason’s old home at Camp Crystal Lake, which is under construction (maybe for that Crystal Lake Research Facility from the thankfully forgotten “Jason X?”) and gives a lot of variety of equipment and explosives to use as weapons.

Dujsik said, “It's an intense visceral rumble, exactly what Freddy Vs. Jason promises, and gives us the third fight between two immortals this year.” The film has a few surprises besides its humor and overall hilarity level. It gives a sense of understanding for Jason during a flashback moment of his first death, and even has a little moving murder for one of its teenage victims who realize he’s about to die. Dujsik said, “Of course, that death is followed soon after by a sudden, unexpected, and funny death to compensate.” What makes this movie work is the balance and thought of another fight between either these two or with Michael Myers.

In the end, I know that this film may not be good, but I think it was awesome to finally see these two fight one another. If you love these two villains, then definitely see this crossover. I think you will love it, but if you don’t, I understand. I’m just happy that I saw it because I loved it. Also, the reason why I didn’t review this movie after “Jason X” is because I first wanted to talk about the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise first. That actually makes sense, doesn’t it?

Alright everyone tomorrow is finally it. I will be looking at the horrible remake of the franchise. I know that I’m not looking forward to it, but the sooner I get it over with, the better. Stay tuned tomorrow when I finished off “Elm Street-a-thon” with the last in the franchise in this year’s “Halloween Month.”