Freddy vs Jason (2003)

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The last time I went through this movie, I did it twice with a "Jason-centric" and "Freddy-centric" review - one for each franchise. However, this time around, I'm going to just finalize it with my thoughts on what I consider to be one of the most underrated films of either franchise. It's definitely not without its problems. I'll grant the critics that. Hell, I'll point out a few myself here. But at the end of the day, I always kind of felt like I got what I wanted from this, and I think personal timing had a lot to do with it.

Long and oft-repeated story short - I couldn't handle horror as a kid, so I caught up on all of it when I was about 17 and took delight in seeing it all for the first time. From there, they became fun in their own way, and I became a fan, particularly of Jason and Freddy, and was immediately in the camp of "Where is 'Freddy vs. Jason'?" Especially after they threw 'Jason X' at us, which made many, including me, wonder if 'Freddy vs. Jason' would even happen. Soon enough, however, it did, and somehow, I knew I would love it no matter what happened.

As the film opens, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) monologues a recap of his dream-invading career until he went to Hell. With no one afraid of him anymore, their lack of fear keeps him at bay. However, Freddy eventually comes across Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger), as foreshadowed at the end of 'Jason Goes to Hell'. Freddy resurrects Jason and sends him to good old 1428 Elm Street to attack whoever is there in an attempt to re-instill fear in his old community of Springwood, Ohio. Jason happily obliges, mistaking the shape-shifting Freddy for his mother, and begins by crashing a small high school party that 1428 Elm is hosting.

It's not long before Lori Campbell (Monica Keena) and her friends Kia (Kelly Rowland) and Gibb (Katharine Isabelle) are fearing for their lives between a giant, pissed-off goalie in a hockey mask in the real world and a dream demon in their nightmares. Meanwhile, Lori's old flame, Will (Jason Ritter) and his friend Mark (Brendan Fletcher) make an escape from Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital in an attempt for Will to reconnect with Lori out of genuine concern for her life after seeing news about the attacks at 1428 which happens to be Lori's house.

Eventually, there ends up being two real battles in the film. The first involves the teens, along with the geeky Charlie Linderman (Christopher Marquette), Rent-a-Jay stoner, Bill Freeberg (Kyle Labine), and Deputy Scott Stubs (Lochlyn Munro) being caught between the unstoppable force that is Freddy and the immovable object that is Jason, and figuring out how to beat them both, especially Freddy, as he's the one with the big dark scheme. Jason's more just a killing machine here, and indeed, does take the majority of the kills by a lot... too much, some might say. The other fight is the obvious one between Freddy and Jason, being fuelled by Jason's mindless killing, taking Freddy's would-be victims.

Speaking personally, I kind of thought the whole plot of this made a lot of sense for these two characters. Ultimately, I'm not entirely sure what people who dislike this movie wanted from it. I kind of always figured it would play out more or less how it did in that there's a basic plot, but it will end with a one-on-one boxing/wrestling match between the two. The plot also brings back certain things from movies, like the drug Hypnocil, which was first mentioned in 'Dream Warriors' as an experimental drug to help people stop dreaming.

If I have any beefs with this, I find them to be nitpicks. For example, Jason isn't really afraid of water. We've seen him use it to his advantage many times. But for the sake of this story and giving it a "fire vs. water" element, it sort of makes sense. After all, he did still initially "die" from drowning (or by having Tommy Jarvis hack him up, or by being dragged to Hell, whichever). Trust me, if you look behind the scenes of what they could have gone with for this movie, you'll be thankful they went the way they did. It could have even been a courtroom movie at one point! Anyway, call it a guilty pleasure, but I proudly defend this movie and figure it to be an example of "you just can't please everyone".


​4/5

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