In Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy Krueger’s reign of terror is over. Trapped in Hell, Freddy is unable to invade the dreams of children and has become somewhat powerless in the process.
To ensure he doesn’t return, the adult residents of Springwood, Ohio have gone to extreme measures. They have hidden his crimes from the children, and have drugged some of the older teens, so that he will soon be forgotten about completely.
However, Freddy is convinced he can find a way back from Hell, he just needs a little assistance. Step forward serial killer, Jason Voorhees – Freddy’s unwitting accomplice.
Freddy believes that if he can send Jason to Springwood, and encourage him to cause enough murder and mayhem, this will make the residents mistakenly believe that Freddy has returned. In turn, this belief will provide Freddy with a window of opportunity to regain his power.
After putting his plan into operation, Freddy’s scheme works, but it comes at a cost. With Jason on the loose, the bodies begin to pile up, leaving Freddy with less teens to exploit.
Directed by Ronny Yu, Freddy vs. Jason stars Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Monica Keena, Kelly Rowland, Jason Ritter, Katharine Isabelle, and Lochlyn Munro. The movie is a crossover between the Nightmare on Elm Street series AND the Friday the 13th films and is the eighth entry in the former and the eleventh in the latter.
Freddy vs. Jason is the most profitable movie in each respective series, taking over $116 million at the box office. The film was also a big deal when it was released back in 2003, because it had been in development for years and at one point looked as if it would never come to pass.
But is it any good? Well, Freddy vs. Jason is about as good as you might expect a movie titled Freddy vs. Jason to be.
It’s not the Citizen Kane of horror movies, but it’s not bad either. The film is disposable popcorn fodder that has a workable story and some fun ‘kills’, and if you don’t overthink it, the movie has some enjoyable scenes with each of its title characters.
Could this film be better? Of course, and it does suffer from some annoying characters, duff dialogue, and terrible acting from Kelly Rowland, but it’s a likeable (and daft) monster mash-up, so you take the rough with the smooth.
Fans wanted to see Freddy and Jason doing what they do best (namely, killing), and there is a fair amount of this in Freddy vs. Jason. The film does its best to showcase the two characters, while keeping the narrative moving forward, and despite a few leaps in logic it pretty much achieves its goal.
Freddy vs. Jason also looks great. If you can overlook some occasionally crap CGI, the film is beautifully shot.
Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees have simply never looked so good on screen. At times, the shots from cinematographer Fred Murphy are gorgeous, with Freddy in particular looking great!
Throw in a stellar performance from Robert Englund as Krueger, plenty of dashes of black humour, and a highly enjoyable final act, and you get a perfectly fine film. It’s not amazing, but no one ever expected it would be, and sometimes fine is all you need.
After varying degrees of success in their own series, Freddy vs. Jason is a neat capper to the original run of the Elm Street and Friday the 13th movies. Each franchise received a reboot after this film, leaving Freddy vs. Jason as an entertaining end to what had come before.
As noted above, the film never manages to fall into ‘amazing’ territory, but it does regularly hit the spot. As pure escapism goes, Freddy vs. Jason works.
Should you wish to watch the movie for yourself, Freddy vs. Jason is available on digital platforms. The movie isn’t currently available on DVD or Blu-ray, but it isn’t too difficult to track down on the secondary market should you wish to locate a copy.
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