Freddy vs. Jason - 2003

At some point in the blog history I was going to stay away from the more known movies in general, but if I had something I wanted to say I'd break that rule and write about it anyways. I did this first with some still slightly under the radar and/or new releases. But I am a fan of the big horror franchises as well, and I've always liked to have their knowledge in my head.

I went through most of the Freddy and the Jason movies in this blog. Part of this is that every few years I get it into me to rewatch these series. Halloween as well. I got into Paul Rust and Matt Gourley's lovely podcast which first tackled Friday the 13th, then Halloween, then Nightmare on Elm Street. This got me really in the mood to see at least one of these films, and I had seen Jason X recently in the blog so fuck it. Haven't seen it since the theater, might as well rewatch Freddy vs Jason.

What do I remember? Surprisingly I remember a lot. First of all, I remember this being a big deal that it was happening, and two years later we got Alien vs Predator. Freddy vs Jason was a big deal that people talked about, I was in high school so right in the demographic and my friends were hella interested in this. I hadn't seen many of the films at this point in life. I had seen the first Nightmare film and likely several of the Friday films, but I was still in my film nerd phase where I thought I was better than that and I only watched "good" movies.

Freddy vs Jason has Freddy being near forgotten in the beginning, and using some last bit of power to raise Jason from the dead to go to Freddy's old neighborhood and kill people. Freddy thinks that if bodies start piling up by Freddy's old house that people will start talking about him regardless of who is actually killing. Jason soon enough kills a kid that Freddy is after, and Freddy is pissed off. Meanwhile some kids who know of Freddy escape from a asylum and start raising talk of Freddy, making him grow more powerful from the fear instilled.

It's a long paragraph and a lot of plot but basically it's "let's find a reason to have them fight". Directed by later Chucky director Ronny Yu, we have what amounts to two large fight scenes between the villians. First, Jason is asleep and faces Freddy in Freddy's nightmare land where Freddy has the advantage. Then, a girl pulls Freddy into the real world and Jason and Freddy fight at Camp Crystal Lake, Jason's advantage.

The side characters are all fine, the effects are great, the fights are fun and there's some good original ideas present. I will say, I thought it would have been better if they'd restated some of the basic rules of Freddy. I didn't remember what exactly happens he is brought to the real world for example.

Anyways, there's tons of nudity, there's excessive blood and guts, there's enough of a story for it to make sense, and the things all chug along just fine. I remember when I first saw it thinking they needed to fight more. This time, I thought the same thing. It's quite even, and I guess they didn't want to make there be too obvious of a winner. So I think that's why there's not more of the fight. Anyways I guess it's enough. I dunno. It doesn't mean this is a perfect film. And I think the lack of any true follow up or big cult following means the audience didn't quite get what they wanted. It's about a 3 star affair.