Freddy vs Jason (2003)
Directed by Ronny Yu
Written by Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
Starring Monica Keena, Kelly Rowland, Jason Ritter, Lochlyn Munro, Robert Englund, Evangeline Lilly
Release Date August 15th, 2003
Published August 14th, 2003
The few people who stayed to the end of the god-awful Friday the 13th: Jason Goes To Hell were treated to a finale which saw Jason’s hockey mask pulled into the ground by Freddy’s glove. It was exactly what horror fans had been hoping for especially since Jason Goes To Hell was the first time Jason Voorhees had worked under the banner of New Line, also home to Freddy Krueger. Now ten years later the horror fan's wet dream is finally realized onscreen and under the direction of Ronny Yu, its everything a horror fan could have ever wanted.
It’s been a couple years since the people of Springwood have been terrorized by child-murderer Freddy Krueger who, thanks to tight-lipped parents and dream suppressing drugs, has been banished from memory. Never one to give up, Freddy searched the bowels of Hell and found a way to get back his children. The plan is to send the Crystal Lake killer Jason Voorhees to Elm Street to kill in a way that reminds everyone of Freddy.
Back on Elm Street, yet another hapless family has been talked into buying the house that Freddy has committed so much mayhem. It’s current residents are the Campbell family, daughter Lori (Monica Keena) and her Dad, Mom it seems died a mysterious death. This weekend Dad is out of town and Lori has her friends Kia (Kelli Rowland) and Gibb (Katherine Isabelle) over. Of course there is one or more unexpected guests as well, Gibb’s boyfriend and his buddy as well as a certain hockey mask wearing weirdo. This being the film’s first kill, it had to be memorable and a scene that many have called the craftmatic adjustable teen certainly fits the bill.
From there, the bodies begin to pile up, most of them at the macheted hand of Jason, something that really ticks off Freddy who desperately wants in on the bloodshed. Bloodshed is indeed the main component of this film and there are buckets of blood all over the place. Beheadings, crushings, heads twisted off bodies, all in good fun. Freddy and Jason also spill each other's blood which for a pair of dead guys they have a lot of blood.
The film’s special effects have improved greatly over each of the series previous outings thanks to the work of production designer John Willett and art director Ross Dempster as well as an excellent team of effects artists. Of course, the best effects are Freddy and Jason themselves. Robert Englund’s Freddy is as witty and quick as ever and newcomer Ken Kirzinger, who took over the role of Jason from Kane Hodder, is everything that Jason is supposed to be. It was said that Kirzinger was hired because of his sympathetic eyes, which is curious because Jason has only one eye.
Director Ronny Yu, considered by some to be Hong Kong’s top horror director because of his cult classic The Bride With White Hair, delivers not just another slasher flick but a stylish horror classic that combines the worst of both film series with a directorial flourish the raises the creative bar beyond anything either series has done before. And Yu has done it without sacrificing history, without losing what made people follow these to characters through some awful sequels.
Forget the bad acting from the film’s twenty something cast of victims, forget the numerous plot holes, Freddy vs. Jason is pure visceral fun and excitement that, at least for fans of the genre, is an absolute masterpiece. Blood soaked fun that delivers on it’s promise and hints at a future for this crossover series.
