Halloween Marathon:Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Suffice to say that I’m pretty happy that this is nearing the end of the franchise for me.  Jason X gave me glimmers of hope that this franchise can still go in the campy fun area and really roll with it.  Next up is the 11th in the Friday the 13th franchise and something like the 8th in the Nightmare on Elm Street one.  I haven’t seen any Nightmare on Elm Street and till 2 years ago I didn’t even know how to differentiate between Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Kreuger and which franchise they went with, nor did I know what it was about.  I’m a bit more knowledgable now especially after this one because I will be experiencing the first time who Freddy Kreuger is while continuing this crazy Friday the 13th journey 🙂

Lets hope its a good one, right? Especially since next year, I’m betting that I’ll be doing the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise provided I find all the movies.

 Director: Ronny Yu

Cast: Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, Brendan Fletcher, Katharine Isabelle, Lochlyn Munro

Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund) has been stuck in hell for a long time.  He’s decided to hatch a plan using Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) to bring back the terror into the kids and teens of Elm Street. Their fear and remembering him will strengthen him.  Except Freddy never imagined Jason to go on an uncontrollable killing spree which leads them to not only leave a blood trail separately but eventually they have to fight each other because either won’t step aside easily.

I’m a bit stuck on how to review this one.  For one, how can I evaluate Freddy when this is one of the later movies (need to check that).  However, as a movie which is supposed to follow that horrific 9th movie where Freddy’s arm shows up to pull Jason to hell, this does tons better.  I think it has to do with the whole being a more recent movie.  Freddy Kreuger is an interesting character and I’m definitely down to watch the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.  If anything, his burnt distorted face and the premise of entering dreams and killing is an effective one.

Freddy vs Jason is one of the better ones out of the last few I’ve seen.  I had a really good time with it.  Its way excessively bloodier than the others.  Jason goes on killing spree but we get to see how he does it brutally.  There’s never a lot of blood.  If there is blood, its shielded by the rainy weather or the dark surroundings.  This one is different.  I put an example below.

Two crazy men in their ways lusting over killing and both unkillable in their own senses makes this a pretty good flick to watch.  Plus, the idea of tying a new scenario like Elm Street and then going back to the roots in Camp Crystal Lake gives familiarity to both sides of the fans and a refreshing moment for Friday the 13th.  In the 11th film, after travelling to space and all, its a refreshing moment.

For me, the highlight and familiarity came in the director Ronny Yu.  While most of you on the blogasphere is familiar with these iconic horror figures in your youth, I was a child surrounded with Hong Kong films.  Ronny Yu has contributed some good and memorable 90s movies.  I’ve never seen him do something in the horror but I think he brings a nice style to it 🙂

The rest of the cast being teens from Elm Street were all pretty good.  The story is solid.  At least I believed it because I haven’t seen any other stuff from Elm Street.  As usual, there is campy dialogue and teens are teens where some get drunk and others get high and Freddy does the whole getting into their heads and controlling them or something at one point, but thats ok. I can accept it because its a fun movie to watch.  I don’t think I’ve felt this entertained in the Friday the 13th movies in a while. I liked Jason X but there was still something bordering the “so bad its good”.  Something about Freddy and Jason makes this better than that.  Its actually a decent flick and  an unexpectedly good addition to the series.  Maybe its just having two bad-ass killers facing off that makes it all the better.

Have you seen Freddy vs. Jason? What are your thoughts on it? Is it a worthy addition? 

One more to go and its the remake in 2009!  Halloween is right around the corner, so is my work deadline.  Excuse me for the sporadic timing of the final reviews.  I promise you that I have a few reviews to go up by October 31st but it’ll be published at all sorts of times.