Freddy vs Jason (2003) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij9c4_yFwks

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When you ask for something a hundred times, you shall receive. Crossovers can be looked at as a dime a dozen considering how many have already happened in the 21st Century. Kevin Feige made the MCU possible and Warner Bros Discovery have made infinite iterations of the DCU in comparison. Hell, we even got see Xenomorphs & Yautja scare off and Godzilla vs Kong got a reboot, but I don’t think these ideas would’ve been possible had it not been for Freddy vs Jason.


PLOT


The 2003 film follows the spirit of child killer Freddy Krueger use the zombie Jason Voorhees to do his bidding. With Springwood erasing his evidence, there is not enough contemporary fear for him to continue haunting people on his own. So, he disguises himself as his mother Pamela (Paula Shaw) to instruct Jason to unleash a new terror that will bring him back. The first house he targets on Elm Street is one where teenager Lori Campbell lives with her widowed father and misses her boyfriend Will Rollins who she hasn’t seen since her mother died. The night Jason passes by Elm Street, Lori is accompanied by her close friends Gibb and Kia. The latter brings over two guys, Kim’s boyfriend Trey (Jesse Hutch) and his friend Blake (David Kopp) so she can move on from Will. That doesn’t go as planned because Voorhees would butcher Trey in one of the bedrooms upstairs after the latter had sex with Gibb. When his body is taken away, the girls stay at the police station for a while and get let go after being questioned. Before leaving does Lori overhear an officer name drop Krueger and starts dreaming of him. Blake dreams of him too before Jason kills him and his dad, but the spirited slasher isn’t strong enough to kill on his own, thus waiting a little longer for his opportunity to do so. Will has been institutionalized in Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital and escapes with his friend Mark Davis once he sees the news of what happened at Lori’s house. Lori goes back to school despite her dad’s request to stay home and recover, and she would be devastated hearing what happened to Blake, especially when Kia reveals the police are blaming him for what happened to Trey. She tells her friends her dream of Krueger, but Mark would terrify her and every student on campus when he backs her description of him. This would cause her to faint when seeing Will again and as she recovers at the school’s infirmary, Mark shows Will how the town has blocked out Krueger’s existence, including the death of his brother Bobby (Zack Ward) to keep him from killing again. Knowing that they escaped from Weston Hills, this does better the villain’s chances in getting what he wanted. Lori goes with his friends to a rave to get her mind off of what happened. She tries as hard as she could when seeing Will again, but peace is out the window when Freddy targets Gibb in the dream world. He doesn’t however get to take the kill for himself when Jason impales her and a raver trying to sexually assault her. He then kills half a dozen more people at the rave and the only ones to survive with Lori’s group are a nerd named Linderman and a stoner named Freeburg. When everyone gets dropped off, Will gets the chance to tell Lori he was sent to Westin Hills because he saw her dad kill her mom. She confronts her dad, Doctor Campbell (Tom Butler), about it when he accidentally admits he does consulting at the same hospital after years of her presuming he’s a general practitioner. She runs away with Will and try going to Mark in knowing how to beat Krueger, but the latter gets to him first and kills him his his sleep. They hide at Freeburg’s place along with Kia and Linderman still distraught of what happened at the rave. Deputy Stubbs offers to help them since he has deduced Jason was responsible for the rave massacre and the sheriff refuses to explain the fear of Krueger spreading around town. He shares how Jason drowned as a child and always killed anyone who trespassed Camp Crystal Lake after his mom died. Just upon hearing this, Lori falls asleep again and Freddy targets her again. Luckily, she is able to uncover she can pull things from the dream world when pulling Krueger’s ear off. Will then shares how he and Mark would take the Hypnocil drug to suppress their dreams, which is why they never encountered Krueger until Jason woke up. Knowing they can suppress themselves from dreaming with it, they sneak into Westin Hills to steal as much as they can find. That doesn’t go as planned because Krueger possesses Freeburg and dumps all the specific drugs down the drain. Jason then follows them and electrocutes Stubbs. He chases the rest of the group and when Freddy intervenes, he tranquilizes him but Voorhees still has enough strength to slash Freeburg’s body in half before collapsing. As Freddy tortures him in the dream world, the teens plan to have Lori pull the former out completely in order to have Voorhees defeat him. That doesn’t work immediately because when Jason wakes up, he causes them to crash and his body gets lunged out. Freddy then targets Lori personally to the point of revealing he was her mother’s killer the whole time, meaning what Will saw was her dad covering it up for Lori’s protection. As he tortures her in the dream world, Jason catches up and fatally injures Linderman. Eventually, Lori is able to pull out Freddy as she wakes up, leading to him fighting Voorhees in the real world. When both slashers fight all over the campground, Kia tries distracting Freddy long enough for Will & Lori to escape. That backfires when Jason kills her too. As the fight continues, Lori vows to kill Freddy and she intends to do so by setting the campground on fire. When she gets the fire started with Will’s help, Jason uses the distraction to punch him through his torso and rip off his clawed arm from his body. Freddy rebuttals by driving the machete onto his side after already cutting fingers from his right hand, as well as stabbing him in the face and the ribs. The explosion knocks them both into the lake while Will & Lori jump into the water in time to evade the blast. When they recover, Freddy tries to kill them until Jason stabs him from behind with his arm before falling back in. Lori gets her revenge by beheading Freddy with the machete, ultimately leaving with Will right after. By morning however, Jason emerges from the water now wielding the machete on his left hand full of fingers and collects Freddy’s head. The film would end in a cliffhanger with Freddy breaking the fourth wall by winking to the audience that he is still alive despite the outcome.


THOUGHTS


The best way to discuss this film is through Pros and Cons.


PROS: I was only five years old when this film came out and this was my introduction to both franchises, which was the best way to go about it because it wouldn’t be easy starting from the top with more than a dozen movies to be aware of what to expect in this gore fest. I won’t say this was the best crossover ever, but since many horror fans of either franchise had been wanting this to happen since both debuted in the 80s, it’s hard to not respect what it paved the way. At the long haul, director Ronny Yu and the writing team of David S Goyer, Mark Swift & Damian Shannon are able to make something that was consistently entertaining overall. Undoubtedly, both central antagonists are able to shine within the 90 minute runtime that’s tailored towards their types of terror. Jason’s senseless slaughter fusing with Freddy’s supernatural element is something that works just the way you want it to. Having a high use of low frame slow motion was a decision I can respect since the intent is to consume all the terror that becomes expectedly constant. Moments like Jason being caught on fire during a crop field and remain unfazed is badass and chilling all at once. It’s definitely pick and choose with the VFX here since you’re likely gonna respect seeing Freddy as a living shadow & Kia losing her nose in a dream or cringe over seeing Freddy as a caterpillar to possess Freeburg. As expected from these movies, the makeup is amazing for every bit of violence you’re in for. It already looks great when seeing Robert Englund look as grotesque as possible for his last theatric go as Krueger, but this was arguably the best look you can get for Jason because while actor Ken Kirzinger steps up to make him sentimental again due to expressive eyes, he’s still got his own flavor of brutality. The fact it was his doing that led to him facing Jason anyway does prove there are consequences to being manipulative, which is exactly what happens when his own hand was used against him. Since both characters are villains, it doesn’t even matter who wins or loses but at least one threat is dealt with in entertaining fashion. Each fight they had during the third act lives up to the hype because you get to see how well they can be with their surroundings. Since both technically survived, you’d definitely have to let your determination do the thinking on how worse it can be with two slashers roaming around the same vicinity. Jason will likely return to rest since he knows no one else will return to the campground if destroyed, but it’s a big given Freddy will figure out how to regain power in the real world even if he’s just a head. At the very least, you have your ragtag group of teens willing to figure out how to neutralize the threat before it could get worse. A lot of these characters are known to be one noted in these kind of movies, but I can give this cast credit for pushing believability. Monica Keena is a solid final girl as Lori because while deeply afraid like anyone else, she definitely pushes for resilience in order to keep on living. Her world was turned upside down with what Krueger did to her family and when she actually found out, she knew she wasn’t gonna waste an opportunity on revenge. She did seemingly succeed when beheading him which no one else had done before, but if the alternate ending is canon where Fred gets even with her, you still can’t help respecting her for trying. Jason Ritter made a solid boyfriend out of Will since he didn’t give up on his truth no matter how absurd it must’ve sounded to others. He still chose to help Lori at the end, knowing the risks, because even he knew she deserved revenge more especially since Krueger was the reason he was stuck in a mental hospital for years. If the alternate ending isn’t canon, then we can only pray the two have their happy ending. Within the friend group now, Katharine Isabelle did portray Gibb as the tomboy of the group since she was most cynical, but definitely had her own whirlwind of emotions when grieving over her boyfriend whether or not things would’ve worked out for them had they survived, thus making her death sadder. Kelly Rowland was definitely a standout as Kia since she was the only one outspoken enough to make fun of Freddy before getting killed and even get to strike Jason to protect Lori, and I can respect that too. If any death was the most fucked up, it has to be Mark because he tries to be pragmatic given what he knows and he never got to put the past behind him the way Lori would. What you could respect him for is being defiant when refusing to willingly pass on a message for Freddy because not everyone is lucky to stand up to him like that and Kia was much different because she wasn’t even sure if Freddy was gonna kill her. I honestly don’t think there is anything to hate on towards Linderman because Christopher George Marquette makes him another guy who starts out deeply terrified of what’s coming at him, but comes around in putting an effort to defend himself and even Lori before he too dies. His death was sad too for the anticlimactic aspect of it, since he bleeds out from his wounds and Lori likely doesn’t find his body when leaving. At the very least, he earned Kia’s respect the most when he stood up to her and called her out of her own insecurities before the terror worsened for them; That aspect does lead to him getting a kiss in a deleted scenes moments before they both die. Kyle Labine lives up to making Freeburg to immature to the point of where he has to keep on smoking to cope with the fact it was his party that led to many people dying, which is why Lochlyn Munro makes up for this as Stubbs whose skepticism brings out his courageousness in wanting to take out two birds in one stone. Had he not known of Jason’s story, Freddy would’ve likely never been defeated the way he did. Despite dying so soon, his selflessness did go a long way for everyone else. 


CONS: I’ve given a fair amount of credit to this movie for delivering in what it was hyped to be, but there is so much stuff that didn’t make sense after all the years I’ve rewatched it. There is somehow one continuity error that I didn’t pick up on until much later where Jason hits a keg to get the fire off him, but somehow still hits a raver that wasn’t close enough to have been struck. Getting into the story, why didn’t Lori lock the doors? She doesn’t know about Jason yet, but that is always asking for an intruder especially if her dad was out of town. And how was she and her dad allowed to go back to their home if it’s still a crime scene? I know the town wants to contain Freddy, but since Jason is roaming around, they might as well investigate a little more. What felt out of character for Jason isn’t just pausing his killing spree after Trey when he could’ve killed the girls right then and there, but the fact of him being afraid of water is what confused me most. For the past films, he’s never feared for drowning and has been an efficient swimmer despite having drowned. I understand Freddy needed an advantage in the dream world, but this was the worst way to set up an Achilles heel. Another out of character moment would be him leaving the head of Blake’s dad together until he wakes up. I expect that from Michael Myers or Charles Lee Ray, but not Jason. Also, was Lori really asked of her dreams when she was awake or was that a thing that happened when sleeping? I like to believe the latter happened but since the whole police station minus Stubbs choose to be unclear of what they fear, it’s hard to know what exactly would they question her about. Another thing, what the hell happened to Blake’s sister? I know Jason doesn’t seem to kill kids as shown in his past entries, but if the cops are gonna blame Blake for Trey and his dad, you kinda wonder what’ll happen to her. Moving on, where the hell are Mark’s parents if their home remained as is including Bobby’s van that is used throughout? It would’ve not been the worst thing to know they were looking for him once he escaped with Will. That even makes me question how much money did Will & Mark have to keep the van filled with gas. Hell, I’m still trying to wonder if Linderman or Freeburg were called in for questioning about the rave massacre if not Kia and Lori. I know the sheriff is trying to contain Freddy, but a murder spree should still be investigated man to the point where he could’ve heard Stubbs out about Jason. It is one thing to say Will had some crazy armor to survive being slashed from behind by Jason given how the ravers weren’t so lucky, but I’m still trying to figure out how the hell did Freddy catch up to him and Lori so fast after Jason tossed him into another house? I can believe Jason would catch up because he’s always unfazed to pain like a burning house coming down on him, but Freddy has no power at that point so that made no sense other than to give Kia a chance to stall for her friend.


In conclusion, Freddy vs Jason is the 21st century blueprint to how fun crossovers can be while also having a logical story to behold. Whichever kind of fan you are, this is absolutely worthwhile.