Bloody Mess: Day #286 - Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Viewed October 13, 2006
Freddy vs. Jason is exactly what you think it is: no more, no less. It’s a virtual non-stop parade of death and mayhem, with only a light sprinkling of thought and character.
Now, this is a film that was developed by focus group, if ever there was one. There’s clearly no great artistic vision here, no story that needed to be told. Someone realized that the “Nightmare on Elm Street” crowd and the “Friday the 13th” crowd were related, compatible, but not necessarily the same. This means they could make a film that crossed both series and potentially generate greater revenue than an individual film would.
That works on paper, not necessarily on screen. I’ve seen plenty of entries in both of these series to get a sense of their relative worth. The “Nightmare” series was always more intelligent, with at least some sense of the true horrors that Freddy Krueger had commited before becoming a paranormal creature. Friday the 13th was a decent film with a good twist ending, but the series rapidly deteriorated into pure bloodfests and nonsenseical sci-fi elements. Freddy vs. Jason apparently had to descend to the lowest common denominator (Jason) in order for the two to co-exist.
The basic set-up is not bad as these things go: Freddy is being forgotten as time passes, so he releases Jason from Hell and sets him loose on Elm Street in order to stir up memories of Freddy’s past actions. (How he is sure this will work is never made clear.) Well, it does work and people start talking about Freddy Krueger again. Unfortunately for Freddy, they are actually more scared of this maniac Jason who is walking around hacking people to death. Naturally, Freddy gets jealous, especially when jason kills a sleeping girl before Freddy can get to her in her dreams. This leads to the showdown eluded to in the title.
Of course, there are plenty of teens running throughout getting caught up in the action and trying to find the truth that the parents and authorities are keeping from them (for their own protection, of course). And in the name of full disclosure, I must admit that the lead females (Monica Kenna, Kelly Rowland and Katharine Isabelle) are more attractive than the usual fodder served up in these films.
But I guess I was hoping for some of the self-referential stuff that made Wes Craven’s New Nightmare the most interesting “Freddy” movie since the original or maybe the over-the-top goofiness of Jason Takes Manhattan. But most of the mayhen is by-the-book wihout the really creative type of material that can keep it interesting for me.
If you like these kinds of films, there’s everything you want: blood, nudity, blood, violence, blood… If you don’t like this kind of film, I don’t think you’ll be considering it, anyway, so I’ll just re-iterate what I said at the beginning: this film is what you think it would be. It doesn’t break new ground or try to be original with the subject matter. If you are inclined to like “Freddy” or “Jason” movies, you’ll like Freddy vs. Jason. Just don’t expect too much.