" Two killers! We're not safe awake or asleep!"
Title: Freddy vs. Jason
Director: Ronny Yu
Writer: Damian Shannon / Mark Swift
Release Date: 15 August 2003
Runtime: 97
MAIN CAST
Robert Englund - Freddy Krueger
Ken Kirzinger - Jason Voorhees
Monica Kenna - Lori
Kelly Rowland - Kia
Jason Ritter - Will
Katharine Isabelle - Gibb
Brendan Fletcher - Mark
Chris Marquette - Linderman
PLOT OVERVIEW
There are spoilers, but I don't reveal who 'wins'
All records of Freddy Krueger's existence in Elm Street have been destroyed. All the children who know his name are being held in a psychiatric hospital and given a drug called Hypnocil to suppress their dreams. Freddy's powers, which are boosted by children's fear of him, are at an all time low. Pretending to be his mother, Freddy tricks Jason Voorhees into going to Elm Street and respreading the Freddy Krueger name.
Jason makes his way to 1482 Elm Street, finds a bunch of kids and kills one boy. The kids overhear the police mention Freddy's name (this is the house that Freddy attacked more than once) and the fear is back. More and more children are killed and Freddy's name is everywhere, but even when Freddy is back up to full power, he can't stop Jason from killing. Freddy becomes more and more irritated by Jason picking off the kids he wants to kill and the two eventually battle it out - to the death!
REVIEW
OK, first things first - I said I wouldn't say who the winner was and I won't, but that's mostly due to the fact that there isn't one! Despite every review in the world ending with '...and there is a clear winner!!!!!', this is simply not the case. I'm not quite being fair, and it was, of course, inevitable, but in the final moment the filmmakers do make it completely and totally clear that both characters can (and will) return. It spoilt it for me just a little. If you don't watch the last moment, you can pretend that the winner did in fact win.
Now that unpleasantness is behind us, lets get onto the actual film. I enjoyed it. A lot. It is not a great film, obviously, but the enjoyment factor is way up there. The gore level is fairly high, most of the female characters have ridiculously proportioned bodies and Freddy and Jason do actually have a pretty good fight, so what more could you possibly want? The acting is good (for a horror movie), the movie moves along at a good pace and keeps the action coming, and Ronny Yu was definitely a good choice of director (he showed he could do slightly comic horror with Bride of Chucky (Chucky gets Lucky! Genius)).
Having seen none of the Nightmare on Elm Street series and only Jason X (I'm guessing not a typical Friday the 13th movie), I don't really feel qualified to comment on the use of the characters, but it seemed to me that Freddy Krueger was little more than a comic character. He wasn't scary AT ALL and did little more than make slightly amusing quips. Jason Voorhees got most of the kills in this movie, and was certainly scarier, but he didn't exactly make me fill my briefs either. In fact this is not a scary movie - there are a couple of those jump-out-of-your-seat, someone appears out of nowhere moments, but apart from that, it was all gore. Gore does not equate with being scary, but I don't really think that was the point of this film.
If you're a horror fan, then I'd recommend this one. If you're a gore fan, then I'd definitely recommend this one. If you're a fan of either of the series, I don't really know what to say - if you're a big fan of scary old Freddy you might be offended by his complete lack of anything approaching scariness and if you're a fan of Jason you'll probably be OK, as he just kills a lot of people. I'm being wishy-washy I know - just go see the damn thing.
Sources:
the scary imdb.com