Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American crossover slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The main characters include horror icons Freddy Krueger (from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series) and Jason Voorhees (from the Friday the 13th series). In the series continuity for both franchises, the events of this film take place after Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.
Plot
Freddy Krueger is stuck in Hell, and his only way out is if teenagers become scared once again of nightmares. Therefore, he resurrects the undead serial killer Jason Voorhees, who is capable of acting in the real world, and tricks him into rising from the grave again.
In the disguise of Pamela Voorhees (the only person to whom Jason will listen), Freddy convinces Jason to kill teenagers living on Elm Street to make the residents of Springwood think that Freddy is back.
A group of youths, including the protagonist Lori Campbell and her friends Kia and Gibb, are questioned in relation to the death of Gibb's boyfriend (who was killed by Jason). Lori hears the name "Freddy" from one of the police officers. The group is then sent to the police station, where Lori dozes off. In her dream, she sees a little girl with no eyes telling her that his name is Freddy Krueger and he loves children, especially little girls. She also says that he's coming back and that it's "okay to be afraid" as they are all afraid. Then Lori is suddenly outside the house on Elm Street surrounded by graves. She sees the girls skipping rope and singing the rhyme "1, 2, Freddy's coming for you". Just then, Freddy jumps out at her and she wakes up.
Freddy tests his power gained from the fear caused by Jason's attack. Although he is able to be seen by Blake (one of the teens partying at Lori's house), Freddy cannot cause any damage, so Freddy lets Jason kill Blake and his dad, overlooking the massacre and remarking that he will "get the glory."
At school the next day, Kia, Lori and Gibb hear about Blake's death, and Lori tells them about her dream in front of everyone in the school. After she tells them, she finds that her old boyfriend Will Rollins has returned after escaping from Westin Hills Asylum.
Later that night, everyone goes to a rave in a cornfield. Gibb apparently takes some date rape pills and falls asleep, vulnerable to Freddy. She has a dream where she sees her dead boyfriend Trey and follows him to a barn, which turns out to be Freddy's boiler room. A boy comes across Gibb's unconscious body and kisses her, but while this is occurring, Jason crashes the rave, killing Gibb (who is still sleeping, stabbing her just before Freddy can kill her himself), the boy, and nine others. This angers Freddy, seeing Jason refuses to stop, he yells "She's mine. Mine! Mine!"
Kia, Lori, Will, and fellow students Freeberg and Linderman escape from Jason. Will, after dropping off everyone but Lori, tells her why he was sent to the institution. Seeing Will with Lori, Mr. Campbell rushes up to his daughter and orders her into the house. Will tries to tell Lori that her father works at Westin Hills and he was the one that had Will committed. In a panic, Mr. Campbell grabs Will by the throat, forcing him against the van and yelling "I'm not going to let you endanger my daughter again!" Lori runs into the house and orders her father to tell her the truth. He doesn't comply and she runs off. Meanwhile, Mark (Brendan Fletcher), a friend of Will who began learning about Freddy four years earlier when Freddy killed Mark's brother (Zack Ward), is starting to fall asleep and goes into the bathroom to take an anti sleeping pill. He drops it in the sink and sees his brother in the bathroom with his wrists cut. Shortly afterward, this is revealed to be Freddy's doing - Mark has been asleep the whole time. Freddy asks Mark to "Send a message" for him; when Mark refuses, Freddy says he will just have to send that message himself. When Lori and Will get to his house, they yell at him to wake up; his back suddenly bursts into flames and he hits the window looking at the pair, calling out "Help me!" before four slash marks appear on his face and he falls down dead with "Freddy's back" burned into his back, implying that Freddy is strong again.
Deputy Stubbs, a rookie police officer, tries to inform the Sheriff about Jason, thinking he is a copycat killer, but the sheriff refuses to believe it. Stubbs goes to Lori and the others, and tells them about the killer's entire history. They all conclude that Freddy is the one pulling the strings in order to return again. However, by the time they realize this, the fear has made Freddy strong enough to come back from Hell, although he is angry at Jason's continued presence in "his" town.
The group goes back to Westin Hills Asylum to find Hypnocil (a dream suppressant) so Freddy cannot kill them. Soon after they enter the building, Jason has followed them and kills a security guard. While taking a break to smoke marijuana, Freeberg is possessed by Freddy, who pours the majority of the Hypnocil down a drain. Jason comes into the building and attacks, electrocuting Stubbs and killing him. Freeberg manages to stick Jason with two syringes full of tranquilizer, but Jason slices him in half before he passes out. Freddy subsequently confronts Jason in his dream where Jason, realizing he's been tricked, fights Freddy, who has an advantage due to his dream powers but can not kill Jason as they are unrelated (only someone related to Jason can kill him). They seem evenly matched, but Jason loses due to his aquaphobia from his drowning as a child.
The teens decide to bring Jason back to Crystal Lake, feeling that the best case scenario is that Jason will win on his home turf and then be content to remain there. Lori is injected with the remaining tranquilizer so she can bring Freddy out of the dream. While in the dream, Lori tries to help Jason's childhood self during his drowning, only to be confronted by Freddy (who has manifested in the dream as one of the counselors who let Jason drown). With Lori now having captured Freddy's attention, Jason wakes up and escapes in the van. The group brings an unconscious Lori into a cabin, where Jason attacks them and fatally wounds Linderman in the left kidney by throwing him into a pointed shelf holder on the wall. While Freddy attacks Lori, revealing that he killed her mother as he attempts to rape her, Lori wakes up after the cabin is set on fire and her arm is burned, thus dragging Freddy out of the dream with her.
Jason and Freddy soon face off, with Jason killing Kia as the final fight begins. Freddy starts taking advantage of a nearby construction site and uses it to cause great harm to Jason. Freddy is knocked off balance and falls to the ground, entering direct combat, which goes all the way to the docks; Jason hacks at Freddy repeatedly, but Freddy slices Jason's fingers off, taking his machete and landing several hard slashes on Jason with both his glove and Jason's machete. Lori distracts Freddy and lights the dock on fire, giving Jason the opportunity to tear off Freddy's arm. Lori and Will set fire to propane tanks in an attempt to kill the two. Freddy emerges from the lake with the machete still in his hand. He is about to kill Lori and Will when Jason emerges from the water and impales Freddy with his own arm. Lori then decapitates Freddy with Jason's machete, and both Freddy and Jason fall into the lake, disappearing beneath the surface.
The film ends with Jason walking out of Crystal Lake holding Freddy's disembodied head, which winks to the audience, leaving the outcome of the battle ambiguous.
Cast
Reception
Based on 143 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Friday the 13th has an overall 41% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 4.8 out of 10.[1] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs,[2] the film holds an overall approval rating of 27%.[3] By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 37, based on 30 reviews.[4]
Award nominations
Doug Chapman and Glenn Ennis were nominated for the Best Fire Stunt in the Taurus World Stunt Awards 2004 for the double full body burn and wire stunt. Doug Chapman doubled for Robert Englund as Freddy and Glenn Ennis doubled for Jason in the stunt.[5]
Possible sequel
A sequel to the story appears as a comic book limited series, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, from Dynamite Entertainment.[6] According to an interview with Englund from March 2006, New Line Cinema had participated in talks with John Carpenter concerning the use of Michael Myers in a sequel.[7]
Talks broke down and no crossover film involving the three horror icons is currently planned. New Line and Dimension Films have since opted to reboot their franchises, resulting in the production and release of Friday the 13th (2009), Rob Zombie's Halloween and its upcoming sequel H2 (film) as well as a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street with Jackie Earle Haley taking over the Freddy Krueger role.
References
External links
