Back in the 1980s, when "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th" ruled the slasher film genre, you could always count on gratuitous nudity, over the top violence, and cheesy dialogue. But then "Scream" came out, and all the horror movies became carbon copies of each other. No nudity, minimal violence, and dialogue that ranged from not bad to downright witty. What the hell happened? Hopefully, "Freddy Vs. Jason" is a sign that slasher films will go back to their roots.
With the exception of "Jason X," I've seen all of the "Friday the 13th" movies. Contrary to popular belief, the killer in the first "Friday the 13th" movie was not "Jason Voorhees," but his mother. In that film, "Jason," who was often made fun of because of his facial deformity, fell into the water at Camp Crystal Lake. None of the camp counselors heard his pleas for help because they were too busy having sex. Promiscuous teenagers, I tellya. So "Mrs. Voorhees" avenged the death of her son by killing all the people at camp while they were having sex. It wasn't until "Friday the 13th Part II" that "Jason" returned from the dead and became a killer himself. He didn't talk, but it was clear that his motivation for killing was similar to his mom's... his victims were all having sex. He wore a bag over his head during that film, it wasn't until "Friday the 13th Part III" (when it was released in theaters, it was called "Friday the 13th Part III in 3D") that he got the hockey mask from one of his victims. He's worn it ever since. Truth be told, the "Friday the 13th" movies were pretty bad, and the only reason to watch it was for the thrill of seeing "Jason" kill. Also, the frequent nudity was nice to watch. By the time it got to "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," it was clear that the franchise had become a parody of itself. In my opinion, the best of the "Friday the 13th" movies is "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood." In that one, rather than the whole movie being "Jason" killing people, it features a girl with telekinetic powers, and when it's time for "Jason" to do battle with her, it's a real fight. All of the "Friday the 13th" movies are bad (while still being morbidly entertaining), but I think that the seventh film is the most entertaining.
Of the two film franchises, I prefer "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Since "Freddy Krueger" killed people in their dreams, the death scenes were a lot more creative and surreal. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was a horror movie in the truest sense, and it scared a lotta people. You could run from "Jason," but you couldn't run from "Freddy." "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was really scary, and it had some terrifying imagery. It was very low budget, and it got cheesy at times, but it remains a masterpiece of the genre. The sequel, however, was a piece of shit. "A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy's Revenge" was so bad, it was barely watchable. The third and fourth films in the series were much better, and they're both very entertaining, but far from scary. By the time those movies came out, "Freddy" was fun to watch, and he had funny lines. Also, he killed people in such creative ways, you couldn't wait to see how he was gonna kill his next victim. All of the ones that followed were really bad, though. Actually, I shouldn't say that, because the one "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie that I've never seen is "Wes Craven's New Nightmare," and it's supposedly pretty good. I don't know why I never saw it, I should go rent the DVD. Anyway, out of all of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies that I've seen, the best ones are the first one, "A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors," and "A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master." "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" is supposed to be good, too.
In 1993, "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" was released, and it was the first "Friday the 13th" film to be released since New Line bought the rights (the "Friday the 13th" films were originally owned by Paramount). At the end of that film, after "Jason" dies (yet again), you see a hockey mask on the ground. A few moments later, an arm that obviously belongs to "Freddy Krueger" pops up from the ground, grabs the hockey mask, and takes it underground with him. That's how the movie ends. Even though this was at a time when "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" were losing their popularity, fans were excited about a possible "Freddy Vs. Jason" movie. But it didn't happen. The following year, we got "Wes Craven's New Nightmare," and in 2001, we got "Jason X," the tenth "Friday the 13th" movie. It would be ten years after seeing the tease at the end of "Jason Goes to Hell" before "Freddy Vs. Jason" finally hit theaters. After ten long years, the expectations are high, but considering the kinda movie it is, you can't expect TOO much.
Is "Freddy Vs. Jason" a good movie? God no. It's got horrible dialogue, senseless nudity, and over the top violence. In other words, it's how slasher flicks SHOULD be. This is not a film for everybody, and even true fans might snicker at how bad some of the dialogue is. It starts slowly, and it's never scary, but when "Freddy" and "Jason" start fighting, the movie really kicks ass.
Robert Englund is back as "Freddy Krueger," and this is a role that he must have a blast playing. As always, he's great in the role, and it's good to see him doing what he does best. It may seem like it doesn't matter who plays "Jason" since he's always under that hockey mask, but I disagree. In this film, he's played by Ken Kirzinger, a stuntman/actor I'm not really familiar with. At 6' 6'', he's the tallest actor to ever play "Jason," but he doesn't have the mass that Kane Hodder has. For those of you who don't know, Kane Hodder played "Jason" in "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood," "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday," and "Jason X." He's a popular actor among fans of the genre, and he really wanted to be in "Freddy Vs. Jason," but the filmmakers thought that he was TOO massive, and they wanted "Jason" to be a closer physical match to "Freddy." I have nothing against Ken Kirzinger, he did a fine job, but I woulda been happier if Kane Hodder played the role.
The rest of the cast is interesting to me, because it's a versatile bunch. The main girl is played by Monica Keena, who I don't know much about. I DO know that she spent a season or two in that horrible TV show, "Dawson's Creek," and I once saw her in a disappointing movie called "Snow White: A Tale of Terror," where she played "Snow White." Her acting is a lot better than you would expect from someone in this kinda movie, the girl is a real actress. I can't say the same for Kelly Rowland (that's right, the one from the pop group Destiny's Child). Her acting is pretty bad, and the way she delivers dialogue is awful. She should stick to singing. Then there's Katharine Isabelle, who I remember as "Ginger" from the awesome (and underrated) werewolf flick, "Ginger Snaps." That's a great movie, and you should see it, if you haven't already. Also in the movie is Jason Ritter, son of actor John Ritter. I've never seen him before, but I know that he was in that horrible MTV show, "Undressed." He's a pretty good actor, I suppose. Lochlyn Munro is a guy who I've only seen in comedies prior to this film, most notably as the dimwitted best friend of the moronic head-bobbing duo in "A Night at the Roxbury." He has a very expressive, animated face, and he's a very good comedic actor. He plays it straight in this movie, but I don't really buy it. I kept waiting for him to say or do something funny. Finally, there's a cool cameo to look for. Robert Shaye, one of the producers of the movie and the co-chairman & co-CEO of New Line Cinema plays the school principal.
"Freddy Vs. Jason" was directed by Ronny Yu, and this is the first film of his that I've ever seen. He was born in Hong Kong, and directed a lotta Honk Kong flicks, but he attended high school in England, and the University of Ohio in the USA. His English-language movies include "Formula 51," "Warriors of Virtue," and "Bride of Chucky." This is a bad movie, but I get the feeling that Ronny Yu knew exactly what he was doing. He set out to make a slasher film that was reminiscent of the silly slasher flicks of the 1980s, and that's exactly what he delivered. The script was written by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift, and this is their debut. I'm not sure if they set out to make dialogue this bad, but I certainly hope so. It's really, really horrible. I'll have to see more movies written by them before I can comment on their writing, because for all I know, they deliberately wrote the worst dialogue they could come up with.
A movie like "Freddy Vs. Jason" won't win any Oscars, but for fans of old school slasher films, this is the movie we've been waiting for. It takes a while to get really good, and the plot doesn't make a whole lotta sense, but that's okay. When "Freddy" and "Jason" start kicking each other's asses, it makes it all worth it.
Scale of 1-10: 7