Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Director:

Ronny Yu

Writers (WGA):

Wes Craven (characters) and
Victor Miller (characters) ...

Release Date:

15 August 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The "Slicer"...The "Dicer"...And This Time, They're Not Any "Nicer"!

Plot:

Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees return to terrorize the teenage population. Except this time, they're out to get each other, too.

Plot Keywords:

Freddy Krueger | Jason Voorhees | Lake | Crystal Lake | Slasher

Awards:

2 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Robert Englund	...	Freddy Krueger
Ken Kirzinger	...	Jason Voorhees
Monica Keena	...	Lori Campbell
Jason Ritter	...	Will Rollins
Kelly Rowland	...	Kia Waterson
Chris Marquette	...	Charlie Linderman (as Christopher George Marquette)
Brendan Fletcher	...	Mark Davis
Katharine Isabelle	...	Gibb
Lochlyn Munro	...	Deputy Scott Stubbs
Kyle Labine	...	Bill Freeburg
Tom Butler	...	Dr. Campbell
David Kopp	...	Blake
Paula Shaw	...	Mrs. Pamela Voorhees (Jason's Mother)
Jesse Hutch	...	Trey
Zack Ward	...	Bobby Davis (Mark's Brother)

Also Known As:

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 8 (USA) (working title)
A Nightmare on Friday the 13th (USA) (working title)
Freddy contre Jason (Canada: French title)
Friday the 13th Part XI (USA) (working title)
FvJ (USA) (informal short title)

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive strong horror violence/gore, gruesome images, sexuality, drug use and language.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

Canada | USA | Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18SG | South Korea:18 | Singapore:R(A) | Portugal:M/18 | Japan:PG-12 | Japan:R-15 (DVD rating) | Brazil:18 | USA:R (No. 40045) | Singapore:R21 (re-rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | Chile:18 | Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | Germany:18 (nf) | Italy:VM14 | Mexico:C | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Peru:18 | Philippines:PG-13 | Spain:18 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Buntzen Lake, Anmore, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

'Brendan Fletcher' and Katharine Isabelle starred in this film together, and later, both were on "Supernatural" (2005) playing "special children" created by The Yellow-Eyed Demon.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Lori wakes up in the police station and follows the dropping blood, she turns a corner because she hears a little crying. Right after she turns the corner, the cameras show office windows. You can see someone sitting down and a camera on his knees.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Freddy Krueger: [narrating] My children... from the very beginning, it was the children who gave me my power. The Springwood Slasher, that's what they called me. My reign of terror was legendary. Dozens of children would fall by my blades. Then the parents of Springwood came for me...

Movie Connections:

Features A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Soundtrack:

How Can I Live

Mindless fun

I have some mixed feelings about Freddy Vs. Jason. It was a lot better than a lot of the Friday the 13ths (especially the amazingly bad Jason X), but it wasn't that great compared to some of the Nightmare films. Overall, it was enjoyable.

It has nothing new to offer except the fact that Freddy and Jason face off. It has all the horror movie clichés but never once uses them creatively. When a girl gets naked she might as well be saying "look, I'm naked!", when someone is doing drugs they might as well being saying "look, I'm doing drugs!" and when someone dies they might as well be saying "look, I'm dead!" The gore is good, though. Probably the best gore out of both series. Blood literally flies at the screen. It gets really gory once Freddy and Jason fight at the end.

Now there's the acting. Horror movie actors have been getting worse and worse. Whatever happened to subtlety? Monica Keena, who plays Lori is so profoundly horrible in this that it made me not like the movie as much. She is so whiny through the entire movie, no wonder Freddy kept calling her "bitch" over and over. Even Robert Englund is at his worst as Freddy. With the exception of New Nightmare, each time Robert Englund plays Freddy he gets cheesier and cheesier. Of course this movie's ridiculous plot doesn't help either. Then there's Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child fame. I thought she was going to be horrible, like every other music star that decides to do a horror flick, but surprisingly she wasn't that bad. Maybe even the best actress in the whole movie. She just played it real, and she really has a great scene at the end where she is making fun of Freddy.

Another thing that bugged me where the special effects. In all the other movies there where good physical effects, make-up effects, and camera trickery. Freddy Vs. Jason is just plain lazy. The only reason to see it is the end battle. I really think Ronny Yu was a bad choice to direct this movie. He's mastered the gore, in-jokes, and humour of horror movies but when it comes to actual horror, he's clueless.

But like Bride Of Chucky (which Yu also directed), this is just an unexplainable guilty pleasure. It was mindless fun. I guess it was fun to turn my brain off for 90 minutes, even though that was hard to do since I actually respected some of the other movies. This movie I have no respect for.

All in all, this is exactly what you could expect from a cheesy concept like Freddy and Jason doing battle against each other. Yes, it could have been better but it far more easily could have been a lot worse, so I give them credit for that. Hardcore fans will love it.

My rating: 6/10