At the end of 1993’s Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, horror fans were given the tease of a lifetime. The promise of a world where two iconic movie monsters could meet up and kill together — or kill each other. Freddy Krueger’s gloved hand dragging Jason Voorhees’ iconic hockey mask into hell was a stinger that wouldn’t be out of place in the modern comic book movie era. But for various reasons, it would take another decade for the gory slugfest between two of the ’80s biggest killers to surface.
Freddy vs. Jason was released this week in 2003. Sure, Ronnie Yu’s movie was inarguably late to its own party. This was partly due to around eighteen different scripts from eighteen different writers over the years, and various legal wranglings over Friday the 13th rights. So by the time the film arrived, one franchise hadn’t been active for nine years (1994’s New Nightmare, a meta take on Freddy) by that point, and Jason went to space just two years previous in the divisive Jason X. For continuity’s sake, it’s best to write those off as side-stories — along with this!
Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is bored and frustrated in hell because the parents of the town he terrorized have made sure no young people remember him. If they’re not scared of him, he can’t enter their dreams. Freddy decides to manipulate another denizen of the underworld to kill in his name so he can be reborn himself.
Step forward the undead juggernaut that is Jason Voorhees (played by Ken Kirzinger this go-round) who massacres the teen population and unwittingly helps Freddy to grow in power. Unfortunately for Freddy, Jason just keeps on killing and killing, ruining his plans.
This is where we get that promised showdown.
Dance of Death
The final confrontation between the two is suitably gory, but it’s also a WWE-style smackdown. It’s almost too easy to forget there’s a bunch of teens we’re supposed care about — try as the film might to crowbar their plight into every scene.
The kids of Freddy vs. Jason are an interesting bunch, though. Dawson’s Creek star Monica Keena took the lead role of Lori Campbell, a girl with a mysterious connection to Freddy. Jason Ritter stars as a former resident locked away and kept on sleep drug Hypnocil to prevent Freddy from entering his dreams. Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland stars as one of Lori’s friend, Kia. Katherine Isabelle, who had the most horror cred of the teen cast having starred in the superb Ginger Snaps (even Robert Englund was a fan), played another of Lori’s friends, an alcoholic party girl called Gibb. Isabelle and director Ronnie Yu had a fractured relationship on set after Isabelle discovered Yu wanted her to do nude scenes, despite previously stating her stance on not doing them.
This ended up being the final appearance of Robert Englund as Freddy Kreuger in the franchise after nearly two decades as the character. Jackie Earl Haley would take on the mantle for the remake. Stuntman Ken Kirzinger had taken over from Kane Hodder as Jason, which was one of many controversies Freddy Vs. Jason caused with fans. The reasoning was the 6′ 5” Kirzinger looked far more intimidating in stature when compared to Englund’s Kreuger. Kirzinger had also been Hodder’s stunt double in the eighth Friday the 13th movie.
The tone of the movie hews closer to the cheesy naffness of later entries in both series. While it’s not exactly how they made their respective names, it’s probably the most accurate depiction of how both franchises taken as a whole. With that in mind, it’s a lot easier to swallow the absolute nonsense and just enjoy the sloppy carnage.
(I mean, it’s worth it for that bed kill alone.)
Time has now passed to the point any second showdown would lose all of its bite without Englund in the role, but the writers are still hopeful of one day giving us round 2. In the meantime, we can console ourselves with the possibility of Jason finally resurfacing after his long legal hiatus.
