Freddy Vs Jason

“I had to search the bowels of Hell, but I found someone, someone who’ll make ’em remember.” – Freddy Krueger

My next movie in the Nightmare franchise and the last is the monster showdown movie Freddy Vs Jason. This movie strays from horror and goes into a straight up showdown were the movie goer gets to root for their favorite monster and the people in the movie have to figure out how they are going to survive the battlefield. This movie is my favorite of the monster showdown movies. It just barely beats out Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman and I’m pretty certain it’s because of the generation I was born into.

Now for the monster showdown and what works. The opening scene when Freddy faces the camera is one of the best scenes in the movie. Englund is the only person that could make us really believe that he is a dark entity that has been stuck in Hell and is planning out his escape. The scene is so simple and sets a great tone for the movie. You feel like you are going to get see some fun stuff. The movie uses very clear color lights to show changes in the tone. From light blue, to dark green, and a blood-red the movie shows us that the tone of the scene is about to change drastically. The humor is kept to a minimum even though they have a character that looks like Jason Mewes and acts like he is straight out of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. When they started to go for humor I was a little weary of the movie but then they went back to the fighting. The biggest thing I noticed was that finally the adults in Springwood are no longer completely brainless. They finally acknowledge that after so many strange deaths that Freddy is real and they do something about it. The only mildly dumb people are finally the teenagers who don’t know what is going on. The adults are the only ones who have any hint of what Freddy is. At the same time they won’t hear anything about Jason. The characters in the movie pose the best question though, how can two unbeatable opponents kill each other or even have a clear winner?

I think that the only problem that the movie suffers from are the sequels from the previous movies. Jason has taken an axe to the head, machetes to the eye and shoulder, drowned, covered in toxic waste, and blown up. Exactly how is Freddy supposed to beat him? Even taking the knives to both of Jason’s eyes doesn’t kill him. Then of course Freddy who I’ve already pointed out all of the crazy ways they have killed him over the years in dreams and in the real world. So how is Jason supposed to kill Freddy? Both of these characters have been blown up so what can they really do to each other? The previous sequels remind us when they are trying to kill each other of what isn’t going to work. Writing this movie must have really been a pain because how can you kill what you’ve already shown can’t be killed. I guess decapitation is the only thing that hasn’t been done to either character.

Overall it’s a great monster showdown flick but again most fans wanted a comedy slasher horror. If you just expect a monster movie it works. If you wanted slasher it has elements but overall just isn’t a slasher. Still I really enjoyed the movie and still recommend it to anyone who is a fan to either franchise. Well Freddy is done with and its time to move on to Tim Burton’s vision of Wonderland with Alice in Wonderland. Time to return to a little madness. Until then this cinephile is out.