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Freddy vs. Jason

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Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. It is a crossover between the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th series, being the eighth installment in the former and the eleventh in the latter. The film retroactively establishes the two series in a shared universe and pits their respective antagonists, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, against each other after the former manipulates Jason into coming back to life and attacking the residents of Springwood to facilitate his own return. It is chronologically set after Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) but before Jason X (2002), and is the last film in each franchise before their respective reboots.

Freddy vs. Jason was released in the United States on August 15, 2003. It grossed over $116 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film in each series. The film marks Robert Englund's final cinematic appearance as Freddy Krueger. A sequel and crossover with the Evil Dead franchise was planned, but it was ultimately scrapped and turned into a comic book limited series, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.

Plot[]

Since his last defeat, Freddy Krueger has been in Hell and unable to invade children's dreams, as the adults of Springwood have gone to extremes to make sure their children have forgotten him. Using his remaining power, Freddy resurrects Jason Voorhees. Appearing as Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees, he manipulates Jason into killing the teens of Springwood in order to create a fear in the townsfolk that Freddy has returned, which would allow him to regain his strength.

Meanwhile, Lori Campbell, who lives with her widowed father, has a sleepover with her friends Kia and Gibb. They are later joined by Trey, Gibb's emotionally abusive boyfriend, and his friend Blake. Jason enters the house and murders Trey, and the police suspect Freddy. After a nightmare, Blake awakens to find his father decapitated by Jason, who then kills Blake himself. The police call it a murder–suicide the following day, hoping to conceal Freddy's return from the rest of the town.

Elsewhere, Lori's ex-boyfriend Will Rollins and his friend Mark Davis, forcibly institutionalized at the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital, are made to take Hypnocil to suppress their dreams because of their previous contact with Freddy. A news report about the killings prompts them to escape and return to Springwood to warn Lori about Freddy. That night, Lori and the others attend a rave in a cornfield. Freddy tries to kill Gibb in a nightmare, but Jason kills her first in the real world along with others at the rave, angering Freddy.

Will, Lori, and Kia escape the rave with school nerd Charlie Linderman and stoner Bill Freeburg. After dropping off the latter three and a confrontation with Dr. Campbell (who was responsible for having Will and Mark committed to Westin Hills) over Will's certainty that he saw Lori's father murder her mother, Will and Lori head to Mark’s house, only to see him get killed by Freddy. Deputy Scott Stubbs, believing Jason is a copycat killer, makes contact with Lori and her friends, who deduce Freddy's plan. Learning about Hypnocil, they try to get it from Westin Hills; however, Freddy possesses Freeburg, using him to dispose of the medicine. Jason arrives and electrocutes Stubbs. Freddy uses the possessed Freeburg to tranquilize Jason, causing him to fall asleep after slashing Freeburg in half.

The teens devise a plan to pull Freddy from the dream world into reality and force him to fight Jason, bringing the unconscious Jason back home to Camp Crystal Lake, where the real estate is in development. Freddy fights Jason in the dream world, where he discovers that Jason has a subconscious fear of drowning (symbolized by the water from a broken pipe) as a result of his drowning back in 1957.[1] Freddy uses this to his advantage and Jason becomes afraid, reverting to his younger self. Lori goes to sleep in order to pull Freddy out and save Jason. As Freddy tortures Lori in the dream world, revealing that he murdered her mother, Jason awakens at the real Camp Crystal Lake and pursues the teens, killing Linderman. Lori is awakened and pulls Freddy into the physical world (showing a fear of fire, as a result of his death by burning), where he is confronted by Jason.

Freddy and Jason fight throughout the campgrounds, during which Jason kills Kia. Freddy uses the construction site to gain the upper hand and cuts off Jason's fingers, allowing Freddy to take his machete. As Freddy is slicing away at Jason, Lori distracts him before Jason punches his fingerless hand through Freddy's torso. Freddy retaliates by plunging Jason's machete into his side and Jason rips Freddy's gloved arm off. Lori and Will set the dock on fire, causing numerous propane tanks to explode and throwing Freddy and Jason into the lake. Lori and Will embrace as Freddy makes his way to them on the dock and is about to kill the couple with Jason's machete, but he is impaled by Jason with his own clawed arm, allowing Lori to behead Freddy with the machete. Jason falls off the dock and Freddy's head and body sink into the lake, both seemingly dead. After dropping the machete where Jason submerged, Lori and Will leave.

The following morning, Jason emerges from the water, holding his machete and Freddy's severed head. Freddy winks and his laughter is heard in the background, leaving the winner ambiguous.

Cast[]

Main: List of A Nightmare on Elm Street characters and List of Friday the 13th characters

Additionally, Evangeline Lilly had a walk-on role as a high-school student.[4][5] Professional wrestler Óscar Gutiérrez, better known by his ring name Rey Mysterio Jr., was Englund's stunt double for a scene in Freddy's boiler room lair.[6] New Line Cinema studio chief Robert Shaye,[7] who produced every preceding Nightmare on Elm Street film, played the school principal (credited as L.E. Moko).

Production[]

Development[]

Influenced by fan desire for a crossover film with a fight between Freddy and Jason, New Line and Paramount tried to make a Freddy vs. Jason movie in 1987 but could not agree on a story. When Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan failed at the box office, Sean Cunningham wanted to reacquire the rights to Friday the 13th and begin working with New Line Cinema on Freddy vs. Jason (New Line owned Nightmare on Elm Street). Paramount and New Line wanted the license to the other's character so they could control a crossover film. Negotiations on the project collapsed, and Paramount made Jason Takes Manhattan. After Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan was released in 1989, the rights reverted to Scuderi, Minasian, and Barsamianto (who sold them to New Line). Before Cunningham could begin to work on Freddy vs. Jason, Wes Craven returned to New Line to make New Nightmare. This put Freddy vs. Jason on hold, but allowed Cunningham to bring Jason back with Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.[8] The ninth installment "turned a healthy profit".[9] Cunningham's "frustration" with the delayed development of Freddy vs. Jason led him to create Jason X to keep the series alive. Based on Jason Takes Manhattan's concept of taking Jason away from Crystal Lake, the tenth film put the titular character in space.[10] The film lost its biggest supporter with the resignation of president of production Michael De Luca. Lack of support let the finished film sit for two years before it was released on April 26, 2002. It was the series' lowest-grossing film at the domestic box office, and had the largest budget of any of the films to date.[11] New Line spent a reported $6 million on script development alone from several different writers. Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff were commissioned by De Luca alongside Lewis Abernathy and Sean S. Cunningham. Neither draft was well liked by the studio so Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore were hired to bring the project in a new direction. David J. Schow was given an offer to write the script because he just happened to walk by De Luca's office one day. David S. Goyer and James Dale Robinson both subsequently rewrote the Voris/Reiff draft.[12] Rob Bottin, known for his make-up work on The Thing and Total Recall, was selected to direct the film in 1997.[13] Mark Verheiden entered the project in the late '90s and proposed releasing the film with two different endings; one with Freddy winning and one with Jason winning.[14] Peter Briggs, Jason X writer Todd Farmer and screenwriting duo Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger were all later brought in to write for the film.[15][16] Newcomers Mark Swift & Damian Shannon were hired after delivering a pitch that De Luca was happy with. Goyer returned to the project once again in an effort to trim "every ounce of fat" from Swift & Shannon's 120-page script.[17] According to Swift and Shannon, several endings were considered for the film; one involved Pinhead of the Hellraiser franchise, but New Line did not want to secure the rights for the character.[18]

Casting Jason[]

New Line, thinking that Freddy vs. Jason needed a fresh start, chose a different actor to play Jason. Cunningham disagreed with their decision, believing that Kane Hodder, who had played Jason in the previous four films, was the best choice for the role.[19] Although Hodder received a script for Freddy vs. Jason and met with director Ronny Yu and New Line executives, Yu and Matthew Barry felt that the role should be recast to fit Yu's image of Jason.[19] Hodder said that New Line did not give him a reason for the recasting; according to Yu, however, he wanted a taller, slower and more-deliberate Jason.[20] The role went to Ken Kirzinger, a Canadian stuntman who worked on Jason Takes Manhattan. Yu said that Kirzinger was hired because he was taller than Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger. Kirzinger is 6 feet 5 inches (196 cm) tall, compared to the 6-foot-3-inch (191 cm) Hodder, and Yu wanted a much taller actor than the 5-foot-9-inch (175 cm) Englund. Kirzinger believed that his experience on Part VIII (doubling for Hodder in two scenes) and his height helped him land the part.[19][20] New Line did not cast Kirzinger until they saw him on film, and his first scene was Jason walking down Elm Street.[19] Douglas Tait played Jason in a re-shot ending:

“Unfortunately for me, it was the only scene I was hired to do. The test audiences were confused about the original ending, they thought Jason Ritter's character was becoming Jason [sic]. You can see it in the deleted scenes, that is why they decided to re-shoot the ending. Originally I was being considered for playing the role of Jason in the entire film. It was actually between me and Ken. When they took the film to Canada, I was out of luck. There was no way they were going to pay for my flight and hotel stay when Ken was a local. Also, Ken is older than me and he was a lot more established in the business than I was at the time ... I was on the film for a couple days. The water sequence took a lot of preparation. They realized that when I got wet, I looked too skinny in the clothes, so they had to bulk me up with pads and extra clothing so it would look like I was still big. Being with all this extra weight, one eye covered, a machete in one hand, Freddy's head in another hand, and being totally submerged in water, made that scene very difficult. Also, Ronny Yu wanted me to walk like I was walking on land. He wanted it to look like I could walk through the water without it making me rise to the surface. To do this effect, they had a rope tied under water that I held onto with my left hand (with Freddy's severed head in it also), and I held myself down on the ground so I could pull myself and walk forward.”
―Douglas Tait[21]


Filming[]

Filming for Freddy vs. Jason began on September 9, 2002 and ended on December 10, 2002.[22]

Release[]

The film was released on VHS and DVD as part of New Line's Platinum Series on January 13, 2004. The DVD release contained a second disc of bonus content with audio commentary by Ronny Yu, Ken Kirzinger and Robert Englund; deleted and alternate scenes with commentary; Ill Niño's music video for "How Can I Live"; trailers and TV ads, soundtrack promotion and behind-the-scenes featurettes.

The film was released on October 4, 2005 on Universal Media Disc and September 8, 2009 on Blu-ray; the Blu-ray release had the same content as the Platinum Series DVD.[23]

Reception[]

Box office[]

Freddy vs. Jason has grossed $82.6 million in the United States and Canada and $34 million in other territories for a total of $116.6 million, against a production budget of $30 million.

The film earned $36.4 million in its opening weekend at 3,014 theaters in North America, topping the box office. It remained number one in its second weekend grossing $13.4 million, and dropped to sixth place in its third weekend with $7.1 million.

Critical response[]

On Rotten Tomatoes, Freddy vs. Jason has an approval rating of 41% based on 162 reviews and an average rating of 4.98/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Fans of the two horror franchises will enjoy this showdown. But for everyone else, it's the same old slice and dice."[24] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 37 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[25] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "B+" on an A+-to-F scale.[26]

Kim Newman of Empire gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "FVJ ignores any attempts at cleverness and picks up storylines dropped in Freddy's Dead and Jason Goes To Hell."[27] Sacha Molitorisz of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote: "this is a solid effort, with enough frights, humour, blood, surprises and killer dialogue to entertain consistently."[28] Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2.5/4 stars, saying that it "succeeds as a guilty pleasure, a monster mash that clobbers the recent lackluster sequels plaguing both legacies."[29]

Accolades[]

Doug Chapman and Glenn Ennis were nominated for the Best Fire Stunt award at the Taurus World Stunt Awards 2004 for the double full-body burn and wire stunt. Chapman doubled for Robert Englund as Freddy and Ennis doubled for Ken Kirzinger as Jason in the stunt.[30] The film was also nominated for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards.

Other media[]

Black Flame published a novelization of the film on July 29, 2003.[31]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ↑ @shannonandswift (August 25, 2021). "@bilbobaggins141 Correct!".
  2. ↑ Exclusive Interview: Zack Ward | Friday the 13th: The Website. Friday the 13th Films. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018. Retrieved on February 8, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Zack Ward biography and filmography | Zack Ward movies". Tribute.ca. Retrieved on February 8, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Before They Were Stars: Evangeline Lilly". About.com Entertainment. Retrieved on February 8, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Before They Were Stars: Evangeline Lilly as an Extra in "Freddy vs. Jason"". The Back Row (April 11, 2012). Retrieved on February 8, 2017.
  6. ↑ "30 Surprising WWE Facts You Probably Didn't Know". WhatCulture.com (May 5, 2016). Retrieved on February 8, 2017.
  7. ↑ Konda, Kelly (May 30, 2014). "13 Things You May Not Know About Freddy Vs. Jason". We Minored in Film. Retrieved on February 8, 2017.
  8. ↑ Bracke, Peter, pp.218–219
  9. ↑ Bracke, Peter, pg. 238
  10. ↑ Bracke, Peter, pp.242–243
  11. ↑ Bracke, Peter, pp.263–264
  12. ↑ Konda, Kelly (May 30, 2014). "13 Things You May Not Know About Freddy Vs. Jason". We Minored in Film. Retrieved on June 13, 2020.
  13. ↑ Petrikin, Chris (August 18, 1997). "New Line taps Bottin for Freddy vs. Jason". Variety. Retrieved on June 13, 2020.
  14. ↑ Squires, John (February 21, 2017). "The 5 Most Insane Freddy vs. Jason Ideas That Never Came To Be". Bloody Disgusting.
  15. ↑ "Blood Type: The Todd Farmer Interview". Screen-Space (February 19, 2013). Retrieved on July 6, 2020.
  16. ↑ Konda, Kelly (May 30, 2014). "13 Things You May Not Know About Freddy Vs. Jason". We Minored in Film. Retrieved on June 13, 2020.
  17. ↑ Thurman, Trace (May 13, 2016). "Hockey Masks, Machetes and Razor Fingers: The Writers Behind Freddy Vs. Jason Tell All!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved on June 13, 2020.
  18. ↑ Thurman, Trace (May 13, 2016). "Hockey Masks, Machetes and Razor Fingers: The Writers Behind 'Freddy Vs. Jason' Tell All!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved on November 4, 2016.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Bracke, Peter, pp. 280–286
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Grove, David, p. 217
  21. ↑ Interview: Douglas Tait (Jason Voorhees, 'Freddy vs Jason'). Friday the 13th Films (October 14, 2010). Archived from the original on October 16, 2010. Retrieved on April 5, 2011.
  22. ↑ "The Making of Freddy vs. Jason" (August 1, 2003). Retrieved on August 27, 2021.
  23. ↑ Calonge, Juan (May 13, 2009). "Warner Announces Ten Catalog Titles for September". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved on December 10, 2012.
  24. ↑ "Freddy vs. Jason Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on March 13, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Freddy vs. Jason: Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved on September 30, 2019.
  26. ↑ Cinemascore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  27. ↑ Newman, Kim. "Freddy vs Jason". Empire. Retrieved on October 31, 2021.
  28. ↑ Molitorisz, Sacha (October 23, 2003). "Freddy vs Jason". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on October 31, 2021.
  29. ↑ Elder, Robert. Movie review: 'Freddy vs. Jason'. Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on August 25, 2003. Retrieved on October 31, 2021.
  30. ↑ Taurus Award Archive. Archived from the original on April 11, 2008.
  31. ↑ Hand, Stephen (2003). "Freddy vs. Jason novelization". Black Flame.


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