By Jody. Score 7/10
And in this corner, with an amazing kill count of 120+ victims, the king of all camp killers, Jaaason Voooorheees! This is a fight to the death that has been over ten years in the making! Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
Not since the Yoda-Count Dooku fight in Star Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones has there been so much audience involvement and excitement. Nor has there been so much cheering since the end credits of Gigli finally began to roll. This film was a unique and incredible movie-going experience, but do home viewings hold up to the theatrical experience? Sure... if you are a fan.
For those living under a rock for the past twenty years, here is some background info on these two genre icons. After getting off on a technicality, Freddy Kruger, the villain of the seven Nightmare on Elm Street films, was burned alive by the parents of the Elm Street children he murdered. Now reduced to a dream demon who stalks and kills the Elm Street teenagers while they are sleeping, Freddy gets all of his power from their fear. In short, no fear means Freddy is reduced to nothingness.
Jason Voorhees, the hockey-masked psycho from eight of the ten Friday the 13’th films, is a mongoloid who drowns at Camp Crystal Lake while the counselors who were supposed to be watching him were fooling around. Now he is an unstoppable force that eliminates anyone foolish to drink, do drugs, or have sex in his stomping grounds.
After this film was given the greenlight after Jason Goes to Hell, finding the right script and director took over a decade. The plotline to link the two together that they finally settled on is actually rather interesting. The parents of Elm Street are slipping their teens an experimental drug that prevents them from dreaming, and anyone who does make contact with Freddy is sent away to a mental institution.
Therefore, Freddy is eventually forgotten and rendered harmless. He enlists the help of Jason to claim victims on Elm Street, but once Jason gets a taste of blood, he does not stop killing. Naturally, Freddy does not stand for this and the battle between them ensues.
The lambs up for slaughter this time around include Monica Keena (Dawson’s Creek), Jason Ritter (Swimfan), Kelly Rowland (from music group Destiny’s Child), and Katherine Isabelle (Disturbing Behavior). Robert Englund reprises his role as Freddy for the eight time, but this time, Jason was played by stuntman Ken Kirzenger rather than by Kane Hodder, who has had the role for the past four Friday films.
Hong Kong director Ronny Yu (Bride of Chucky) does a great job recreating the elements of both Freddy and Jason’s films, even down to their music themes. Freddy mainly goes after the main characters, while Jason goes for mindless slaughter. The film has a nice balance between plot development and fight sequences and moves at a perfect pace. The film does have a definitive winner, but with strong box office numbers, a rematch is inevitable. Now all horror fans have to do is hope it does not take another ten years.
Starring: Robert Englund and everyone I mentioned two paragraphs up.
Directed by: Ronny Yu
Budget / Gross: $25 mil / $113 mil
IMDB Score: 5.8/10
Tomatometer: 41% critics and 60% audiences liked it
IMDB Score: 5.8/10
Tomatometer: 41% critics and 60% audiences liked it
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