Man Movie Encyclopedia – Freddy vs Jason

Year: 2003
Star: Robert England, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter
Director: Ronny Yu

Since it’s Halloween, I wanted to try and do something a little more interesting than just the final movie recko of the month. For a while now I’ve had plans for a horror-themed Man Movie Encyclopedia. Well, at least once I can get MME in book form. I’d call it The Scary Movie Encyclopedia, or something to that effect. Anyways, I decided that since FvJ is along the lines of an action movie at times, why not have that as a cross-over.

Now, before we get started, yes I know, the Jason figure in the header isn’t the look from FvJ, but rather Jason Goes To Hell. Well, I don’t have the figure from FvJ, yet, and even if I did I’d still use the Jason Goes To Hell one, because it should have been Kane Hodder as Jason. Plus, I consider this Jason’s 2nd best look, with A New Blood coming in at number 1. I don’t have that figure either. Anyways, let’s get down to business.

Freddy & Jason are both in hell. However, Freddy isn’t taking this lying down. As he said;

“…Being dead wasn’t a problem, but being forgotten, now that’s a BITCH…”

The fear of the children is what gives him his power over them. However, if he’s forgotten, he’s fucked. So he enlists the services of Jason Voorhees to stomp some colons and punch a few bitches in the baby maker on Elm Street. Instill fear and force Elm Street to remember the past. Living in Nancy’s old house is a girl named Lori and her father.

Jason wastes no time and gets busy, executing what I consider to be his 2nd best kill [http://youtu.be/Pr_QnGHvD14]. As I state in the video, if that would have been me, I would have had a chance to get away. Because I’d still be rockin’ a raging boner, and Jason would have stopped for a split second, out of respect, before he hacked me to pieces.

Sure enough, Freddy’s plan works and everyone starts to wonder just what’s going on. The parents know, they’ve delt with Freddy for years, and hatched a plan to keep Freddy at bay. They’ve taken everyone who’s encountered, or knows of Freddy and locked them up at Smiths Grove, and fed Hypnocil to prevent them from dreaming. Two of the patients are Lori’s old boyfriend, Will, and his friend Mark. Mark knows about Freddy ever since his brother use to talk about a dream demon, and then committed suicide. He’s tried to tell Will about him, but he won’t have any of it. Will hears word of what’s going down with Lori, so he and Mark are off and running.

Jason’s only suppose to kill a few, per Freddy’s request, but once you get a bad-ass like Jason going, there’s no sleep till Brooklyn, baby. He attends what I assume to be his first rave, and has a fucking go at anyone within a machete’s reach. There’s a great scene where Jason is rocking around, on fire, without a care in the world except for being awesome.

Lori and the crew figure out who Jason is, his backstory, and then hatch a scheme to bring Freddy out so he and Jason can do battle till the death. Now of course, before that can happen, they do battle in the dream world. It’s pretty cool, and has some classic Freddy when he plays Jason like a pinball. However, in this instance, you know that it’s all for nothing really, because neither one of’em can be killed here in this world. Still great though. What isn’t great, is when we learn that Jason has a fear of water. I’m going to assume that it’s sub-conscience fear, or something, because Jason’s walked into water a number of times in the series. Still, it’s an interesting visual seeing Freddy stick a blade into young Jason’s skull.

A point that I’d like to mention is the death of Freeburg. It’s just great to see him die because of what a lame-ass rip off of Jay he was. I was also glad to see the Elm Street Legacy documentary address this. I mean, did the writers do this on purpose? It was fucking ridiculous. But he does get cut clean in half, and that rocks.

So, we’re at Crystal Lake for the big-time show down. And it’s worth the price of admission. Jason is a tall, thick motherfucker and Freddy is a smaller, quicker type. He’s almost like a martial artist in how fast he is, and the moves he uses. Both Freddy & Jason literally beat the hell out of each other for about 10 minutes straight. It’s fantastic. There’s blood pouring and squirting out of any and everything. It gets real messy when they get onto the docks, and Freddy is hacking Jason with his own machete, plus the glove. In a scene that is one of the better in horror history, Freddy takes his blades and shoves them into Jason’s eyes. I mean, holy shit, man! Who on Earth thought they’d ever see something like that? Great stuff. Jason finally shoves Freddy’s own arm through his chest, and Lori cuts his head-off, basically, game over.

The last scene is kind of lame, because it should have just ended, but there were sequel plans that eventually were moved over to comics.

Man Movie Encyclopedia Tally
One-Liners: 2
People Killed: 19
Swear Words: 62
Boobies: 9
Slow-Motion Scenes: 6
Chases On Foot: 2
Is There A Virgin?: Yes
Were Authority Figures/Adults Warned But Pay No Mind?: Nope
Drugs/Drinking/Pre-Marital Sex?: Plenty

1-Liners:
[Freddy hooks Kia’s nose with his claw]
Freddy: Got your nose!

[Lori asks a councler, who’s having sex, if he’s gonna help Jason. She asks “Aren’t you coming?”]
Freddy: It’s not my fault she’s dead on her feet!

Box-Office Business:
$25 million dollar budget, and ended up pulling in $113 million. Yet they don’t see the need to produce other VS movies? People would line up around the block for these every time. We horror fans like to spend our time and money on our favorite form of entertainment.

Man-Facts:
15 years this film spent in development hell. They spent over $6 million dollars getting over a dozen writers to write drafts. Everything from Freddy having been a counsler and molesting Jason, to a cult called “Fred Heads” who are trying to bring back Jason. There was also another draft that had Tommy Jarvis, Duke [from Jason Goes to Hell], and I believe Nancy Thompson. The devil sent Freddy & Jason back, and told them whomever killed a certain number of peeps, plus those 3, became hell’s general or something to that effect. So, since they both want that position, they’d fight each other along the way as they collected souls. Yeah, that one is a really stupid idea. Of course, not as stupid as the idea of having Jason arrested and put through a trial. Fucking yikes, man…

Kane Hodder should have been Jason, that we all know. But Ronny Yu wanted a taller Jason. Which is bullshit, because Ken is only 3 inches taller. He did an alright job as Jason, but he honestly didn’t seem to have any emotion. It was like Frankenstein’s monster. He just lumbered. Kane’s Jason was a fucking beast. The rage he put into Jason was spectacular.

Producer Rob Shaye, who also plays the principal, wanted it to be heavier on the Freddy, and that’s why it is. I wouldn’t expect any less, since New Line was Freddy’s home, and they only acquired the rights to Jason.

The kid who played Freeburg is also in Halloween: Resurrection. Making him the only person to be in a Freddy, Jason, and Micheal Myers film.

In Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, there’s a scene where Jason throws a cook into a wall. That cook is played by none other Ken Kirzinger. So, needless to say, in the battle of the Jasons, Kane is your winner.

Trailer:

4 1/2 Head-Butts Out Of 5.

All in all, it’s a great film. The script is as perfect as it could be. A brilliant reason to have the two get together. My only beef is with the director. Ronny is obsessed with bright color, and you can see it all through the film. Just color, color, color. Not to mention the casting of Ken instead of Kane. But other than that, it’s a great film.

~ by Caliber Winfield on October 31, 2011.