Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

A project that was in the works as long as Freddy vs. Jason was bound to build up huge anticipation for both fan-bases, & for good reason. Pitting the top two legendary icons of slasher cinema together would obviously prove a challenging feat for film studios. Yet somehow, director Ronny Yu & writer Wes Craven pulled it off quite successfully, to the shock of critics & audiences alike.

My primary focal point I was skeptical on was the plotline. How do you manage to unite Camp Crystal Lake's most infamous resident with Elm Street's most notorious neighbor? Rather easily, according to a surprisingly clever script.

The opening of the film is a rather intriguing prologue of Freddy Krueger's (Robert Englund) past as the "Springwood Slasher". It fills in details pertaining to Freddy's "reign of terror" as a child murderer & his eventual demise at the hands of a mob. Courtesy of a Freddy monologue, we learn he's dwelling in hell & depleted of power, now that everyone has forgotten about him. Ah, but Freddy has concocted a diabolical scheme for revenge. After "searching the bowels of Hell" (as he eloquently puts it), he resurrects the soulless, hockey mask donning Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) as his own personal pawn to instill fear back into the kids, allowing Freddy to regain his power to invade dreams again. Kudos on a nifty plan, Freddy.

An applause for the return of Jason Voorhees, who had been banished to Hell in Jason Goes To Hell-The Final Friday ( a.k.a. Friday the 13th Pt. 9). Freddy suddenly appears, but in the guise of Jason's dead mother, who explains to Jason that his gift is that he can never die (no sh*t). Jason is then commanded to go punish the kids at Elm Street. Alas, Mother knows best & Jason slowly begins his trek to Elm Street. The wheels are in motion for Freddy.

Lori Campbell (Monica Keena) is the current resident living at 1428 Elm Street (where Freddy began his murders from beyond the grave). But, now Jason decides to crash her little get-together with her friends. The murderous party pooper sneaks his way into the house & savagely (& I stress savagely) slaughters a pretentious jock with a machete & a particularly horrendous finishing move: snapping the bed together while the guy is in it (ouch, snapped like a twig!).

Jason manages to vanish into thin air, leaving the rest of the teens petrified with fear & grief, & the police suspecting its the work of Freddy (whom the teens have never heard of).

Lori is shocked when her long-lost boyfriend Will (Jason Ritter) shows up from out of nowhere. He explains seeing the story on the news & how he'd escaped the psychiatric ward he'd been kept in. Meanwhile, our target teens are still striving to discover who the psycho is that's stalking them. The rumors of Freddy are shot down when Jason makes a surprise intervention at a rave (in the middle of a cornfield?) & starts slicing n' dicing ravers left & right (go Jason!). Puppet Master Freddy is now getting aggravated, in that his "puppet" has severed the strings & is on an unstoppable killing spree (Gee, wouldn't have guessed that after 10 movies).

Our confused & panic-stricken teens band together & unravel a long existing conspiracy of the police to keep Freddy's existence concealed from the public, which seems to be centered around the psychiatric ward (a freaky twist I won't reveal).

By now, Freddy decides to make his big entrance & confront Jason by pulling him into his hellish dreamworld. A highly energized beatdown goes down between the two, but Freddy seems to have the upper hand (err..glove) upon learning Jason's only fear & crawling into Jason's mind.

I give credit to the teens in this film, in that they (most of them) didn't fit the basic stereotype of previous slasher flicks of the 80's. A sense of intellect & bravery is seen when they band together to devise a strategy to snatch Freddy from his dreamworld into reality, allowing Jason to duke it out with the BBQ-d Boogeyman.

To my surprise, the film was a lot gorier than I had anticipated. Decapitations, dismemberments, impalements, you name it. The filmmakers certainly didn't pull any punches in this department. The film also manages to intertwine the gore with a corny sense of humor, mostly from Freddy with his one-liners (he seems to relish calling everyone "b*tches"). Leave it to the film's stoner to deliver the best line: "Dude, that goalie was p*ssed about something."

There are, of course, flaws as in any other film. Robert Englund was a little over the top as Freddy (I think he was overly giddy in reprising his most famous role). Not that Ken Kirzinger didn't pull off a great job as Jason, but I would have preferred Kane Hodder in the part (he filled Jason's shoes in Friday the 13th Pt. 7 up to Jason X). As far as acting goes, the rest of the cast ranged from unconvincing to above average.

The final battle between Freddy & Jason is a blood-soaked, hilariously over-the-top series of a** kicking & maulings, worthy in my opinion of going down as one of the most "memorable fight scenes" in movie history. You have to see this film to the final scene to see who emerges the victor--it's just too priceless for words.

Overall, Freddy vs. Jason is quite enjoyable & worth the buck. It accomplished this due to incorporating the basic components for a slasher flick: gratuitous nudity, standard teens (jocks, bimbos, stoners, geeks, etc.), incompetent law enforcement, & gore galore. Kudos also to the entire film crew for mingling elements from both franchises together: the Freddy jingle kids chant, the creepy cha cha cha ah ah ah musical jingle associated with Jason, & both characters' original settings (Freddy's furnace room dreamworld & Jason's Camp Crystal Lake). Overall, it added up to one hell of a campy, but highly entertaining piece of slasher cinema.


*Ironically, Ken Kirzinger was a stunt coordinator & victim of Jason in Friday the 13th Pt. 8-Jason Takes Manhattan.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age