Thursday 13 March 2014

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)





















Well it had to happen at some point and I was always game for it, finally the two supernatural death dealers clash. The only thing that instantly springs to mind when writing about this is when will I see Michael Myers, Pinhead, Ash, Leatherface or Chucky join in on this horror icon mash?

You'd think the plot behind this would be silly but it actually kinda works in my opinion. Freddy seems unable to get it up anymore, he can't scare kids because everyone has forgotten about him. So he hatches a plan that involves raising Jason from the dead to bring terror back into kids lives hoping they will assume its him. Unfortunately for Freddy, Jason gets carried away and is killing way too many and spoiling Freddy's catch, thusly a fight ensues.

So yes just like 'AvP' this is merely an excuse to see two iconic characters fight, the only difference is this film sticks to its trusted formula and delivers plenty of carnage. Now I'm not saying this carnage is worthy of praise, lets be frank we've seen it all before, but at least you get what you expect with no beating around the bush.



Its all about the kills, Freddy does what he does best with his creepy dreamy imagery whilst Jason stomps around and hacks teenagers up. There isn't anything particularly ingenious or original going on here, the teen kills aren't exactly new and fresh and the adults running around trying to solve the issue do exactly the same thing they always do. I guess the fun part is seeing Jason upset Freddy by taking fresh kills away from him and causing tension between the two, inevitably this does result in small touches of dark humour which is cool.

Its definitely a much better looking flick than most of the previous incarnations, the productions values are clearly quite high as its all very glossy. My only concern was maybe a bit too glossy, could of done with a hint of grit or that classic low budget feel perhaps. For shame on the decision to use CGI blood spurts in a few places, that's not cool at all and a worrying modern trend. Also one or two moments in the heat of battle do become a bit too farcical for my liking, just loses its edge...not that it was overly scary in the first place of course.

End of the day if you're not a fan of gory slasher flicks or you don't follow them much then this isn't gonna change your mind. On the other hand if you're a fanboy or like me you simply like the two franchises then I think you'll like this a lot. Bottom line all this is really is fan service, but surprisingly its much better than you'd think.



Silly thing is both of these characters are basically invincible and can't be killed, you can do virtually anything to either of them and they will still come back. So in theory it can keep going forever which does make the whole premise kinda daft really, at no point was I ever thinking that one of them would actually win. We all know and accept this to a degree but it just makes the whole battle a bit pointless really, at least Jason didn't team up with the kids against Freddy, which it was slightly hinting towards near the end.

For lack of a better term...it does exactly what it says on the tin, and that's deliver a tidal wave of stereotypical killings and setups but with the huge added bonus of seeing both Freddy and Jason slug it out. OK I admit it...its pretty much completely for the fanboys, but if you're a fanboy then get that hand cream ready cos its geekgasm time!

7/10

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