Director: Ronny Yu
Screenplay: Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, based on characters created by Wes Craven and Victor Miller
Starring: Monica Keener, Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Jason Ritter, Chris Marquette, Kelly Rowland, Lochlyn Munro, Katharine Isabelle
Running Time: 93 minutes
Genre: Horror, action, comedy
The spirit of child-killer Freddy Krueger (Englund) is trapped in Hell and can't get out. The children of Springwood have forgotten about him, thereby denying him the ability to enter their dreams. Krueger decides to recruit the aid of serial killer Jason Voorhees (Kirzinger). Posing as Jason's beloved mother, Freddy convinces him to go to Springwood and start murdering the local teenagers, in the hope that the residents will start to remember, and fear, Freddy again, and thusly give him back his power. The plan works perfectly, but now that Freddy doesn't need Jason anymore, he realises that he hadn't thought how to stop Jason. Didn't think that one through, Freddy! For his part, Jason is too busy enjoying his favourite pastime, and has no intention of returning to Hell. Meanwhile, a rapidly diminishing group of teenagers have to work out how to survive and stop both of them.
Back in the 1980s, Freddy Krueger (of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films) and Jason Voorhees (of the Friday the 13th films) were the titans of screen horror, as the number of sequels in both franchises mounted up, alongside TV shows, video games, books, comics, and a deluge of other merchandising, fans were keen to see them both go head to head, and initial plans for Freddy vs. Jason were discussed as early as 1987. However, at the time, the characters were owned by different studios, and they couldn't agree on a story, as well as the fact that both franchises started to decline in popularity. The resulting film is fairly mediocre, with most of the best scenes being before the titular showdown. The problem is that neither of the characters can really be hurt. They stab, slash, punch, burn, kick and drown each other, as well as being thrown around like ragdolls, without apparently being hurt much at all, for what feels at times like an eternity. Also it's kind of hard to care. Robert Englund, as ever, seems to have a great time as Freddy Krueger, and adds some much needed vest to the proceedings. Ken Kirzinger as Jason (taking over from Kane Hodder the actor most identified in the role) has little to do but shamble around. The teen characters (which include Monica Keener from Dawson's Creek, singer Kelly Rowland from Destiny's Child, and Katharine Isabelle from Ginger Snaps (2001)) are given some attempts at backstory early on, but by the second half of the film are little more than spectators. The performances range from passable to abysmal.
This is really aimed at fans of the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street films, and they probably will enjoy it. Newcomers, however, are likely to be completely lost. To be fair, it has a few cool scenes and special effects, and some of the jokes are quite funny, if you are in the right frame of mind for it, you can have fun with this one. It's a bad movie, but is kind of fun in a bad "B" movie way.
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