Few films have ever been as rabidly anticipated as FREDDY VS. JASON. No, the actual film isn’t likely to be hailed as a horror classic, and I’m guessing most fans don’t even consider it among the best of its respective franchises, but that doesn’t mean genre heads weren’t absolutely dying to see it. To hear Robert Englund tell it, the project’s origins stretch back to the first time fanboys on the convention floor started asking if Freddy could kick Jason’s ass. Never has a film project seemed more inevitable than this one, which makes its long, torturous production history all the more ironic. I’m not here to recount that infamous 15-year saga, not when Dustin McNeill’s SLASH OF THE TITANS delivered the definitive final word on the subject.
Instead, let’s consider how that long wait became part of the very mythos of FREDDY VS. JASON. Sure, had it been released at the height of each character’s powers in 1988, it would have been a smash hit that would have likely represented the zenith of their pop culture presence. I’m also sure the soundtrack would have been better on account of nu-metal being nonexistent, but I digress. It’s fascinating to imagine that reality where New Line and Paramount collaborated to produce a crossover when both franchises were peaking. Would it have altered each character’s path, or was their waning popularity inevitable? Would that iteration of FREDDY VS. JASON have been a victory lap, or would it have given the characters a shot in the arm, just as FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN ushered in a new era of Universal Monsters?
We’ll obviously never know because the actual film arrived years later, with a decade passing even after the project was officially teased at the end of JASON GOES TO HELL. It’s a scene that barely lasts a minute, yet it was enough to fuel anticipation and speculation for years. Once again, FREDDY VS. JASON was just a matter of time, and every scrap of information — like a little blurb in Wizard Magazine I can vividly remember reading in elementary school — kept the flame lit. During this time, the project passed through the hands of a dozen screenwriters with wildly different takes that never quite hit the mark. As intriguing as it was to read these scripts when they surfaced online in the ‘90s, there was always the nagging feeling that none of these approaches would have worked. In some cases, the feeling was more than nagging. But even experiencing these failed attempts was worthwhile, mostly because Damian Shannon and Mark Swift’s eventual pitch felt so organic in contrast. Instead of reinventing one or both characters, they simply asked why Freddy would have grabbed Jason’s mask at the end of JASON GOES TO HELL and hit the ground running.
Their eventual script — which was “polished” by David Goyer — and the resulting film isn’t perfect, as some of the CGI effects shots haven’t aged well, and some of the more infamous dialogue has practically curdled at this point. There are some janky edits — I will never understand why it abruptly cuts away from Jason’s cornfield massacre, and the film often makes it seem like Springwood and Crystal Lake are neighboring towns despite being several states apart. Truth be told, I’m still not completely over Kane Hodder’s absence, especially when you consider his role in stoking anticipation for the project on those same convention floors that hatched the idea in the first place. And again, there’s the nu-metal of it all.
So, no, I’m not here to convince you that the FREDDY VS. JASON we got is perfect. It was, however, very much worth the wait, and I don’t know if I trust anyone who can’t glean some enjoyment from its titular title fight. Whenever Freddy and/or Jason are at the forefront of the film, it’s a total fanboy delight: Robert Englund is better than ever as Freddy, who didn’t miss a beat following his “death” in FREDDY’S DEAD, and the sequence where he invades young Jason’s dreams of Camp Crystal Lake is an absolute hoot. At one point, Freddy calls an infantile Jason an “ugly little shit” and tortures him with his mother’s severed head. And don’t get me started on Englund’s pitch-perfect reaction when Freddy is pulled into the real world, where Jason promptly beats his ass, touching off a wuxia-influenced main event that features the two icons ripping each other limb from limb. It’s twenty minutes of splatter movie bliss, and every time I witness it, I suddenly couldn’t care less about the film’s flaws. FREDDY VS. JASON delivers where it counts and then some, and, at the time it seemed perfectly poised to rejuvenate each character.
With the crossover grossing over $115 million, it was clear that audiences would still respond to these characters. For all intents and purposes, it looked like Freddy and Jason were back, ready to reclaim their thrones following the wave of slick, self-aware slashers that acted as a riposte to their glory days. In yet another alternate reality, New Line produced new ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13th movies, and maybe even a direct sequel to FREDDY VS. JASON itself (in our reality, the latter did nearly happen, with Ash joining the fray). Instead of ceding the aughts horror landscape to the likes of the Firefly Family and Jigsaw, Freddy and Jason hung around as a fun nostalgia act. Instead, we have to face the cold, hard reality of our universe: within five years, both Freddy and Jason were well on their way to being reimagined and rebooted, consigning them to the same fate as their fellow icons (save for Chucky, that resilient little bastard).
For years, I bristled at that fate. It seemed utterly unfair that two of our greatest horror icons were cut down just as they were primed for a comeback, and it didn’t help that Freddy’s most recent appearance was utterly insulting.
For years, I thought that FREDDY VS. JASON was a missed opportunity at ushering in a second golden age for ‘80s slashers. For years, I’ve considered FREDDY VS. JASON to be an unfilled promise: as much as I’ve always loved the movie, there’s been something melancholy about that last wink from Freddy’s severed, a devilish sign that he’d be back again, only that never happened. FREDDY VS. JASON could never be perfect because it shouldn’t have been the end, but rather a new beginning.
In recent years, though, I’ve made peace with it. Between Englund’s most recent retirement announcement (something he’s said before, to be fair — I would like to point you to this 1991 article where he laments that FREDDY VS. JASON will never happen) and the tangled rights issues involving Wes Craven’s estate, it seems unlikely we’ll ever see the original Springwood Slasher don the glove again. Jason will be back soon enough in some form or fashion on Bryan Fuller’s FRIDAY THE 13th series, but that feels like another fresh start rather than a continuation. For all intents and purposes, these two icons as we know them have probably sung their swan song — and what better way to do that than with the 98-minute blaze of glory that is FREDDY VS. JASON?
Don’t call it a comeback because that’s not what it was destined to be; instead, consider it two warriors immortalizing each other once and for all on the battlefield. In professional wrestling, even the most respected legends often “go out on their back” in retirement as a sign of respect to the business, and it’s entirely fitting that Freddy Krueger — the most popular ‘80s horror icon — met his match with Jason Voorhees, who came as close as any other character to being an equal to the dream demon. Professional wrestling rarely does it any better: ironically enough, one of the best parallels to FREDDY VS. JASON also happened in 2003, when The Rock effectively retired longtime rival Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 19.
Once you come to accept FREDDY VS. JASON as an ending, it’s difficult to imagine a more perfect one. Freddy’s wink isn’t a promise of an on-screen return but a promise that the character will endure in our cultural memory. It signals valediction and hails the end of an era, with our two heroes essentially riding off into the sunset, severed head and all after answering that fanboy question all those years later: yes, Freddy could kick Jason’s ass, and it was delightful. Is it perfect? Absolutely not — but it is a perfect send-off.
Tags: Brett Gallman, Chris Marquette, David Goyer, Evangeline Lilly, Fred Murphy, Graeme Revell, Horror, Jason Ritter, Katharine Isabelle, Kelly Rowland, Ken Kirzinger, Kyle Labine, Lochlyn Munro, Mark Stevens, Monica Keena, Óscar Gutiérrez, Paula Shaw, Rey Mysterio, Robert Englund, Robert Shaye, Ronny Yu, Sean S. Cunningham, Sequels, The 2000s, Victor Miller, Wes Craven, Zack Ward
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