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Freddy vs. Jason

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Freddy vs. Jason
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRonny Yu
Written byDamian Shannon
Mark Swift
Based on
Characters
by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyFred Murphy
Edited byMark Stevens
Music byGraeme Revell
Production
companies
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • August 15, 2003 (2003-08-15)
Running time
98 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[1]
Box office$116.6 million[1]

Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher action film directed by Ronny Yu and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. The film, a crossover between A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and Friday the 13th franchise, retroactively establishes them in a shared universe and pits iconic horror film antagonists Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees against each other. It is the last film in each series before their respective reboots, being the eighth in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and the eleventh in the Friday the 13th franchise.

Freddy vs. Jason was released in the United States on August 15, 2003. It grossed over $116 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film in both the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film marks Robert Englund's final cinematic appearance as Freddy Krueger.

Plot

Freddy Krueger, now powerless in Hell because the residents of Springwood have forgotten about him, uses his remaining powers to bring Jason Voorhees back to life. Freddy then disguises himself as Jason's mother to manipulate him into killing Springwood teenagers to create fear and allow him to regain his strength.

Meanwhile, Lori Campbell, who lives with her widowed father, has a sleepover with her friends Kia and Gibb. They are later joined by Trey, Gibb's boyfriend, and his friend Blake, whom Kia tries to get Lori to hook up with, much to Lori's disgust. Jason kills Trey that night, and the police suspect Freddy. After a nightmare, Blake awakens to find his father killed before Jason then kills Blake himself. The police call it a murder–suicide the following day, hoping to contain Freddy.

Elsewhere, Lori's ex-boyfriend Will Rollins and his friend Mark Davis, who are patients at the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital, take Hypnocil to suppress their dreams because of their previous contact with Freddy. A news report prompts them to escape and return to Springwood to tell Lori about Freddy. That night, Lori and the others attend a rave in a cornfield. Freddy tries to kill Gibb in a nightmare, but Jason kills her and several other attendees in the real world; this makes Freddy realize that Jason's rampage will deny him victims.

Linderman and Freeburg escape the rave with Will, Lori, and Kia. Lori and Will go to Mark's house, and find Freddy killing him. Deputy Stubbs approaches Lori and her friends, who realize Freddy's plan. Learning about the Hypnocil, they try to steal it from Westin Hills; Freddy possesses Freeburg, however, who disposes of the medicine. After electrocuting Stubbs, Jason is tranquilized by the possessed Freeburg and kills him before he falls asleep.

The teens devise a plan to pull Freddy from the dream world into reality and force him to fight Jason, bringing the unconscious Jason to the now-abandoned Camp Crystal Lake. Freddy fights Jason in the dream world, where his dream powers show him that Jason is afraid of water because of his death by drowning. He uses water to make Jason powerless, but Lori goes to sleep and tries to save Jason. Freddy attacks her and reveals himself as her mother's killer. Jason awakens at Camp Crystal Lake and chases the teens into a cabin. Linderman is killed, and the cabin catches fire. Lori is awakened and pulls Freddy into the real world, where he is confronted by Jason, who realises that Freddy is afraid of fire because of his death by burning and uses it to his advantage by forcing Freddy into patches of fire. As Jason and Freddy fight, the remaining teens escape the cabin.

Kia distracts Freddy until Jason kills her. On a dock, the two killers do devastating blows to each other, with Jason tearing Freddy's clawed arm off after Freddy cuts off Jason’s fingers and stabs his eyes. Lori and Will pour gasoline on the dock and set it afire; this makes propane tanks explode, throwing Freddy and Jason into the lake. Freddy climbs out and tries to kill Lori and Will, but is impaled by a wounded Jason with his own clawed arm and decapitated by Lori with Jason's machete. Jason and Freddy's headless body then fall into the lake, both seemingly dead. After throwing the machete into the lake, Lori and Will depart.

A victorious Jason emerges from the water the next day, holding his machete and Freddy's severed head. Freddy suddenly winks as his ominous laughter is heard in the background, implying he is still alive.[2]

Cast

Additionally, Evangeline Lilly had a walk-on role as a high-school student.[5][6] Professional wrestler Óscar Gutiérrez, better known by his ring name Rey Mysterio, was Englund's stunt double for a scene in Freddy's boiler room lair.[7] New Line Cinema studio chief Robert Shaye,[8] who produced every preceding Nightmare on Elm Street film, played the school principal (credited as L.E. Moko).[citation needed]

Production

Development

Influenced by fan desire for a crossover film with a fight between Freddy and Jason, New Line and Paramount tried to make a Freddy vs. Jason movie in 1987 but could not agree on a story. When Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan failed at the box office, Sean Cunningham wanted to reacquire the rights to Friday the 13th and begin working with New Line Cinema on Freddy vs. Jason (New Line owned Nightmare on Elm Street). Paramount and New Line wanted the license to the other's character so they could control a crossover film. Negotiations on the project collapsed, and Paramount made Jason Takes Manhattan. After Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan was released in 1989, the rights reverted to Scuderi, Minasian, and Barsamianto (who sold them to New Line). Before Cunningham could begin to work on Freddy vs. Jason, Wes Craven returned to New Line to make New Nightmare. This put Freddy vs. Jason on hold, but allowed Cunningham to bring Jason back with Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.[9] The ninth installment "turned a healthy profit".[10] Cunningham's "frustration" with the delayed development of Freddy vs. Jason led him to create Jason X to keep the series alive. Based on Jason Takes Manhattan's concept of taking Jason away from Crystal Lake, the tenth film put the titular character in space.[11] The film lost its biggest supporter with the resignation of president of production Michael De Luca. Lack of support let the finished film sit for two years before it was released on April 26, 2002. It was the series' lowest-grossing film at the domestic box office, and had the largest budget of any of the films to date.[12] New Line spent a reported $6 million on script development alone from several different writers. Cyrus Voris & Ethan Reiff were commissioned by De Luca alongside Lewis Abernathy & Sean S. Cunningham. Neither draft was well liked by the studio so Brannon Braga & Ronald D. Moore were hired to bring the project in a new direction. David J. Schow was given an offer to write the script because he just happened to walk by De Luca's office one day. David S. Goyer and James Dale Robinson both subsequently rewrote the Voris/Reiff draft.[13] Rob Bottin, known for his make-up work on The Thing and Total Recall, was selected to direct the film in 1997.[14] Mark Verheiden entered the project in the late '90s and proposed releasing the film with two different endings; one with Freddy winning and one with Jason winning.[15] Peter Briggs, Jason X writer Todd Farmer and screenwriting duo Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger were all later brought in to write for the film.[16][17] Newcomers Mark Swift & Damian Shannon were hired after delivering a pitch that De Luca was happy with. Goyer returned to the project once again in an effort to trim "every ounce of fat" from Swift & Shannon's 120 page script.[18] According to Swift and Shannon, several endings were considered for the film; one involved Pinhead of the Hellraiser franchise, but New Line did not want to secure the rights for the character.[19]

Casting Jason

New Line, thinking that Freddy vs. Jason needed a fresh start, chose a different actor to play Jason. Cunningham disagreed with their decision, believing that Kane Hodder was the best choice for the role.[20] Although Hodder received a script for Freddy vs. Jason and met with director Ronny Yu and New Line executives, Yu and Matthew Barry felt that the role should be recast to fit Yu's image of Jason.[20] Hodder said that New Line did not give him a reason for the recasting; according to Yu, however, he wanted a taller, slower and more-deliberate Jason.[21] The role went to Ken Kirzinger, a Canadian stuntman who worked on Jason Takes Manhattan. Yu said that Kirzinger was hired because he was taller than Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger. Kirzinger is 6 feet 5 inches (196 cm) tall, compared to the 6-foot-3-inch (191 cm) Hodder, and Yu wanted a much taller actor than the 5-foot-9-inch (175 cm) Englund. Kirzinger believed that his experience on Part VIII (doubling for Hodder in two scenes) and his height helped him land the part.[20][21] New Line did not cast Kirzinger until they saw him on film, and his first scene was Jason walking down Elm Street.[20] Douglas Tait played Jason in a re-shot ending:

Unfortunately for me, it was the only scene I was hired to do. The test audiences were confused about the original ending, they thought Jason Ritter's character was becoming Jason [sic]. You can see it in the deleted scenes, that is why they decided to re-shoot the ending. Originally I was being considered for playing the role of Jason in the entire film. It was actually between me and Ken. When they took the film to Canada, I was out of luck. There was no way they were going to pay for my flight and hotel stay when Ken was a local. Also, Ken is older than me and he was a lot more established in the business than I was at the time ... I was on the film for a couple days. The water sequence took a lot of preparation. They realized that when I got wet, I looked too skinny in the clothes, so they had to bulk me up with pads and extra clothing so it would look like I was still big. Being with all this extra weight, one eye covered, a machete in one hand, Freddy's head in another hand, and being totally submerged in water, made that scene very difficult. Also, Ronny Yu wanted me to walk like I was walking on land. He wanted it to look like I could walk through the water without it making me rise to the surface. To do this effect, they had a rope tied under water that I held onto with my left hand (with Freddy's severed head in it also), and I held myself down on the ground so I could pull myself and walk forward.[22]

Music

See also: Freddy vs. Jason (soundtrack) and Freddy vs. Jason (score)

Release

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD as part of New Line's Platinum Series on January 13, 2004. The DVD release contained a second disc of bonus content with audio commentary by Ronny Yu, Ken Kirzinger and Robert Englund; deleted and alternate scenes with commentary; Ill Niño's music video for "How Can I Live"; trailers and TV ads, soundtrack promotion and behind-the-scenes featurettes.[citation needed] The film was released on October 4, 2005 on Universal Media Disc and September 8, 2009 on Blu-ray; the Blu-ray release had the same content as the Platinum Series DVD.[23]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 41% based on 162 reviews and an average rating of 4.98/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Fans of the two horror franchises will enjoy this showdown. But for everyone else, it's the same old slice and dice."[24] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 37 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[25] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of B+ on an A+-to-F scale.[26]

Accolades

Doug Chapman and Glenn Ennis were nominated for the Best Fire Stunt award at the Taurus World Stunt Awards 2004 for the double full-body burn and wire stunt. Chapman doubled for Robert Englund as Freddy and Ennis doubled for Ken Kirzinger as Jason in the stunt.[27] The film was also nominated for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards.

Other media

Novelization

Black Flame published a novelization of the film on July 29, 2003.[28]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Freddy Vs. Jason"
  2. ^ The story is continued in the comic Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.
  3. ^ "Exclusive Interview: Zack Ward | Friday the 13th: The Website". fridaythe13thfilms.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-14. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  4. ^ "Zack Ward biography and filmography | Zack Ward movies". Tribute.ca. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  5. ^ "Before They Were Stars: Evangeline Lilly". About.com Entertainment. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  6. ^ "Before They Were Stars: Evangeline Lilly as an Extra in "Freddy vs. Jason"". The Back Row. 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  7. ^ "30 Surprising WWE Facts You Probably Didn't Know". WhatCulture.com. 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  8. ^ Konda, Kelly (2014-05-30). "13 Things You May Not Know About Freddy Vs. Jason". We Minored in Film. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  9. ^ Bracke, Peter, pp.218–219
  10. ^ Bracke, Peter, pg. 238
  11. ^ Bracke, Peter, pp.242–243
  12. ^ Bracke, Peter, pp.263–264
  13. ^ Konda, Kelly (May 30, 2014). "13 Things You May Not Know About Freddy Vs. Jason". WeMinoredinFilm. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  14. ^ Petrikin, Chris (August 18, 1997). "New Line taps Bottin for Freddy vs. Jason". Variety. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  15. ^ Squires, John (February 21, 2017). "The 5 Most Insane Freddy vs. Jason Ideas That Never Came To Be". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  16. ^ "Blood Type: The Todd Farmer Interview". Screen-Space. February 19, 2013. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  17. ^ Konda, Kelly (May 30, 2014). "13 Things You May Not Know About Freddy Vs. Jason". WeMinoredinFilm. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  18. ^ Thurman, Trace (May 13, 2016). "Hockey Masks, Machetes and Razor Fingers: The Writers Behind Freddy Vs. Jason Tell All!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  19. ^ Thurman, Trace (13 May 2016). "Hockey Masks, Machetes and Razor Fingers: The Writers Behind 'Freddy Vs. Jason' Tell All!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  20. ^ a b c d Bracke, Peter, pp. 280–286
  21. ^ a b Grove, David, p. 217
  22. ^ Interview: Douglas Tait (Jason Voorhees, ‘Freddy vs Jason’) Archived 2010-10-16 at the Wayback Machine fridaythe13thfilms.com October 14, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2011.
  23. ^ Calonge, Juan (13 May 2009). "Warner Announces Ten Catalog Titles for September". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  24. ^ "Freddy vs. Jason Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  25. ^ "Freddy vs. Jason: Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  26. ^ "Cinemascore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  27. ^ Taurus Award Archive Archived 2008-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
  28. ^ "Freddy vs. Jason novelization". amazon.com. Retrieved November 12, 2010.

Sources

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