Review of Freddy vs. Jason (2003) by Marc L — 08 Oct 2011

You know, everyone has that one movie that is so fun, you could see it every day for the rest of your life and it would still be entertaining. For some it's "Transformers". For others, it's "Jurassic Park". For me, "Freddy v.s Jason". It's smart, it's funny, it's cheesy, it's messy and it's dark. Sweet. It's not the best movie I've seen, but it's without a doubt one of the funnest.

Let me start of that, like Ninja Assassin, this movie is VERY bloody and VERY gory. Parents, if you have 10 year old kids who want to see this do NOT let them see this film!. There are decapitations, gory stabbings and impaled teenagers galore. Granted, most of the violence is pretty cartoony but it's not child appropriate none the less.

Most of the acting in this movie was pretty good. Robert Englund, of course, was practically flawless as the dream killer Freddy Krueger. He keeps Freddy scary as hell, but also keeps his darkly playful, mischievous side, toying with his victims before killing them. Never before has there been a character that scared me yet made me laugh like this. I also think that Jason Ritter did a good job as Will, one of the teenagers who witnessed some of the Freddy murders first hand. As far as teenage actors in horror films go, you don;t see performances like his every day.

One of the great things about this movie is the way director Ronny Yu created a smart and realistic conflict between evil serial killer Freddy and Jason. Basically, Freddy can no longer terrorize the teens of Elm Street. Why? Because no one believes in him anymore. In order to strike fear once again, Freddy convinces Jason Voorhees to do killings in his name by disguising as his mother. The more killings Jason does, the more powerful Krueger becomes. Eventually, Jason finds out what Freddy is up to and is, naturally, pissed as hell, leading to an all out war between the 2 killers.

This movie is actually surprisingly terrifying. It wasn't "The Exorcist" or anything, but there are plenty of creepy, disturbing scenes in this movie. It was a truly frightening movie thanks to Yu's winning combination of pop ups, VERY creepy music, and gore.

That's not to say the film didn't have it's laughs. Freddy Krueger is a one liner machine, chock full of great, funny quotes that are some of the most memorable scenes in the movie. He's like the Warren Sapp of serial killers.

And of course, how can you talk about Freddy v.s Jason without mentioning the fight scenes? These fight scenes were truly amazing and well choreographed, a good mix of Freddy's agility and athleticism and Jason's durability and strength. The best fight scenes I've seen in a long time.

Over all, "Freddy v.s Jason" is one of the most entertaining movies I have ever seen. Is it one of the best? No. But it's good enough and insanely fun enough for it to be one of my favorites. If you were to go on a roller coaster, while watching the National Championship on your iPhone, while winning a million dollars, it would be about as fun as this movie.