Freddy vs Jason

Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift.

The film is a crossover between the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises and pits Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger against each other in the eleventh and eighth installments in their respective series.

The film is also the last film in both the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises before they were both rebooted.

In the film, Freddy (Robert Englund) has grown incapable of haunting people's dreams as the citizens of Springwood, Ohio, have mostly forgotten about him. To regain his power, Freddy manipulates Jason (Ken Kirzinger) into resurrecting himself and traveling to Springwood to cause panic and fear, leading to rumors that Freddy has returned.

However, while Jason succeeds in causing enough fear for Freddy to haunt the town again, Jason angers Freddy by depriving Krueger of his potential victims. This ultimately sends the two undying monsters into a violent conflict.

This film marked Englund's final appearance to date as Freddy Krueger, and it was the first since Jason X not to feature Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees. The film was the debut of Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland as an actress.

Plot
Freddy Krueger is rendered powerless in Hell with Springfield forgetting him. Disguising as Pamela Voorhees, Freddy manipulates Jason Voorhees into killing Springwood teenagers to regain strength.

Lori Campbell lives with her widowed father, with friends Kia, Gibb, Trey, and Blake staying over. That night, Jason stabs Trey and folds him in half, with police suspecting Freddy.

Following a nightmare, Blake awakens to his beheaded father before Jason kills him. The next day, police state it a murder-suicide, hoping to detain Freddy.

Lori's ex-boyfriend Will Rollins and friend Mark Davis are Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital patients. They take Hypnocil to suppress dreams, for them having last contact with Freddy.

A news report leads Mark to devise an escape plan; He and Will return to Springwood to notify Lori of Freddy. Mark later learns of the city's plan to eradicate Freddy, which nullifies the plan.

That night, Lori and the others attend a rave at a cornfield. A drunken Gibb believes she sees Trey and follows him to a silo - a dream trap set by Freddy. However, Jason kills him. Dismayed, Freddy realizes Jason will rampantly continue.

Linderman and stoner Freeburg escape the rave along with Lori, and Kia. Lori confronts her father about her mother's death, lying to him. She and Will go to Mark's house, only to discover Freddy attacking Mark.

Deputy Stubbs suspects a copycat Jason murderer, but his suspicions fall short. He approaches Lori and her friends, who piece together Freddy's plan.

Learning of Hypnocil, they steal stock from Westin Hills, but Freddy possesses Freeburg and disposes of them. After electrocuting Stubbs, Jason is tranquilized by possessed-Freeburg, whom Jason bisects before losing consciousness.

The teens devise to pull Freddy and force the two to battle. They take the unconscious Jason to Crystal Lake. Meanwhile, Freddy battles Jason in the dream world.

He pulls him into a nightmare of him drowning as a child, learning his fear of water. Lori retrieves Freddy but he attacks her, revealing himself her mother's killer.

Jason awakens and chases the others into a cabin. Linderman is mortally wounded and dies, the cabin ignites and Lori is awakened, pulling Freddy into real life. Jason fights Freddy while they escape, throwing Freddy through another cabin's roof.

Lori, Will and Kia encounter Freddy. Kia distracts Freddy by taunting him until Jason suddenly kills her. As Lori and Will escape, the two begin to fight. The group attempt to ram a minecart into them, but both are hit to the boardwalk.

There, Jason tears Freddy's arm off while he stabs Jason's eyes. Lori and Will ignite propane tanks that blow Freddy and Jason into the lake. Freddy climbs out suddenly, but Jason impales Freddy's with his own arm and Lori decapitates Freddy before Jason collapses.

Finally at peace, Lori and Will leave Crystal Lake together. However, Jason emerges holding Freddy's severed head, who winks at the audience and laughs.

Cast

 * Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
 * Ken Kirzinger as Jason Voorhees
 * Monica Keena as Lori Campbell
 * Kelly Rowland as Kia Waterson
 * Jason Ritter as Will Rollins
 * Chris Marquette as Charlie Linderman
 * Lochlyn Munro as Deputy Scott Stubbs
 * Katharine Isabelle as Gibb Smith
 * Brendan Fletcher as Mark Davis
 * Zack Ward as Bobby Davis
 * Kyle Labine as Bill Freeburg
 * Tom Butler as Dr. Campbell
 * Garry Chalk as Sheriff Williams
 * Jesse Hutch as Trey
 * Odessa Munroe as Heather
 * Chris Gauthier as Shack
 * Paula Shaw as Pamela Voorhees
 * Sharon Peters as Mrs. Campbell
 * David Kopp as Blake
 * Jamie Mayo as Dead Girl on Tree
 * Doug Chapman as Freddy's Stunt Double
 * Glenn Ennis as Jason's Stunt Double
 * Evangeline Lilly as School Student - Next to Locker (uncredited)
 * Spencer Stump as Young Jason (uncredited)

Development
Influenced by fans' desire for a crossover film depicting a fight between the two icons, New Line and Paramount tried to make a Freddy vs Jason movie in 1987. But the two studios failed to agree on a story or what to do with the two franchises.

When Jason Takes Manhattan failed to perform successfully at the box office, Sean Cunningham decided that he wanted to reacquire the rights to Friday the 13th and start working with New Line Cinema on Freddy vs Jason as New Line owned the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

The concept of a fight between Freddy and Jason was not new; Paramount had approached New Line about filming a crossover years before the latter had gained the licensing rights to Friday the 13th.

At that time, both companies wanted the license to the other's character so that they could control the making of the film. Negotiations on the project were never finalized, which led Paramount to make The New Blood.

After Jason Takes Manhattan was released in 1989 the rights reverted to Scuderi, Minasian and Barsamianto, who sold them to New Line. Before Cunningham could start working on Freddy vs. Jason, Wes Craven returned to New Line to make New Nightmare.

This effectively put Freddy vs. Jason on hold, but allowed Cunningham the chance to bring Jason back into the spotlight with Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.

The ninth installment "turned a healthy profit", though it was only intended to open the door for a crossover with Freddy Krueger, rather than start a new series for New Line.

Ultimately, the film series would go through another sequel before that would happen. Cunningham's "frustration" with the delayed development of the Freddy vs. Jason project forced him to create another sequel in an effort to keep the franchise in the minds of audiences.

Based on Jason Takes Manhattan's concept of taking Jason away from Crystal Lake, the tenth film would put the titular character in space.

The film suffered from the loss of its biggest supporter, President of Production Michael De Luca, when he resigned from his position. Lack of support forced the finished film to sit for two years before finally being released on April 26, 2002; it would go on to become the lowest grossing film in the franchise at the domestic box office; it also held the distinction of having the largest budget of any of the previous films at that time.[5]

After more than fifteen years of off-and-on development and approximately $6 million spent in eighteen unused scripts from more than a dozen screenwriters, New Line finally produced Freddy vs. Jason for 2003.

One of the biggest hurdles for the film was developing a story that managed to bring the two horror icons together. Potential stories varied widely, from 2 different drafts: 1 was titled "The Millennium Massacre" where Freddy was revealed to at one time be a counselor at Camp Crystal Lake and molested Jason as a child, and another dealt with a cult called the "Fred Heads" who were going to sacrifice a little girl to Freddy, leading to the girl's older sister putting her dead boyfriend's heart in Jason's body to fight Freddy and rescue her younger sister.

According to writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon several endings were considered for the film, one of the unused endings involving Pinhead of Hellraiser fame, and finally producer Robert Shaye came up with his idea which was acceptable for everyone.

New Line believed Freddy vs. Jason needed a fresh start and chose a new actor for Jason. Cunningham disagreed with their decision, believing Hodder was the best choice for the role.

Hodder did receive the script for Freddy vs. Jason, and had a meeting with director Ronny Yu and New Line executives, but Matthew Barry and Yu felt the role should be recast to fit Yu's image of Jason.

According to Hodder, New Line failed to provide him with a reason for the recasting, but Yu has explained he wanted a slower, more deliberate Jason, and less of the aggressive movements that Hodder had used in the previous films.

Yu and development executive Jeff Katz recognized the outcry among fans over the replacement of Hodder as Jason, but stood by their choice in recasting.

The role eventually went to Ken Kirzinger, a Canadian stuntperson who worked on Jason Takes Manhattan. There are conflicting reports over the reason Kirzinger was cast.

According to Yu, Kirzinger was hired because he was taller than Robert Englund, the actor who portrays Freddy Krueger. Kirzinger stands 6' 5" (196 cm), compared to the 6' 3" (191 cm) of Kane Hodder.

Yu wanted a much larger actor to tower over the 5' 9" (175 cm) Englund. Kirzinger believes his experience on Part VIII helped him land the part, as Kirzinger doubled for Hodder on two scenes for the film, but also believes he was simply sized up and handed the job.

Although he was hired by the crew, New Line did not officially cast Kirzinger until first seeing him on film. Kirzinger's first scene was Jason walking down Elm Street. New Line wanted a specific movement in Jason's walk; Kirzinger met their expectations and signed a contract with the studio.

Even though Hodder expresses some resentment at not being chosen, he and Kirzinger are still good friends, and some fans think Kirzinger's Jason surpasses Hodder's Jason.

However, even Kirzinger did not perform the role throughout the entire film. In the memorable final scene where Jason emerges from the water holding Freddy's head in his hand, the role was played by another actor, 6'5" (196 cm) Douglas Tait.

Almost a year after originally auditioning for Yu, Tait was called in for the reshoot of the climactic closing sequence.

Regarding Hodder, Yu says he had no problems about him and says he likes his work as Jason in the previous films. However, he says it was ultimately New Line's decision to exclude Hodder, not his.

Many of the New Line executives working on the film persist on stating that excluding Hodder was Yu's idea. These conflicting statements may imply New Line regrets not hiring Hodder.

In an interview, Tait explained the reason for the reshoot. He said, "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 Freddy.

You can see it in the deleted scenes, that is why they decided to reshoot 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."

Describing the scene, Tait said "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.

Novelization
Publishing company Black Flame released a novelization of the film on July 29, 2003. It was written by Stephen Hand, who also penned the novelization for New Line's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre the next year.

The book, as with many other novelizations Black Flame published for New Line, follows closely the plot of the film with a few alterations. For example, the novelization utilizes the original ending where Will turns into Freddy when he is about to have sex with Lori.

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 featured a second disc of bonus content that included: audio commentary by Ronny Yu, Ken Kirzinger, and Robert Englund, deleted and alternate scenes with commentary, Ill Niño's music video to "How Can I Live", trailers and TV spots, and behind the scenes featurettes.

The film was released on UMD on October 4, 2005 and on Blu-ray September 8, 2009. The Blu-ray contained the same features as the original Platinum Edition DVD.

The film was also released as part of a 9-disc pack of all twelve Friday the 13th films on Blu-ray and a Triple Feature Blu-ray pack with the Friday and Nightmare remakes.

The film's distribution rights were transferred to Warner Bros. in 2008.

Box office
In its opening weekend, Freddy vs. Jason grossed $36.4 million, finishing first at the box office. It went on to gross $82.6 million in North America and $32.3 million in other territories for a total of $114.9 million, against a $30 million budget.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 41% based on 153 reviews and an average rating of 4.8/10. The site'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".

On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has an average score of 37 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Accolades
Doug Chapman and Melvin Martinez were nominated for the Best Fire Stunt in the Taurus World Stunt Awards 2004 for the double full body burn and wire stunt. Doug Chapman doubled for Robert Englund as Freddy and Glenn Ennis doubled for Ken Kirzinger as Jason in the stunt.