Freddy vs. Jason is transparently more of a gimmick than it is an actual movie. Pitting two of the most fearsome horror-movie villains against each other could have made for a classic, but here the watered-down versions of the formerly fearful franchises look like themselves, but are neutered by each other’s respective presence.
The film begins with highlight reels of each mass-murderer’s accomplishments, clips that are far more potent than the combined might of the movie itself. As Freddy relates the circumstance of his demise and eventual punishment in Hell, he also relates his seemingly ceaseless fate-to spend eternity forgotten, and to punish the children of Elm Street no more. To this end, Freddy devises a plan that will once again bring fear to his former stomping grounds, by enlisting the aid of the unstoppably mindless killer Jason.
At first the hockey-masked one is more than happy to do Freddy’s bidding, and Freddy’s powers slowly begin to return, but soon it becomes clear that Jason’s thirst for killing morally-challenged teens will not be quenched and thus the inevitable conclusion is a mano-a-mano battle royale between the two extreme killers.
While the two figures remain fearsomely ingrained in the collective unconsciousness of anyone under thirty, the problem with Freddy Vs. Jason seems more a problem of mechanics and poor scripting than anything else. While it may seem redundant to say that the script is not very good, it is specifically terrible because of the lack of creativity that it brings to the franchises. In other words, the fear that Freddy inspired by exploiting his victims’ worst fears and insecurities in their dream-world is replaced with a heavy-handed and clumsy obviousness. So rather than witty repartee and genuine gamesmanship (which are the trademark of the character), we instead get Freddy’s boiler-room antics and schoolyard tauntings that usually end in, “Bitch!”
Though horror fans don’t expect much from Jason by this point (having given up on the Friday the 13th series long before they ever shot him into space), his sequences are vaguely more satisfying, if only because of the director’s skill at splattering blood on screen somewhat artfully.
In the end, Freddy vs. Jason is much more of an exercise in violence than it is in horror, and having been desensitized to violence by this summer’s string of near-pornographic spectacles, I would venture that the video-game version of the film will end up being a more fulfilling experience than the movie itself.
