If you walk into a theatre showing "Freddy Versus Jason" you have to know what you are getting yourself into. Its Pro Wrestling with buckets of blood, and the kind of celebrity death match that teenagers juiced up on hormones and junk food have wondered about for years.

"Freddy Versus Jason" takes two legendary villains of modern horror movies that between the "Friday 13th" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" series have been featured in well over a dozen movies combined, and pits them against each other in a slash and hack fest that satisfies. It's sick and twisted gross out fun.
Robert Englund as Freddy acts as our narrator of sorts and explains the loosely constructed plot that ties the two movie franchises together. It's a hacked approach but the dreaming nature of Freddys character opens it up so that almost anything is possible, and in the end who cares, as long as it delivers the brutal slug fest that occupies the entire third act of the film.

Most of "Freddy Versus Jason" follows the predictable formula that we've come to know and love. There's a familiarity to the rules of engagement of monsters to victims that makes the experience a kind of comfort food for the demented soul. We in the audience know that as soon as the unsuspecting perky teenagers start getting into moral trouble like drinking beer, smoking dope or getting laid, horrible monsters will come out of the woodwork and start hacking them to pieces.

And of course we know the stereotyped kids will do the wrong thing regardless how loud the audience yells at the screen. For instance, the stoner kid who looks like a young jay without his silent bob opening the door when there's obvious death dealing danger on the other side, or the topless babe going off into the woods on her own after she's had a quick skinny dip in the pond. Clearly these characters are ripe for the slaughter and there's a certain sick satisfaction that comes when the monsters predictably have their way. By the time the inevitable rave scene in the cornfield happens, where everyone in the high school class is blitzed on beer bongs and glow sticks, the audience is primed and hungry to watch Freddy and Jason cut loose and decimate the misguided youths of today.

But it's the throw down unchained sparring match between "Freddy Versus Jason" that we came to see, and though director Ronny Yu takes his time in getting us there, once the battle between the super monsters begins the audience is not let down. The finale gushes with blood as its hat versus hockey mask, hand claw versus machete, freaky nightmare powers versus an unstoppable killing machine. and who wins? Why the popcorn vendors and ticket takers of course!

Tallying the body count until the next sequel, For Movie Magazine, this is Purple.

© 2003 - Purple - Air Date: 8/20/03