Editorials
‘Freddy vs. Jason’ 20 Years Later – The Ultimate Horror Battle Still Satisfies After All These Years
I was somewhat of a late bloomer when it came to my exposure to horror. I lacked the cool older relative or friend that seems to serve as a customary gateway for many genre fans. I had seen a few horror movies growing up (Child’s Play and Scream each terrified me at different points in my youth), but seeing Freddy vs. Jason at the tender age of 15 is single-handedly responsible for the horror fandom that has consumed my life ever since. Without the movie — which hit theaters 20 years ago today — I very likely wouldn’t be writing for Bloody Disgusting now.
I knew of Freddy and Jason through pop culture osmosis, but I hadn’t seen any of the combined 17 films that comprised the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises when Freddy vs. Jason piqued my interest. Even with the advent of Netflix’s DVDs by mail, I had neither the patience nor the budget to rent them all before seeing the two slasher icons duke it out, so I thought I could get the gist by watching the first movie in each respective series. Elm Street became an immediate favorite, but you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that Jason isn’t even the killer in the first Friday.
Little did I know that horror fans had been waiting many years for Freddy vs. Jason, the development of which is among the most complicated in horror history. Fan desire for a crossover began shortly after Freddy started dominating cinemas in the mid-’80s and studio negotiations followed shortly after, but it seemed like the two slasher icons would finally face-off after Elm Street rights holders New Line Cinema purchased the rights to Jason. Years of speculation were all but confirmed by Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, which concludes with Freddy’s glove pulling Jason’s mask down to Hell.
But it would be another decade before Freddy vs. Jason came to fruition. More than 15 screenwriters tried to crack the story — costing the studio a reported $6 million — but none of them could satisfy all the parties necessary to secure a greenlight. Most takes read like overly complicated fan fiction, including retconning backstories with Freddy having an affair with Mrs. Voorhees and/or being a camp counselor who let Jason drown. (For more on the various false starts, Dustin McNeill’s 2017 book Slash of the Titans: The Road to Freddy vs. Jason is required reading.)
It was Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who previously penned an unproduced adaptation of the comic Danger Girl for New Line, that conceived a concept which everyone could agree on. Both the Elm Street and Friday series were at their best when kept simple, and Freddy vs. Jason‘s setup is ingeniously straightforward compared to the prior attempts. It presents the classic versions of the horror icons known the world over while avoiding — but not ignoring — other baggage to keep it as widely accessible as possible. It also isn’t as outlandish, with the only real suspension of disbelief (beyond what’s inherent to supernatural slashers) being that Springwood, Ohio is within a night’s driving distance from Camp Crystal Lake, New Jersey.
Having recently revitalized another slasher favorite for modern audiences with Bride of Chucky, Ronny Yu was hired to direct. The incomparable Robert Englund would, of course, play Freddy Krueger for the eighth (and as yet final) time. Kane Hodder, who had become a fan favorite for his commitment to the previous four Friday the 13th installments, was expected to reprise the role of Jason, but Yu had a different vision for the character; he wanted a hulking killing machine with sympathetic eyes. Ken Kirzinger, who previously donned the hockey mask for a stunt sequence in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, fit the bill.
Freddy catches new viewers up to speed with a voice over during the prologue, explaining that the children of Elm Street and beyond have forgotten about him, rendering the Springwood Slasher powerless. He resurrects Jason from Hell in order to make people remember him. “He may get the blood, but I’ll get the glory,” he sneers. “And that fear is my ticket home.” The plan proves to be too successful, resulting in the two baddies duking it out first in the dream world where Freddy has home field advantage and then in the real world at Jason’s stomping grounds of Crystal Lake.
Not safe awake or asleep, among those embroiled in the chaos are final girl Lori (Monica Keena, Dawson’s Creek), love of her life Will Rollins (Jason Ritter, Joan of Arcadia), stuck-up Kia (Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child), party girl Gibb (Katharine Isabelle, Ginger Snaps), nerd Linderman (Chris Marquette, Fanboys), stoner Freeburg (Kyle Labine), Will’s loyal friend Mark (Brendan Fletcher, Tideland), Gibb’s obnoxious boyfriend Trey (Jesse Hutch, Batwoman), and Deputy Stubbs (Lochlyn Munro, Riverdale).
I went into Freddy vs. Jason with my limited knowledge and loved every second of its 98-minute runtime. 15-year-old Alex was admittedly scared, but I couldn’t get enough of the gratuitous bloodshed, the unexpected sense of humor, and the WWE-worthy battles. It didn’t hurt that the soundtrack perfectly coincided with the transition of my musical taste from nu metal heavy hitters (Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Powerman 5000, Ill Nino) to metalcore acts on the rise (Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed, Lamb of God, From Autumn to Ashes).
After the titans of terror’s bloody battle, the ambiguous ending allowed the debate between fans to continue in perpetuity. Friday the 13th defenders have criticized Freddy vs. Jason for feeling more like an Elm Street movie and aligning Jason with the teens to stop Freddy, while Fredheads have condemned the film for giving Jason nearly all the kills. Both points are valid, but the fact that such a dichotomy exists with no consensus is proof that the approach worked; no matter who you were betting on, an argument could be made that your preferred killer came out on top.
Freddy is more sinister than several of the later Elm Street installments, and England still chews the scenery with his one liners. Kirzinger is appropriately imposing, although Hodder’s signature Jason mannerisms are missed. Keena gives an operatic performance, in step with the movie’s tone, but it’s not without nuance; I’m surprised she didn’t go on to more high-profile roles. She also has good chemistry with Ritter. It’s always a treat to see Isabelle, even if she isn’t given much to do. Rowland makes a better singer than actor, although her arc with Marquette earns her a dash of sympathy. Labine looks and acts like a Wish.com Jason Mewes.
Yu and cinematographer Fred Murphy’s (Secret Window, Stir of Echoes) use of colorful lighting extends the elemental division between the killes — blazing red for Freddy, who died by fire; icy blue for Jason, who died by water — and affirms the heightened reality in which the film is set. The idiosyncratic aesthetic isn’t totally out of line for the Elm Street universe, which often explores the surrealism of dreams, but it’s certainly more visually ambitious than most of the Friday the 13th franchise.
Freddy vs. Jason is decidedly not the scariest, most original, or most realistic movie in either killer’s arsenal, but it may very well be the goriest. Drawing influence from his Hong Kong action roots, Yu unleashes geysers of blood with every slash, stab, and hack. Spotty CGI is largely offset by old-school practical effects. Trey’s death — in which he’s folded in half backwards into a mattress — is arguably one of Jason’s best kills, and I rank the blazing cornfield massacre as a highlight of either franchise.
The crowd-pleasing elements of Freddy vs. Jason hold up two decades on, but that’s not to say it isn’t dated. There’s an indefensible use of the F slur, which is especially egregious because it’s hurled as a casual taunt to Freddy by one of the teens. While the movie has glossy production value carried over from the post-Scream slasher boom, the jittery editing effect occasionally employed for emphasis makes it feel very early 2000s.
With a worldwide gross of $116.6 million on a budget of $30 million, sequel talks began almost immediately, but the horror remake trend sparked by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a mere two months after Freddy vs. Jason‘s release would ultimately lead to both Friday the 13th (also written by Shannon and Swift) and A Nightmare on Elm Street getting rebooted. The story of Freddy vs. Jason continued in the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash comic book limited series as a satisfactory consolation.
I don’t expect everyone to look at Freddy vs. Jason through the same rose-colored glasses, but I’m always taken aback when it falls toward the bottom of fans’ franchise rankings. It’s far from a classic — or even one of the strongest entries in either series — but it delivers on everything I wanted from a movie called Freddy vs. Jason. 20 years later, the passion for horror cinema it ignited in me still thrives.
Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions. This is “The Amityville IP.”
A bizarre recurring issue with the Amityville “franchise” is that the films tend to be needlessly complicated. Back in the day, the first sequels moved away from the original film’s religious-themed haunted house storyline in favor of streamlined, easily digestible concepts such as “haunted lamp” or “haunted mirror.”
As the budgets plummeted and indie filmmakers capitalized on the brand’s notoriety, it seems the wrong lessons were learned. Runtimes have ballooned past the 90-minute mark and the narratives are often saggy and unfocused.
Both issues are clearly on display in Amityville Karen (2022), a film that starts off rough, but promising, and ends with a confused whimper.
The promise is embodied by the tinge of self-awareness in Julie Anne Prescott (The Amityville Harvest)’s screenplay, namely the nods to John Waters’ classic 1994 satire, Serial Mom. In that film, Beverly Sutphin (an iconic Kathleen Turner) is a bored, white suburban woman who punished individuals who didn’t adhere to her rigid definition of social norms. What is “Karen” but a contemporary equivalent?
In director/actor Shawn C. Phillips’ film, Karen (Lauren Francesca) is perpetually outraged. In her introductory scenes, she makes derogatory comments about immigrants, calls a female neighbor a whore, and nearly runs over a family blocking her driveway. She’s a broad, albeit familiar persona; in many ways, she’s less of a character than a caricature (the living embodiment of the name/meme).
These early scenes also establish a fairly straightforward plot. Karen is a code enforcement officer with plans to shut down a local winery she has deemed disgusting. They’re preparing for a big wine tasting event, which Karen plans to ruin, but when she steals a bottle of cursed Amityville wine, it activates her murderous rage and goes on a killing spree.
Simple enough, right?
Unfortunately, Amityville Karen spins out of control almost immediately. At nearly every opportunity, Prescott’s screenplay eschews narrative cohesion and simplicity in favour of overly complicated developments and extraneous characters.
Take, for example, the wine tasting event. The film spends an entire day at the winery: first during the day as a band plays, then at a beer tasting (???) that night. Neither of these events are the much touted wine-tasting, however; that is actually a private party happening later at server Troy (James Duval)’s house.
Weirdly though, following Troy’s death, the party’s location is inexplicably moved to Karen’s house for the climax of the film, but the whole event plays like an afterthought and features a litany of characters we have never met before.
This is a recurring issue throughout Amityville Karen, which frequently introduces random characters for a scene or two. Karen is typically absent from these scenes, which makes them feel superfluous and unimportant. When the actress is on screen, the film has an anchor and a narrative drive. The scenes without her, on the other hand, feel bloated and directionless (blame editor Will Collazo Jr., who allows these moments to play out interminably).
Compounding the issue is that the majority of the actors are non-professionals and these scenes play like poorly performed improv. The result is long, dull stretches that features bad actors talking over each other, repeating the same dialogue, and generally doing nothing to advance the narrative or develop the characters.
While Karen is one-note and histrionic throughout the film, at least there’s a game willingness to Francesca’s performance. It feels appropriately campy, though as the film progresses, it becomes less and less clear if Amityville Karen is actually in on the joke.
Like Amityville Cop before it, there are legit moments of self-awareness (the Serial Mom references), but it’s never certain how much of this is intentional. Take, for example, Karen’s glaringly obvious wig: it unconvincingly fails to conceal Francesca’s dark hair in the back, but is that on purpose or is it a technical error?
Ultimately there’s very little to recommend about Amityville Karen. Despite the game performance by its lead and the gentle homages to Serial Mom’s prank call and white shoes after Labor Day jokes, the never-ending improv scenes by non-professional actors, the bloated screenplay, and the jittery direction by Phillips doom the production.
Clocking in at an insufferable 100 minutes, Amityville Karen ranks among the worst of the “franchise,” coming in just above Phillips’ other entry, Amityville Hex.
The Amityville IP Awards go to…
- Favorite Subplot: In the afternoon event, there’s a self-proclaimed “hot boy summer” band consisting of burly, bare-chested men who play instruments that don’t make sound (for real, there’s no audio of their music). There’s also a scheming manager who is skimming money off the top, but that’s not as funny.
- Least Favorite Subplot: For reasons that don’t make any sense, the winery is also hosting a beer tasting which means there are multiple scenes of bartender Alex (Phillips) hoping to bring in women, mistakenly conflating a pint of beer with a “flight,” and goading never before seen characters to chug. One of them describes the beer as such: “It looks like a vampire menstruating in a cup” (it’s a gold-colored IPA for the record, so…no).
- Amityville Connection: The rationale for Karen’s killing spree is attributed to Amityville wine, whose crop was planted on cursed land. This is explained by vino groupie Annie (Jennifer Nangle) to band groupie Bianca (Lilith Stabs). It’s a lot of nonsense, but it is kind of fun when Annie claims to “taste the damnation in every sip.”
- Neverending Story: The film ends with an exhaustive FIVE MINUTE montage of Phillips’ friends posing as reporters in front of terrible green screen discussing the “killer Karen” story. My kingdom for Amityville’s regular reporter Peter Sommers (John R. Walker) to return!
- Best Line 1: Winery owner Dallas (Derek K. Long), describing Karen: “She’s like a walking constipation with a hemorrhoid”
- Best Line 2: Karen, when a half-naked, bleeding woman emerges from her closet: “Is this a dream? This dream is offensive! Stop being naked!”
- Best Line 3: Troy, upset that Karen may cancel the wine tasting at his house: “I sanded that deck for days. You don’t just sand a deck for days and then let someone shit on it!”
- Worst Death: Karen kills a Pool Boy (Dustin Clingan) after pushing his head under water for literally 1 second, then screeches “This is for putting leaves on my plants!”
- Least Clear Death(s): The bodies of a phone salesman and a barista are seen in Karen’s closet and bathroom, though how she killed them are completely unclear
- Best Death: Troy is stabbed in the back of the neck with a bottle opener, which Karen proceeds to crank
- Wannabe Lynch: After drinking the wine, Karen is confronted in her home by Barnaby (Carl Solomon) who makes her sign a crude, hand drawn blood contract and informs her that her belly is “pregnant from the juices of his grapes.” Phillips films Barnaby like a cross between the unhoused man in Mulholland Drive and the Mystery Man in Lost Highway. It’s interesting, even if the character makes absolutely no sense.
- Single Image Summary: At one point, a random man emerges from the shower in a towel and excitedly poops himself. This sequence perfectly encapsulates the experience of watching Amityville Karen.
- Pray for Joe: Many of these folks will be back in Amityville Shark House and Amityville Webcam, so we’re not out of the woods yet…
Next time: let’s hope Christmas comes early with 2022’s Amityville Christmas Vacation. It was the winner of Fangoria’s Best Amityville award, after all!
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