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‘Freddy vs. Jason’: The Long Road to the Crossover Event’s Arrival On the Big Screen

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No matter how you feel about Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, the final moment which sees Freddy Krueger’s glove burst out of the ground to retrieve Jason Voorhees’ mask and bring it back down to hell was an all-timer. With the two horror icons dominating the ‘80s and taking their final bow in the early ‘90s (well, until Jason X in 2001), with The Final Friday releasing in 1993 and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare in 1994, the idea that these two horror juggernauts would be hanging out in hell together was a fitting end to their reign. That was something fans really wanted to see. The idea to bring these two together in a crossover event had already been tossed about for years by the time The Final Friday released, though.

It wasn’t until 2003 that fans finally got their wish, for better or worse, with one of horror’s biggest events in Freddy vs Jason.

The road to getting this crossover film made was hell. Navigating the treacherous waters of licensing was arduous and long, with New Line owning the rights to A Nightmare on Elm Street series and Paramount owning the Friday the 13th franchise. Both tried to work together to make a Freddy vs Jason movie in 1987 but couldn’t come to an agreement. When license rights lapsed on Friday the 13th, New Line acquired them. While a major step in the right direction, that was only the beginning. New Line still had to find an exec that was interested in producing horror, which wasn’t an easy task at the time. Enter New Line senior VP of production Stokely Chaffin, who’d previously produced I Know What You Did Last Summer and was a huge horror fan. Rights and financial backing in place meant the next big hurdle to cross; settling on a script and a director. Both proved to be just as daunting as the long years it had already taken in the journey to bring Jason and Freddy together.

Chaffin agreed to meet with anyone interested in the project, resulting in 60 different meetings in the search for a director. She either found directors who were qualified but had never seen any of the franchise films, or super fans who had zero experience. She sought out director Ronny Yu, who had helmed The Bride with White Hair and Bride of Chucky, twice before he accepted. The script was an entirely different story, with around 12 different writers and 17 drafts in existence at various points. And boy were there some wacky story ideas involved. Eventually, screenwriting duties fell to Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, and David S. Goyer was brought in after to condense their two-and-a-half-hour feature into something much tighter and brisker in pace.

Yu’s approach to Freddy vs Jason drew from unexpected inspiration; Rocky Balboa’s fight with Apollo Creed. He wanted to recapture the rawness of that epic battle and unleash Jason and Freddy on each other. The more blood the better, which is the best possible approach with these two horror titans. This really was the long-awaited, main heavyweight event between two beloved horror icons, and the climactic battle mostly ignores the fresh meat in favor of Freddy and Jason trading blows.

The weak spot of the film was the narrative involving the teens, and some of the kills were downright goofy (Freddy possessing stoner Freeburg as a caterpillar?), but they were all second fiddle to the true stars of the film: Freddy and Jason. Yu never lost sight of the film’s purpose, and that was to deliver on horror’s biggest sporting event ever. Robert Englund and Ken Kirzinger (the tallest Jason ever at 6’6”) received top billing. The original ending focused on Lori (Monica Keena) and Will (Jason Ritter), but Yu didn’t like it because it wasn’t focused on Freddy and Jason. Trimming that out was a smart move. This was Robert Englund’s last performance as Freddy Krueger and having him close out the film with a wink to the audience was a perfect final bow.

In the 15 years since Freddy vs Jason made huge waves at the box office, a few have tried to capture the same success. Alien vs Predator followed a year later and tried again with their sequel in 2007. Alien vs Predator didn’t reach the same heights because they spent too much time with the human characters, involving them directly in the battle fans really came to see. Even Japan’s Sadako vs Kayako, while successful, took too long to get to the main event.

It’s now been 15 years since the biggest horror crossover event arrived in theaters. It didn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s okay. Because Freddy vs Jason is exactly what the title suggests; a major sporting event between two titans maiming, filleting, and slaughtering each other, spilling gallons of blood in the process.

That’s all it needed to be.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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