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Freddy Vs. Jason - 8/15/03 - R - 115m
Robert
Englund - Freddy Krueger
Ken Kirzinger - Jason Voorhees
Monica Keena - Lori Campbell
Director: Ronny Yu
Written by: Damian Shannon & Mark Swift
Official
Website
JEF
Ok, First lets set the record, I pretty much went to this movie
because Lyn wanted to see it. I don’t think in all the years of
Lyn and I seeing movies, that we’ve seen a Freddy or Jason movie.
But when Lyn said he wanted to see it, I thought, sure, what the hey,
it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of these types of
movies, lets see if anything has changed, or what I’ve been missing
over the years.
Storyline: Not that I think the storyline is at all important
in these slasher style horror films, I’ll still give a brief description…
Freddy, is in Hell somewhere, and is feeling lonely. The town that he
tormented, had pretty much forgotten him, and thus drained him of his
powers to escape from Hell, and strike terror to the teens on Elm Street.
So… introduce the crossover character of Jason. Freddy gets Jason
to rise from the dead, and start a killing spree on Elm Street, in the
hopes of getting the towns kids to fear Freddy again. Somehow tricking
them to think that Freddy is back.
The plan pretty much works, but now Jason is loose, and Freddy can’t
control him anymore. Now Freddy must eliminate Jason, or else the kids
will again, not fear Freddy but fear Jason.
Yeah, yeah, yeah… what ever… It’s just another excuse
to call in these same characters of horror film history in the hopes of
making yet another slasher style horror flick with two names (Freddy and
Jason) to draw in the crowds.
Now, I liked some of the first films when this series started. Halloween,
Nightmare on Elm Street, etc… I was interested in movie special
effects (still am), and these movies had helped introduce me to the world
of prosthetics and the slasher style horror films. But then at some point,
I basically outgrew them. I realized that once you saw one slasher style,
you saw them all. It was always an attempt to gross out the viewer, and
to “scare” them with the “boo” style tactics.
Here’s an example… Why in all these horror
films, does the lead character walk through the woods or a house backwards
not looking where they’re going? Answer, because it’s the
easiest way to let them bump into the killer along with a sudden musical
cue, then the flash of steel as the killer proceeds to slice and dice.
I’m not trying to bash the whole genre of slasher style movies.
I saw many of them, and bought my share of Fangoria magazine, I even attempted
to make my own false eyeball out of wax, to scare friends and family with,
but again, I think I just grew out of these movies, when I realized they
were all the same.
Why do these movies get made? Because every year, there is a new generation
of 17 year olds who are now allowed to see their first R rated movies
without their parents. Throw in the gratuitous naked woman or two, and
these movies will always bring in the sales. Wait a couple of years, change
the storyline slightly, and again, the teens will come and see the next
slasher movie.
What gets me though, is that on the way out of the theatre, I heard one
guy say to his friends that it was ok, and there were a few scary parts…
scary? What part of this movie was scary? When they make you jump with
a “boo”? Such a cheap level of scare.
I still like horror movies. I still appreciate the classics like Dracula,
Frankenstein, the Wolfman, etc… I even appreciate the spot in horror
history that Freddy and Jason have hacked their way to. But, like this
movie, I someday hope that Freddy and Jason will someday be forgotten
and that their power to make sequels, will someday fail to draw in the
crowds and sell tickets. Then perhaps a new form of horror movie will
emerge, and we’ll be treated to something new as far as a storyline.
Will it ever happen? Probably not. But I hope it’s another 10-20
years, before I see my next Freddy or Jason movie.
Horror movies are such a difficult movie to make. Sure, you can go by
the standard rules of horror, throw in some gore, and some special effects,
and people will see the movie. But for a story to really be a good horror
movie, it needs to get into the minds of the audience of it’s day,
and pull at those dark areas and show us those things that we would never
dare think of mentioning, but for some reason can’t look away. It’s
actually movies like Freddy vs. Jason, that really make me appreciate
horror movies that break new ground (or even re-break ground, in a new
style). I appreciate The Blair Witch Project, and The Ring, and The Sixth
Sense, Alien, etc… all that more, after seeing a movie like this.
I think the next “horror” movie that I’m really looking
forward to is the prequel
to “The Exorcist”. I hope it’s new and fresh, and not
just some slap together remake.
Jef
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