"Time to put this bad dog to sleep!" — Freddy Krueger

Well, here it is little piggies, the film that’s been in the making for over ten years is now finally making its way to the big screen. Was it worth the NEVER ENDING wait and all the awful unused screenplay drafts that we had to read till now? Well, for this fanboy the answer is...OH YEAH! HELL YEAH! and FUCK YEAH!

I strongly feel that hardcore fans of both respective series will get more of a well put SLASH out of this movie than the random, uninitiated viewers. Purposely or not, this flick was made for the fans with key elements/plot conventions lifted off both franchises and slapped in the horror soup...and in heavy doses at that! For anybody who knows his Friday/Nightmare movies, a lot of stuff will feel heart warningly familiar. Who didn’t go nuts when the little girls did the “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you” thang? Who didn’t snap their neighbor’s neck in joy when the “Camp Crystal Lake” sign appeared for the first time? I know I sure did! Who will get a kick out of seeing Jason walking down Elm Street and vice versa? I PERSONALLY TOTALLY LOST IT! What will the average viewer get out of all this? Not much, I’m sure.

This zany trip came across like fan-pleasing rollercoaster ride. It moved at a lightning pace, slapped all kinds of crazy action and wild scenarios my way, “boo scared” my ass left and right while giving me EXACTLY what I crave from both series. Freddy had his precious moments with an awesome re-interpretation of his back-story (I loved that he was going to kill a little girl), stellar dream sequences that never went too over the top (a la Part 6 Freddy’s Dead) and a charming overuse of the word “Bitch”  Nobody says “Bitch” like Uncle Freddy! Music to my ears! As for Jason , he had his day too! He had awesome flashbacks to his youth (loved the pillowcase nod) and fervently put the main tool (his machete) to use like he never did before! The man was on an ambitious slaughter spree with the cornfield rave scene being one of the highlights (although I did feel like they cut it too short). Basically we get what we wanted: a heavy cup of Elm Street and a handful of Friday the 13th rolled up in one fruit-roll of horror fun. Imagine how you’d feel if you’d bang Betty and Veronica from the Archie comics at the same time? Well, that’s how I felt while watching this film. Freakin' content!

As for the boys themselves, well, they were back in town and in top form! Freddy (Englund) displayed just the right mix of scary and funny. He treaded that line firmly through the whole movie. Although I did laugh at some of his antics and one-liners, the mean and perverted dirty old man side of Freddy always shined through. Thank you! As for Jason (Kirzinger), well, being the Kane Hodder fan that I am (read my convo with the man here), I had to purposely remind myself to keep an open mind and leave the “New Line dissing Hodder thang” out of the theatre. Yes, I liked Ken’s show as Jason. He actually felt a lot like Michael Myers to me in his slow, economic and still mannerisms. Although I adored Ken’s “surprise” swiftness when it came to killing, I preferred Kane Hodder’s more "raging bull" rendition of Jason more and felt like he would’ve worked here as well. What can I say, the heaving chest thing is the shite! Oh and ”expressive eyes” MY ASS!!

Both of the killers’ looks also did it for me in a big way. Make-up wise, Freddy had the right blend of Part 1 and Part 3 while sporting some really freaky teeth. Brrrrrr! As for Jason, he looked a bit more backwoods than he did in the last couple of entries and it worked! On the visual effects front, I was a happy camper. Although at times a bit too CGI, the visual shenanigans still came through in the creativity and off-the-wall department. And then there was...THE fight. Without giving anything away, I will say this: the WWF-HORROR Rumble went ALL OUT with the last 25 minutes or so of the film being an outrageous, no-holds barred and relentlessly violent bout between the two Titans of Horror. I was basically jumping in my seat like a grasshopper on steroids. Shite, I think witnessing this fight to end all fights was the highlight of my summer, beating out those Vegas hookers by a landslide. Who wins the match, you may ask? I won’t tell…

On the downside, although I dug the premise and the plot, it all went by too fast for me to be truly affected. But I guess that’s the price you pay for a speedy pace. The “blah” characterizations and bad acting also didn’t help in making me care about the situation at hand. Kelly Rowland actually pulled a “Busta Rhymes” (from "Halloween 8") on Freddy here! But fear not, she's "rewarded" adequately (HeHeHe). I also want to point this out: I don’t know if this was done in a “wink-wink” way or not, but I hated how our teen heroes figured out what was going on so easily. Were they reading the film's synopsis out loud or something? Lastly, I had one fanboy gripe: the whole “Jason is afraid of water” thing. Any fan of the Friday series knows that in the past entries, Jason was the first dude in the lake the second a naked, dumbass babe plunged in there for a midnight swim. Jason isn’t afraid of water.

New Line Cinema
Release Date: January 13th, 2004

IMAGE: We get a stellar 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image. We can also view the film in full screen.

SOUND: We get an impeccable English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and a English Dolby 2.0 Surround Sound option. English and Spanish subtitles are available for the English and Spanish deaf people that use them.

DISC 1: (The first disc sports the feature film and a couple of EXTRAS including...)

Feature Length Commentary: Director Ronny Yu and actors Robert Englund and Ken Kirzinger come in to partake in this feature length commentary. Yu and Englund are particularly very animated giving us loads of insight about the many facets of making the film. From the experiences on location, to commenting on the actors in the film, to the hardships of some of the scenes to Freddy's "raison d'etre", this commentary made for a groovy listen and should please the fans. Why was Kirzinger so quiet though? I wanted more from the guy that bumped Hodder off. Oh well...

DISC 2: (When I slapped the second disc into my player, I quickly realized that this was where the party was at, in terms of EXTRAS. Let the fun begin!)

Deleted/Alternate Scenes: Here we're treated to 19 deleted scenes with optional commentary by director Ronny Yu and executive producer Douglas Curtis. To be honest, nothing really stood out here apart form the "alternate opening" which heavily nodded the Friday the 13th series and the "original ending" which although pretty tacky, was kind of fun to watch from a fan point of view ("Nightmare on Elm Street: Part 2" came to mind, for some reason). The commentary basically explained why the scenes were cut out (usually because of test screening feedback or pacing reasons). This was a decent feature. I expected more slick deleted scenes than the ones offered, but it still quenched my thirst.

THE PRODUCTION

Production Featurettes: These 5 featurettes acted as a video diary of the "Making" of the film. We have Ronny Yu, Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger and various producers and crew members coming in to talk shop. Interviews, on-set footage (love those) and actual takes being shot were also abound here. I found this behind-the-look at "Freddy vs Jason" mucho engaging, especially from an aspiring filmmaker point of view. The features went a little something like this:

Genesis: Development Hell (10 minutes): The lengthy struggle the film went through to finally come to life is dissected here.
On Location- Springwood Revisited (14 minutes): This featurette takes us on set to witness Yu performing his magic.
Art Direction- Jason's Decorating Tips (11 minutes): The look of the dream world vs the look of the reality world. What they went for.
Stunts- When Push Comes to Shove (21 minutes): We get an in-depth look at the stunts in the film and how they were accomplished.
Make-Up - Effects- Freddy's Beauty Secrets (6 minutes): The Freddy makeup process gets the royal treatment in this feature.

Visual Effects Featurettes (25 minutes): Here we get 12 Visual Effects Featurettes that we can either watch individually or all at once. This feature had visual effects supervisors Ariel Velasco Shaw and Kevin Elam come in to talk about the many visual effects found in the film from the CGI shots, the green screen effects, to the blood and guts. Although I enjoyed this feature and appreciated its weighty insight into the world of special effects, it did feel a tad too long. I said a tad, so don't go call your lawyers just yet.

We also get a Galleries section where a slew of Storyboards and Production stills are at hand for our viewing pleasure and a 2-part transcript of the badass Fangoria Article: Freddy & Jason go to development hell which chronicled the film's long and arduous trek to the screen.

PUBLICITY AND PROMOTIONAL

My Summer Vacation- My Visit to Camp Hack 'n Slash (4 minutes): This feature chronicled the time that some fans spent at a Camp that was put together to push the film. So we see fans drink beer, draw pictures of Fred and Jase, play sports, participate in eating contests and do arts and crafts (mmm...ok). If it wouldn't be for the wet T-Shirt contest and the screening of the film, I would've said this weekend looked pretty lame-ass to me, but then again, I wasn't there so what the fuck do I know. An interesting feature in a "Animal Discovery Channel" type of way.

We also get the Original Theatrical Trailer, various TV spots (8 of them), a Music Video for the song "How Can I Live?" by Ill Nino (good tune), DVD ROM/Online Features and Trailers for "The Butterfly Effect" (the flick looks freaking good!), the TCM remake, Jason Goes To Hell and Freddy's Dead.

Brad Renfro was initially cast as Will, but bailed out (or was kicked off the set-- the man loves his booze).

Canadian stuntman Ken Kirzinger played a New York cook in "Friday the 13th: Part 8- Jason Takes Manhattan" and donned the hockey mask there too in doubling for Kane a few times.

This film was shot in Vancouver BC for a budget of 25 Million clams.

Was I the only one bummed that we didn’t get any cameos? Appearances by either John Saxon or Thom Matthews would’ve made my day.

Read my FRIDAY THE 13TH reviews here: Friday the 13th, Friday the 13: Part 2, Friday the 13: Part 3, Friday the 13: Part 4, Friday the 13: Part 5, Friday the 13: Part 6, Friday the 13: Part 7, Friday the 13: Part 8, Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X.

Read my NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET reviews here: Nightmare on Elm Street, A, Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Nightmare on Elm Street 5, Nightmare on Elm Street 6, Nightmare on Elm Street 7.

Buy FREDDY VS JASON posters here