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Okay, we’ve given you the truth on every instalment of the Friday the 13th franchise thus far. Some are stellar, some are cheesy but fun and some are downright bad. Having said this, Jason is a juggernaut of horror movie killers, albeit rivalled by many. So here we are, ready to pit him against the dream master himself, Freddy Kruger. Place your bets!
Freddy vs Jason (2003):
Freddy Krueger is rendered powerless in Hell with Springwood forgetting him. Disguised as Pamela Voorhees, Freddy manipulates Jason Voorhees into killing Springwood teenagers to regain strength.
Lori Campbell lives with her widowed father, with friends Kia, Gibb, Trey, and Blake staying over. That night, Jason stabs Trey and folds him in half, with police suspecting Freddy. Following a nightmare, Blake awakens to his beheaded father before Jason kills him. The next day, police state it to be a murder-suicide, hoping to contain Freddy.
Lori’s ex-boyfriend Will Rollins and friend Mark Davis are Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital patients. They take Hypnocil to suppress dreams, due to them having the last contact with Freddy. A news report leads Mark to devise an escape plan. He and Will return to Springwood to tell Lori about Freddy. Mark later learns of the city’s plan to eradicate Freddy and realizes they’ve nullified it. That night, Lori and the others attend a rave at a cornfield. A drunken Gibb believes she sees Trey and follows him to a silo – a dream trap set by Freddy. However, Jason kills her. Dismayed, Freddy realizes Jason’s rampage will continue and deny Freddy victims.
Linderman and stoner Freeburg escape the rave along with Will, Lori and Kia. Lori confronts her father about her mother’s death, lying to him. She and Will go to Mark’s house, only to discover Freddy killing Mark. Deputy Stubbs suspects a copycat Jason murderer, but his suspicions fall short. He approaches Lori and her friends, who piece together Freddy’s plan. Learning of Hypnocil, they attempt to steal stock from Westin Hills, but Freddy possesses Freeburg and disposes of them. After electrocuting Stubbs, Jason is tranquilized by possessed-Freeburg, who Jason bisects before falling unconscious.
The teens devise a plan to pull Freddy from the dream world into reality and force him to fight Jason. They take the unconscious Jason to Crystal Lake. Meanwhile, Freddy battles Jason in the dream world. Freddy is in his environment and has the advantage with his dream powers but despite impaling Jason with his own machete, beating him, brutally slamming him around the plant and using equipment to crush him, Jason keeps coming. However after Freddy is thrown onto a pipe which begins to release water, he learns Jason is afraid of it on account of drowning, which allows Freddy to try that exact same means of death to kill him. Lori goes to sleep and saves Jason but Freddy attacks her, revealing himself as her mother’s killer.
Jason awakens due to Lori and chases the others into a cabin. Linderman is mortally wounded and dies, the cabin ignites, and Lori is awakened, pulling Freddy into real life which shocks Freddy and reveals his own fear of fire as it was the method in which he was originally killed. Jason fights Freddy while they escape, throwing Freddy through another cabin’s roof.
Lori, Will and Kia encounter Freddy. Kia distracts Freddy by taunting him until Jason suddenly kills her. As Lori and Will escape, the two begin to fight. Freddy uses his speed and intellect to his advantage, while Jason uses his strength and tolerance to extreme forms of attack. The fight starts first in a construction area, then on the dock in Crystal Lake. There, Jason tears Freddy’s arm off after Freddy stabs Jason’s eyes with his glove. Lori and Will pour gasoline on the docks and set it on fire, which ignites propane tanks that blows Freddy and Jason into the lake. Freddy climbs out and attempts to kill Lori and Will, but is impaled by Jason with his own clawed arm as Lori decapitates Freddy, causing his body to fall back into the lake. Lori and Will leave Crystal Lake together. Afterward, Jason emerges from the water, holding his machete and Freddy’s severed head as Freddy winks to the audience before laughing off-screen.
Summary:
This is a difficult movie to settle on. There’s a lot of great things in the movie, but there is a lot of missteps, too. The “teenage” cast are extremely uninteresting and Kane Hodder is gone from the role of Jason. They brought back Robert Englund to reprise his iconic performance, and I would say it was equally important to get Kane back!
When Freddy and Jason are on screen, individually but especially together, the movie is uplifted. This however, is few and far between and leaves you wanting throughout.
So can we recommend it? It’s a razors edge. On one hand, you don’t need to see this since it doesn’t play into the continuity of either franchise, but if you’re a completist you may or may no agree with us.
We really thank the fan sites out there for everything they do. They really help us with our research! Check out the Friday the 13th Wiki which have pieced together the timeline and the Horror Wiki for the list of kills! Fun for everyone!
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