1-2 Freddy's coming for you
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Watching 'Freddy vs Jason' earlier tonight, I was reminded that at one time, I was a HUGE fan of both of these series. When the opening credits came on screen, I had a very familiar feeling come to my brain that I hadn't felt since I was a young teenager watching the Freddy and Jason movies. At one time, I was a huge fanatic of both of the different series of movies. There was a time when I had to sleep with the lights on and had to take showers with the shower curtain halfway open because I was never sure if Jason and/or Freddy would be waiting for me in the shower.

I've always liked the different series for different reasons. I've found that the 'Nightmare' movies were scary, yet the real appeal of the movies was watching the really creative and horrific ways that people died at Freddy's hands. If you were a tv-aholic, Freddy was going to turn into a television and smash your head. If you were afraid of cockroaches, Freddy was going to turn you into a roach inside a roach motel. They were always scary, but the real appeal was seeing how many different ways Freddy could kill people. My favorite death scene of his, is still the scene in 'Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors' where he turned the puppeteer into a puppet by pulling his veins out of his arms and legs and walking him around like a marionette.

But I've always found that the 'Friday the 13th' movies were altogether scarier. While dream sequences are cool, I don't think that it gets much cooler than being in a wooded area surrounded by water and cabins, affording Jason thousands of different places to get you. I think maybe my love of the 'Friday' movies has to do with my love of camping. You never do quite know who or what is out in those woods now do you? Jason was always cooler to me, because he was just this brute monster who could not be stopped. You kinda knew that on 'Elm Street,' you could just wake yourself up and be done with it. When you're being chased by Jason in the woods, the only options are either death, death, or a grisly death. My favorite Jason death scene has got to be the time he swung a sleeping bag filled with screaming camper against a tree.

Speaking of, I think I should address this issue now. I find myself to be a compassionate type of person. I literally cannot kill a single living thing. I can't even kill a bug. Given the choice to kill a bug, or walk 4 miles out of my way, I'd gladly put on my most comfortable pair of shoes. Yet when it comes to slasher movies, I love seeing complete and total carnage on screen. Maybe I'm a walking contradiction, but I love seeing people get completely hacked up on screen. When it comes to slasher movies, the more blood the better. I think that one reason I don't feel all that bad for liking violence of this magnitude on screen, is that I know that it's so farfetched, that I know that it's all just imaginary. Or maybe I really am just some sick psycho or something. Anyone seen my hockey mask.

I've always thought that a Jason vs. Freddy movie could go one of two ways. It could be REALLY cheesy and hokey, and completely over the top. Or it could be all of that, yet it'd still retain some of the key elements that made people like the first movies in the first place. The end result of the movie I just watched lies somewhere in the middle actually. It's over the top, sure. It's a Freddy and Jason movie for crying out loud. Yet there were elements of this movie that at times harkened back to what made me love these movies in the first place.

One of the things that I really liked about this movie, is that it tried to please all of the different fans of the original movies. So there was a scene with Freddy and a scene with Jason, that wasn't completely over the top. Each had a scene that was more reminiscent of the original movies. For Jason fans, it was the opening skinny dipping scene, and for Freddy fans, it was the boiler room scene where Jason steals his victim. Both of those scenes were very similar in feel to the earlier movies of both franchises, before they both got really over the top. But then later on, in order to appease the fans of the later movies, they had the typical Freddy and Jason over the top scenes. There was the Jason rave scene and the hospital scene, and pretty much every other Freddy nightmare scene, complete with evil-licious one liners.

Another thing that I really liked about the movie is that both Freddy and Jason got to fight on their respective turfs. Jason had to fight in dream world, and Freddy had to fight at Camp Crystal Lake.

Overall the violence never reached the completely cool stage. It was violent, but it never really got all that imaginative in what they could do to human bodies. The scenes that came close were the bedroom scene with the bed, and the death of the friend via burning to death.

Believe it or not, the movie actually had some pretty clever shit in it. One of my favorite scenes of the movie was when Kelly Rowlandson was bashing Freddy in the outside world and calling Freddy on his own shit. It's a really clever scene in how it played out. Even though I knew it was coming, it almost caught me by surprised at what happened.

As far as the actual Freddy and Jason fight, overall it was pretty cool. I must say that it turned out the way I thought it would. When Freddy had Jason in dream land, it was all Freddy. When Freddy was caught in real world, Jason completely barraged Freddy. I liked it also when they had to use the other's weapon. It's a dream for horror fans all over the world to see these two bohemoths duke it out.

Director Ronny Yu knew that he had some guidelines to work under. He knew that it had to be true to both series without making it neither too serious on itself, or too self parodying. I'd say that he walked the fine line between self parody and taking itself seriously. He also knew that the death scenes had to be pretty true to the horror/slasher movie genre. If you make death scenes too realistic, then it kinda takes away some of the fun of the slasher movie. Overall, Yu did some pretty nice stuff. He kept a pretty consistent visual feel to the movies and put in some really nice moments. I particularly like the shot of Freddy jumping out of the water. It just looked cool.

The teenagers were pretty bad most of the time. Occasionally, some of the different actors would do okay and have a decent moment. But overall, the really sucked as actors. But it doesn't really matter. The only reason why they are even in the movie in the first place is that you have to have cannon fodder. Someone has to get their head lopped off, so they put as many teens into a movie as possible. No big whoop. I didn't care about the acting, because the acting in these movies has always been bad. I would have been kinda disappointing if the acting had actually been kinda good. If I want good acting, I'll watch 'Traffic' or 'The Godfather.'

Overall, the movie was a whole helluva lot of fun. It's humorous in all the right and wrong reasons. And truthfully, it's scary and tense in all the right and wrong ways. The right ways being the obvious, while the wrong ways to be scary is to have just random scenes of people popping out of nowhere with loud sound effects. It's an easy startle that takes away from the legit startles of the picture.

This movie had some pretty decent suspense in it. It almost rekindled some of the stuff that I had forgotten about. Entering my darkened apartment after the movie, I almost half expected Jason to be standing right in front of me when I turned the light on. But like common sense dictates, he wasn't there. This time. ;-)

I'd see the movie again but would probably opt out of a sequel if they made one. It was a perfect way to end both movies. Hopefully they let a sleeping monster lie, and end it here.

UNLESS.....

they throw Michael Meyers, Chucky, and Leatherface into the mix. ;-)

matt out