‘Freddy vs. Jason’ Is Freddy Krueger’s Epic Swan Song

Let’s get ready to rumble! On July 15, 2003, there was a weigh-in and press conference for a showdown unlike anything that horror-loving or horror-hating spectators had seen. It was a monster mash between two of the most iconic supernatural killers. 20 years after Freddy vs. Jason was released in August 2003, it remains a slasher spectacle with a place among other great franchise crossovers, including the Universal Classic Monsters outings. Before the recent attempt, there was the 1962 classic where King Kong and Godzilla were dueling. And out in an icy tundra, the Xenomorphs were going after the Predators. It makes too much sense in seeing slasher kings of the ’80s be brought together in one movie. Did Freddy vs. Jason please everyone? Not quite, it leans too much into A Nightmare on Elm Street than a real blend with Friday the 13th. But because of this, Freddy comes out as the winner and much of that is thanks to Robert Englund, in the actor’s last movie appearance as the Springwood Slasher.

RELATED: Why Freddy Krueger Is the Best Slasher of All Time

What is ‘Freddy vs. Jason’ About?

It’s a movie that took a long time to come together, made in fan service for the decades that Freddy and Jason tormented victims for audiences’ pleasure. Freddy vs. Jason wastes no time in getting the story going. Stuck in purgatory, Freddy finds the best solution to his little problem. He resurrects Jason, pushing him to start killings on Elm Street with the devious hope that the town fears Freddy is back. By the time Freddy realizes he can’t stop Jason from killing the victims he wants, the stage is set for a competition between the two. A small group of teens are stuck in the middle of this bloodbath and they figure the only way to stop it is if the playing field is somewhat fair. Freddy needs to be plucked out of the dream world, so Jason can get his machete into his claws.

Englund relishes his role and it’s obvious when Freddy vs. Jason puts a tight close-up on the razor-clawed slasher icon, starting with a monologue and a montage of death. There’s a recap of Freddy’s previous attacks from the Nightmare series as well as his many demises. Dream Warriors and final girls have attempted various ways to kill off this nightmare killer, with little to no luck. Freddy’s demented personality is what makes him so compelling to watch. “When I was alive,” he spits out, “I might have been a little naughty. But after they killed me, I became something much, much worse. The stuff nightmares are made of.”

Freddy Is at His Most Dangerous When Fighting Jason

Freddy has bloodshot eyes and a mouthful of jagged teeth, as he sneers, “Being dead wasn’t a problem. But being forgotten, now that’s a bitch!” Jason is easy to manipulate, or so Freddy thinks after using Mrs. Voorhees against the Camp Crystal Lake killer. This is a return to a darker version of Freddy Krueger that the Nightmare movies didn’t concentrate too much on in later entries. He might not be using his glove to play deadly video games like in Freddy’s Dead, but he still loves a good soliloquy. Unlike the silent Jason, Freddy is the kind of horror villain who isn’t shy about speaking about the malevolent deeds he has planned. And when you have someone like Englund in the role, his whole body is used in the performance. There’s the way the actor hunches his back or how the razor glove is an extension of his figure. The way Englund plays with it, it’s like his own fingernails. In many ways, Freddy is a witch taken from a dark fairy tale.

Back in Freddy’s Revenge, a decision was made. Makeup coordinator Kevin Yagher explained in the franchise-spanning Never Sleep Again documentary how he wanted Mr. Krueger to appear like a witchy figure. The witch imagery is there in Freddy’s DNA. With the claws to his glove, they end like a demented upgrade to the cheap witch fingers sold at a Halloween store. Freddy’s Dead even has the titular monster riding a broomstick, doing his best Wicked Witch of the West impersonation. In Freddy vs. Jason, it’s less cartoonish, but without losing a sense of delightful malice. Freddy’s laugh is as good as ever, sounding like a howl that descends into a cackle. His theatrical menace could make him out to be a perverted Disney villain, drawn on paper and quickly discarded because he was considered too frightening. His inclusion into animated classics, however improbable, would have terrorized the deep sleep of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

The Teen Characters in ‘Freddy vs. Jason’ Are Forgettable

While Freddy may not be actively killing, he has left an inhospitable legacy over Springwood. Over at Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital, the in-world drug Hypnocil is back, used as a dream suppressant for the youths locked up there. If they aren’t forcefully admitted, they are stuck in dreamless comas. Perhaps it’s a necessary evil, or that’s what the town’s adults make themselves believe. This is a more engrossing, dystopian-like story choice compared to the Blade Runner-esque opening in Freddy’s Dead. The 2003 teens aren’t as memorable as earlier Nightmare heroes, but they are a means to an end, their end to be more exact.

One character tells another, “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you. You know why they sing that? Because that’s when he comes for you.” The script wasn’t going to be winning any Oscar nominations, that’s for sure. And who could forget the gay slur Kelly Rowland tosses out of nowhere and without warning? Freddy vs. Jason lingers maybe too much on the Springwood teens’ storyline, but the main attraction is still worth it. There’s Jason, the reanimated zombie with brute force, and Freddy, the scraggly dream boogeyman. Together they make for a terrific combo in how they contrast each other. Freddy has been killed by a lack of fear, his bones buried, and he has imploded. Who can combat him as a worthy opponent? That would be Jason Voorhees. Which brings the crossover to the one-on-one matches.

‘Freddy vs. Jason’ Delivers on the Big Showdown

In their first fight, Freddy enjoys flinging Jason around in the dream world’s boiler room. The telekinetic pounding Jason suffers makes for a better take on the “Jason vs. Carrie” idea behind Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Freddy then gets to mentally torture Jason, in a plot point that is a bit confusing on whether Jason can feel fear, he is a zombie after all. When it gets to the final brawl at Camp Crystal Lake, there’s a great little moment when Freddy realizes he’s been brought into the real world. He brings his gloved hand to his mouth as if he gasps. Then they go at it, with heavy metal music blasting off, and the two beating the crap out of each other. Director Ronny Yu’s use of worldly elements in fire (Freddy) and water (Jason) helps turn this movie into one of the more stylish entries in both franchises. Yu, who also helmed Bride of Chucky in 1998, loves his stylized visuals and everyone should too.

Rain machines are turned on to full blast during nighttime scenes. Freddy’s boiler room has a harsh red or green filter. When Jason is covered in Everclear and set on fire, he slashes into someone with his machete, cutting into a nearby keg, the spurting beer dousing out the flames. During the waterfront showdown, a swinging bulk of machinery keeps moving around Freddy and Jason like a massive pendulum, before it strikes them. It shows that this is the real world, a place out of Freddy’s control. On the dock, the killers wound each other severely, with Freddy getting an eye gouge into Jason, and Jason ripping off Freddy’s whole arm. The movie can be over the top, and that’s what makes it entertaining as hell, much like the weigh-in/press conference event held to get fans hyped.

‘Freddy vs. Jason’ Is the Perfect Swan Song for Robert Englund

It’s fun to experience, especially knowing it was released at a time when horror remakes were starting to get popular. The original ending to Freddy vs. Jason settles on the surviving Springwood teens, which did poorly during test screenings. The theatrical ending returns to the two monsters, the only logical point to bring everything to a close. Jason is unkillable, but he can be put into a dormant state. When he gets brutalized by Freddy, a clear winner seems to be had. But not so fast! Jason uses one last bit of strength to stab Freddy in the chest with his dismembered arm. And with Jason’s machete used to slice Freddy’s head off, the bloody showdown is done. In the final moments, Jason ascends from a misty, dream-like (important to note) version of Camp Crystal Lake, holding his machete and his enemy’s head. It might be likely that Jason is stuck in one of Freddy’s dreams because the head winks at us. Freddy gets the last laugh, and Robert Englund does too, who had several potential endings for his character.

In Freddy’s Dead, the so-called final chapter went too comedic. In New Nightmare, Wes Craven returned to bring a meta take on Freddy, but the ancient entity that looks like Mr. Krueger is just using the slasher’s appearance. It’s Freddy vs. Jason that feels like a return to what made the Springwood Slasher such a mesmerizing horror villain. It’s why he hosted the anthology, Freddy’s Nightmares. In The Simpsons, the slasher’s iconography was too good to pass up for a “Treehouse of Horror” episode with Groundskeeper Willie and his trusty rake. Englund would go on to reprise his role for a cameo in The Goldbergs, and the actor would have a small role in the most Nightmare-inspired season of Stranger Things. The slasher crossover is Englund’s final film role as Freddy and it preserves him as the man of your bad dreams.