Friday
the 13th hits Elm Street
By
Mike Parker
Daily Forty-Niner
Any
child of the '80s who was into the movies
of the decade would likely remember when
the first "Nightmare on Elm Street"
or "Friday the 13th" installments
came out, shocking audiences into a realm
of terror they had never before visited
via the big screen. Whether the movies were
loved or hated, they were almost impossible
to ignore.
Now,
some 20 years later, the two infamous psychopaths
from both series, Freddy Krueger and Jason
Voorhees, finally appear in the same film,
aptly titled "Freddy vs. Jason."
After
years of rumors and recycled scripts floating
around Hollywood, supposedly dating as far
back as 1995, director Ronny Yu took the
helm of the project and turned it into the
definitive movie that fans have been dying
to see.
Robert
Englund returns in all his green-and-red-sweater
glory as the demonic Freddy Krueger, the
demonic razor-fingered spirit of a child
killer who wreaked havoc on the fictional
town of Springdale and was burned alive
by vigilante parents, and now haunts teenagers
in their dreams. Stuntman Ken Kirzinger
replaces Kane Hodder's usual role as Jason
Voorhees for this outing, playing the silent-but-deadly
part of immortal resurrected killer Jason
with just as much ferocity and homicidal
rage the fans love him for.
And
then there's the usual batch of uninitiated
teens, who familiarly wander off into dark
corridors one too many times and inevitably
wind up stuck to a wall with the help of
a masked killer and a large piece of farming
equipment.
Horror
movie fans will definitely know what to
expect here, especially since the lead female
character, played by the adorable Monica
Keena, is even more attractive than usual.
Destiny's Child singer Kelly Rowland isn't
even half bad as an actress, but the usual
abundance of cringe-worthy lines ("We're
not safe awake or asleep!") deters
some of their credibility, which is kind
of a given if you've seen movies like this
before.
Director
Ronny Yu, uses the camera beautifully,
setting the stage for some seriously cool
horror movie standoff sequences between
our two villains. The fights themselves
between Freddy and Jason are nowhere near
one-sided either, so fans of both characters
can get their good share of incredulous
laughs in throughout the film.
Freddy,
as always, steals the show with his disgusting
one-liners and sadistic puns; the epitome
of which is a scene where he burns "Freddy's
back!" into a victim's, um, back.
Jason,
on the other hand, is hilarious without
even trying. Best known for his completely
over-the-top murders, which are so farfetched
and gruesome they can often be rewind-worthy
in previous "Friday the 13th"
films, Jason is put into new environments
we're not used to seeing him in prior to
this installment. Granted, if you were among
the few who labored through the laughable
schlock that was "Jason X," you'll
know that there isn't much you can do with
Jason that hasn't already been done. But
putting him on Elm Street to kill unsuspecting
groups of teenagers in an effort to help
Freddy become stronger is just too priceless
to not get horror movie fans crazily excited.
Surprisingly,
the teens aren't simply in this movie for
the sake of eye candy and for the audience
to place bets on who's going to die first.
Their story is an intricate web, with two
of them starting off the movie in a mental
institution because of Freddy's ubiquitous
nighttime terror tactics. Naturally, they
break out, and soon the facts are uncovered
about each of their individual stories and
their involvement with Elm Street's bloody
history.
If
something is screaming to be singled out
during the movie, it would have to be the
fact that Elm Street, where Freddy does
business, and Camp Crystal Lake, where Jason
does his, are literally within walking distance
from each other. Coincidence? Maybe.
Purposeful? Doubtful. Convenient writing
tactic to work into the script? Most likely.
The
fight scenes between these two dastardly
demons are as much fun as anything the average
horror buff has ever seen, combining Freddy's
one-liners with Jason's silent and eerie
ferocity in the best way it could've been
done. The pure entertainment value of one
scene, where Freddy gets inside one of Jason's
nightmares, is worth the price of admission
alone.
Director
Yu has done the horror genre a respectable
service, and the resulting substance found
in "Freddy vs. Jason" makes it
one summer movie the horror buff should
not live through without missing.
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