- Directed by Ronny Yu
- Written by Wes Craven, Victor Miller, Damian Shannon
- Stars Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij9c4_yFwks
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
For years, we’ve debated match-up battles between various horror movie icons, and here, at last, we had one. What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? Kind of a draw. The plot almost has a fairy tale quality of unreality to it, but it’s a fun movie that’s worth the watch if you’re a fan of Freddy and/or Jason.
Synopsis
We open on a flashback to Freddy Krueger, as a human, killing children. “My reign of terror was legendary. Dozens of children would fall to my blades. Then the parents of Springwood came for me, taking justice into their own hands.” He says that he got a whole lot worse after they killed him. We get flashbacks to earlier “Nightmare on Elm Street” films. Now, there’s no one left who dreams about Freddy, so he’s lost his power. He’s searched the bowels of Hell for someone to use and inspire enough fear to be his ticket home.
We cut to Jason having a “Friday the 13th” dream. His mother instructs him to go to Elm Street, where the children have been very naughty. Jason comes back to life and stomps through the woods. We watch Jason’s mother morph into Freddy. He’s going to use Jason to get them scared again. Credits roll.
Three girls are having a get-together when two guys show up. It’s Lori’s house, and she’s not happy to see them, especially that loser, Blake. Jason’s standing outside in the rain. She misses Will, who moved away unexpectedly.
Jason kills Trey, twice. Everyone screams and runs outside into the rain until the police stop. The sheriff and deputy notice that “It’s the same damned house. It’s gotta be Freddy Krueger,” but the sheriff wants it kept quiet. Deputy Stubbs wants to help Lori, but he’s off the case. Lori’s dad is surprisingly creepy.
The name “Freddy” somehow pops into Lori’s mind (she heard the cop say it) and she gets a vision of the whole Freddy, “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you,” nursery rhyme.
Blake also heard the name Freddy, and he’s attacked by the man himself in his dream, but Freddy’s not strong enough to actually hurt him. “I’ll let Jason have some fun.” Jason then kills Blake and his father.
We cut to Will, in a mental hospital. He sees a news report about someone getting killed in Lori’s house. With some help from Mark, another prisoner, he escapes.
Lisa insists on going to school the next day, and she hears about Blake’s death. Kia and Gibb want Lisa to go to a party tonight, and she tells them about her nightmares. Mark from the institution is there, and he tells the whole group about Freddy’s history. Will shows up, and Lisa faints.
Will and Mark wonder why, since they know all about Freddy, they haven’t been targeted. Neither of them ever remembers their dreams anymore.
We cut to a rave in a cornfield, where all the teens are drinking and dancing. Will meets up with Lori there and tells her that he’s been institutionalized, he didn’t move away without telling her. We also see that Jason is in the cornfield as well. Gibb sees Trey out there, but it’s really Freddy, luring her to Jason. Just as Freddy’s about to kill her in the dream, Jason kills her in real life, depriving Freddy of the power, and he doesn’t like that one bit.
Jason soon walks into the middle of the party and kills a few people, causing a mass stampede. Kia asks Lori if that was the guy in her dream, but it’s not. This is someone else!
Will tells Lori that he saw her father kill her mother. Her father shows up, and Will says he’s the one who had him committed. Lori confronts her father over her mother’s death, and he’s evasive. They argue, and she ends up climbing out a window and running away, back to Will.
Meanwhile, Mark has nodded off and runs into Freddy, who uses him to send a message to the others.
Deputy Stubbs is compiling reports of a “hockey mask killer” in town, but the sheriff says they’ve stopped him before, thinking it’s the other famous killer.
Will realizes that their fear is what feeds Freddy. Deputy Stubbs walks in on the group, and he knows about Jason Voorhees. Will wonders if Freddy is using Jason to spread the fear, but now Freddy can’t shut him down. Will mentions that the Hypnocil drug they took at the hospital kept their dreams suppressed.
The group breaks into the mental hospital to get more of the drug. One of them stops to smoke a joint and runs into a caterpillar-shaped version of Freddy, who leads him into the coma patient ward. They all sit up and tell him to flush all the Hypnocil down the drain. When he refuses, Freddy possesses him and does it.
Meanwhile, Linderman and Stubbs get attacked by Jason, and Stubbs dies. Freddy, in Freeberg’s body, waits to fight with Jason. He injects Jason with some lethal drugs, but Jason cuts him in half before falling down.
Jason wakes up in Freddy’s dreamland, being chewed out by his very angry mother. Jason wastes no time cutting off Freddy’s arms, which promptly grow back. Now, they fight for real. Freddy plays pinball with Jason’s body, beating him excessively. Jason stands up, and Freddy learns that Jason is afraid of water. He turns back into a scared, ugly little boy.
Will, Kia, Linderman, and Lori tie up Jason and drive away with his unconscious body. Lori thinks she can go to sleep and bring Freddy back into the corporeal world when she returns.
Freddy goes deep inside Jason’s mind to see his dreams. Lori dreams about ugly little Jason at Camp Crystal Lake. That story doesn’t quite play out like we remember. She grabs Freddy, but she can’t wake up.
Meanwhile, Will carries Lori’s unconscious body into Camp Crystal Lake. While Lori battles Freddy in the dreamscape, Jason fights her friends in the real world. Lori’s hand gets burned, which wakes her up enough to bring Freddy face-to-face with the real-world Jason, who is completely unstoppable. Freddy’s way more creative and smart, but he forgot about that one word… “unstoppable.”
Kia confronts Freddy and compares him to Jason, who’s right behind her. Lori comes to the conclusion that Freddy killed her mother, and her father was trying to hide that from her.
Freddy and Jason’s fight takes them to the dock, where Jason slices and dices Freddy. Lori sets the dock on fire as the two monsters rip each other to pieces. Everything explodes, but Will and Lori are fine. Freddy approaches, using Jason’s machete, but then Jason stabs Freddy with his own glove.
It’s all over now, right?
In the morning, we see Jason rise up out of the lake with Freddy’s severed head in-hand. Freddy, however, gives us a wink on the way out…
Commentary
I don’t think a random doctor could get two neighborhood kids committed to an asylum on his word alone. I suspect either the boys’ parents or the court system would be involved; either way, they wouldn’t just suddenly “go missing” overnight.
Most of the actual “story” is pretty contrived stuff leading up to the big fight in the end. We recently re-watched “Superman II” from 1981. We both commented during that film that Superman vs. Zod was basically two unstoppable forces, and so the fights were a bit boring, at least compared to modern superhero films. This one was similar, but it had the benefit of the two “supervillains” having very different powers.
It was fun. Not great, but fun.