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		FREDDY VS JASON Opens August 15th, 2003 - Weekends #1 Top Box Office Draw - $36.4 million August 24th, 2003 - Weekends #1 Top Box Office Draw 2 Weeks In A Row - $61.2 million September 1st, 2003 - Weekends Top 10 - $73 million September 8th, 2003 - Weekends Top 10 - $78.3 million September 15th, 2003 - Weekends Top 15 - $80.4 million

By Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune A marriage of two horror franchises, "Freddy vs. Jason" succeeds as a guilty pleasure, a monster mash that clobbers the recent lackluster sequels plaguing both legacies. If only that were a higher compliment. In the grand money-grabbing tradition of "King Kong vs. Godzilla " and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," this cinematic gorefest matches up dream demon Freddy Krueger from "Nightmare on Elm Street" and hockey-fashionable killer Jason Voorhees of "Friday the 13th" fame. By wiping away any evidence of his existence, the parents of Elm Street have effectively defeated Freddy (Robert Englund), the dream-dwelling child murderer. An experimental drug keeps their kids from dreaming, so a nearly powerless Freddy has to recruit machete-wielding automaton Jason (Ken Kirzinger) to revive his legacy. Not one for manipulation, Jason soon cuts into Freddy's revenge plan, resulting in a tete-a-tete of blades and bad teeth. In a way, Freddy's predicament serves as a metaphor for both hobbled franchises. With the "Scream" movies and the success of TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," 1980s movie monsters are largely confined to Halloween shops and Trivial Pursuit questions. Freddy's last movie was 1994's "New Nightmare," a stalled attempt to reinvent the character after 1991's cameo-laden "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare." Jason, after appearing in two "final" movies (1984's "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" and 1993's "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday"), last appeared in a self-referential meta-movie that launched him into the future, in outer space (2001's "Jason X"). But in its masterfully economic first half-hour, "Freddy vs. Jason" condenses expansive character histories and launches a setup that expertly meets the demands of the genre (teen sex, girls in showers, a dark house with the parents away). As quickly as the movie builds momentum and shows promise, however, it's unraveled in a matter of seconds by a pack of meddling kids. Nope, not the Scooby-Doo gang (although plenty of references are made to the van-driving misfits), but the current resident of 1428 Elm St. -- Lori (Monica Keena), her love interest Will (Jason Ritter) and their disposable friends. As Jason starts hacking away at the high school glee club and their dreams start to get bloody, our hormonally challenged heroes string together exactly what's happening. Despite the amount of evidence (easily jotted down on the back of postage stamp) and little experience with the supernatural, they figure out that, yep, Freddy brought Jason back from the dead to be his hit man. Further, they figure out that Jason fears water, and Freddy's Achilles' heel is fire -- if only they could use that to their advantage! Director Ronnie Yu ("Bride of Chucky") would have been better advised to allow the teens to flounder around and worry about their own survival, rather than stitch two slipshod mythologies together in one trite, painful expository scene. First-time screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who landed the job after countless other script attempts by other writers, smartly dodge the more embarrassing elements of the 10 "Friday the 13th" films and seven "Nightmare on Elm Street" installments. They omit, for example, the conclusion that Jason's evil sprang from a supernatural parasite ("Jason Goes to Hell"), and they allow Englund to be a more menacing presence simply by cutting back his dialogue. Later episodes of the "Nightmare" series reduced Freddy to a one-line jokester, a clown with butter knives on his right hand who killed sleepy-headed teens in their dreams. The visually stylish Yu and his collaborators get a B-plus for creative kills and not taking themselves too seriously, but a C-minus for making it all stick together. A pity, especially after they came so close. If nothing else, perhaps they've succeeded in sparking interest for future "vs." films. "Alien vs. Predator," anyone?

	By Mike Szymanski, Zap2it.com The fans of the "Friday the 13th" stories about Jason, the geek who's taking revenge on the camp where he was taunted and drowned, are ones who like "Jaws" or other films where the victims are picked off no matter who they are or what they're doing at the moment. Jason is really like a shark, attacking without warning or discrimination, always leaving plenty of blood behind. The fans of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series about Freddy, the child murderer who was burned alive by parents of the dead children who exacted their own revenge, are ones who like more psychological thrillers. Freddy's victims are haunted in their nightmares, and that's where he has the true power to murder in the most devious and cruel ways. And yes, he's always leaving plenty of blood behind. The latter reason is certainly a reason to bring the two stories together, since they've become the most frightening mass murderers in film history, but Freddy is always a bit smarter, because of how he picks his victims, and gentle giant Jason doesn't have much of a personality behind that hockey mask or bag that hides his hideous features. I've always been a fan of all seven of the Freddy movies, but I've seen all 10 of the Jason films, too, and liked many of them particularly because of the creative ways of killing. In fact, I liked the futuristic "Jason X" because it keeps the genre and sets it in space and still allows for the creepiness of the camp setting at Crystal Lake. The girl getting frozen and her head cracking like glass was pretty cool, too. But to bring the two together means a dumbing-down of Freddy and a bit of a sophisticated elevation of Jason, and the mix is kind of discordant. Freddy has so much character, and Jason is supposed to be devoid of one, so therefore it's almost a supporting role. After all, in the "Godzilla vs. Megalon" or whatever monster he's also fighting, the big G is always the star lizard because he has a bit more personality. In this one, Freddy is trapped in the netherworld of Hell and Jason is very dead and buried. The families of Elm Street have doped their kids up with dream suppressants to eradicate Freddy from their nightmares, so Freddy needs someone to scare up a little fear. He invades Jason's dreams as Jason's mother and manipulates Jason to kill in his old neighborhood so that he can get the power to sneak into dreams again. The trouble is that Jason starts going out of control, and so it's up to the new crop of teens to stop them. This group includes actors Jason Ritter, first-timer Monica Keena and Destiny's Child singer in her debut performance Kelly Rowland. Very early on the kids learn they can't trust adults because all the references to the past murders at 1428 Elm Street are cut from the records in the library. Meanwhile, slowly but surely, Freddy scares the kids with Jason's murders, folding one youth in a bed, slicing off the head of another. But Freddy's nightmares are always more creative. The snakes mixed with blood which terrorizes one kid, and the way he reacts when his arms are cut off are all the makings of funny fright moments that send shivers and cause laughter at the same time. Some of the best lines come from Rowland as Kia. She plays a rather diva-like sassy gal who's best line after Freddy sees the African-American startlet and says, "How sweet, dark meat," is her comeback, "What kind of f----- runs around with a Christmas sweater made by his mother?" The intimate moments of murder by Freddy are mixed with the mass teen slashing by Jason, such as a rave in a cornfield that turns a bit bloody. Heads get twisted around, blood spurts from dissected limbs and there are a few topless women. We count 16 guys and five gals killed in this one, which is unusually high for a Freddy movie, but about par for a Jason film. If you like slasher movies, this one is fun, if you like Freddy films, you may be a bit disappointed. The mix of titans is a great idea, but as usual, one always outshines the other. Internet rumors say that Jason comes out the victor, but perhaps those people didn't see the final cut. Obviously, this isn't going to be the end of either of the characters (they've been beaten down, sent to hell, destroyed, drowned and burned before). But, without giving too much away, let's just say Freddy comes out a head.

Great Debate Even Among Cast and Crew: 'Freddy vs. Jason' Thu, Aug 14, 2003, 12:08 PM PT By Mike Szymanski Two of the biggest cut-ups in film history are going at it in the same film. Crystal Lake campers are taking a summer vacation on Elm Street, and it's not going to be pretty. For two decades, these movie mass murderers have scared the pants off the world (and the tops of a lot of girls, and finally they're teaming up for some hellish mayhem. Obviously, they'll turn on each other. Freddy Krueger -- the guy who was burned alive by parents of murdered children and now invades the dreams of kids who live on Elm Street -- meets Jason Vorhees -- the deformed kid who was taunted at Camp Crystal Lake and wears a hockey mask as he slashes people who come back there. Zap2it.com spent some time with the cast and crew of the team that brought the two evil dudes together and compiled some behind-the-scenes secrets about the film. It took New Line 10 years to get the story and film completed after the studio bought the rights to "Friday the 13th," which introduced Jason in 1980. Brad Renfro ("The Client") quit the project just before beginning the film and was replaced by "Swimfan" star Jason Ritter, who's the son of "Three's Company"'s John Ritter, who also starred in "The Bride of Chucky." "Nightmare on Elm Street" -- which gave Johnny Depp his film start in 1984 and has him get liquidated and spewed into a bloody mess all over his bedroom -- spawned six sequels. Jason's "Friday the 13th" -- the first major film role for Kevin Bacon which has his head held to a pillow as an arrow skewers his neck -- regurgitated nine sequels. Although they've been burned, buried, drowned and sent to Hell a few times, Freddy and Jason are back. The families of Elm Street have doped their kids up with dream suppressants to eradicate Freddy from their nightmares, so Freddy needs someone to scare up a little fear. He invades Jason's dreams and manipulates Jason to kill in his old neighborhood so that he can get the power to sneak into dreams again. The trouble is that Jason starts going out of control, and so it's up to the new crop of teens to stop them. This group includes actors Jason Ritter, first-timer Monica Keena and Destiny's Child singer in her debut performance Kelly Rowland. Robert Englund reprises his role as Freddy again, but Kane Hodder who's appeared in four of the 10 Jason films, wasn't asked to do the role again. Instead, the Jason role went to six-foot-five master stuntman Ken Kirzinger, who so impressed director Ronny Yu when he came in to interview for the stunt coordinator job, he was hired to do the role. "Ronny didn't understand the mythology of Jason, and Kane is a great friend of mine, we did the Rolling Stone cover together, but the giant size of Ken is what the director had in mind for the part," Englund tells Zap2it. Meanwhile, the debate over who's the scariest character and what the future of these monsters should be, ensues even among the cast and crew. Join the debate, enter our Freddy vs. Jason Poll. THE GREAT DEBATE... Director Ronny Yu was born in Hong Kong and is now an Australian citizen. He directed "Bride of Chucky," but doesn't know Jason Vorhees. He's a Freddy fan. Producer Sean S. Cunningham directed Jason in "Friday the 13th" and produced "Jason Goes to Hell" and "Jason X," the mass murderer of the future. He says, pretty flatly, "Freddy fans are candy-asses." Yu counters with "Freddy is more scary because he gets into your dream. Everybody dreams, and he'll come when you are most vulnerable." Cunningham adds with a smile, "Jason is like a shark, if he's in your path, you're his lunch. It's a sudden, untimely death. He doesn't care who you are." Ken Kirzinger, who plays Jason, says he is impressed by Freddy. "For someone to manipulate nightmares is obviously frightening, but to be unable to know the difference between reality and dream world, caught in Freddy's world, that's absolutely terrifying." Monica Keena, who plays the vulnerable Lori, says, "Jason is about hacking people to pieces. I saw 'Nightmare' in second grade and I was terrified watching Freddy. I couldn't sleep for days." Kelly Rowland, who plays Lori's friend Kia, says, "Freddy scared me so much as a kid I thought I was going to sink into the stairs. He made my childhood a living nightmare. I was so scared on the set that when he was in the makeup trailer I wouldn't go in when he was in there." Jason Ritter, who plays Lori's boyfriend who escapes from a mental institution to help her, says, "I saw 'Freddy's Dead' with my dad a lot younger than I should have, I was scared. I slept very little then, but now I love horror movies. Jason fans just like seeing blood squirting out of people." THE STATS... BLOOD GUSHES. Lots of blood gets squirt in this movie. Yu says he used 300 gallons of blood. That's six of those 50 gallon drums. "I needed a raincoat for some of the scenes," the director says. It's good practice for him. He's next adapting a Japanese movie called "The Blood." BODY COUNTS. Zap2it counts 16 male kills and five female kills in the latest movie, including a delicious massacre by Jason of a rave party in a cornfield. "I'm very upset about the overall body count because they don't count my dream kills," says Englund, who plays Freddy. BEST KILL. Everyone agrees it's one of the first good ones where a kid gets sandwiched in a bed. FREDDY'S MAKE-UP. It hasn't gotten easier, says Robert Englund, who says that for the water scenes (where he does his own stunt work), they triple-glued the rubber to his face, so he peeled off skin when the make-up came off. He also had to wear teeth, and says, "I have to go in and do all the voice work over again because those teeth don't make me sound real butch, more like Daffy Duck." PICKING BODIES. Monica Keena, 24, was picked out of 200 girls to play the lead virginal ingenue. "They finally asked me to scream, and I think that's what got me the part," she says. CONTINUITY. Producer Cunningham admits there are continuity problems with both of the "legends" set up in the 17 movies for Freddy and Jason. "There are bumps in both of the stories, but we tried to remain as loyal to the basic stories as possible," he says. The most obvious flaw is the sudden fear that Freddy has of fire, and Jason has of water. In past movies, both of them are very not afraid of those elements and even play with them. ORIGINAL LENGTH. The movie ran two hours and 10 minutes when Yu first presented the film to test audiences. He cut back the stories of the humans and focused on the monsters and now it runs 97 minutes. DIFFERENT MOMS. Jason's mom, played in the past by 76-year-old actress Betsy Palmer and used in many of the sequels, was not available for the Vancouver shoot, so they used an incredible lookalike, Paula Shaw. "I thought it was the same actress," director Yu says. DIFFERENT ENDINGS. Screenings showed that audiences wanted more of the monsters. A previous ending which stopped on the two surviving teens didn't quite work, producer Cunningham says. He adds, "The ending I liked best is when Freddy and Jason make up and set up house in West Hollywood." DIFFERENT GENERATIONS. Director Yu worked with John Ritter in "The Bride of Chucky" and his son Jason in this one. "He looks just like his father did, if you watch old 'Three's Company' re-runs," the director says. Jason Ritter says his dad didn't help him get the part, but said, "My dad told me I'd have a good time, and I did, it was a lot of fun." Word is that Ritter was a major prankster on the set, much like his father. WHO'S THE DOOFUS? That recognizable doofus deputy sheriff is actor Lochlyn Munro, who's been in many scary movies, including "Scary Movie," "Dracula 2000" and "Kill Me Later." Will he be in the sequel? Don't count on it. WHO'S STRONGER? Without giving anything away, let's just say that by the end of this one, Freddy comes out a head. WHO'S NEXT?... One of the biggest debate is what creepy character is going to join the Freddy and Jason team next. Ideas are being bandied about already. Keena says, "I think it should be Mike Myers (from 'Halloween,' not 'Saturday Night Live.')" Director Yu says, "Bring back Chucky, I think that's a good idea." Producer Cunningham says, "I'd rather see Xena and Gabrielle take them on." He's being serious, too.

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