After many years of speculation,
the long awaited showdown every "Friday the 13th" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" fan had been
waiting for FINALLY arrived in 2003.
Set presumably after "Freddy's Dead" (ignoring "Wes Craven's New Nightmare")and after "Jason Goes to Hell" (but prior to Jason X"). Freddy Kruger (Robert Englund) is trapped in Hell, and unable to escape through his usual method of entering through children's dreams, because it seems no-one on Elm Street remembers him.
Not withstanding, he manages to resurrect fellow psycho killer Jason Voorhees (played here by Ken Kirzinger), who's similarly trapped in his own hell, and despatches him to Elm Street knowing that another bloodbath will ensue and they'll attribute it to Freddy.
Now, I wasn't aware that Elm Street and Crystal Lake where so close. But anyway, a few bloody murders later and sure enough the old stories about Freddy Kruger are being whispered about, and Freddy is able to get back up to his old tricks again. But when Jason doesn't stop his murderous rampage Freddy decides he's had enough and hatches his own plan to get rid of him.
This is where the fun really begins, as the two titans clash in a spectacular series of punch-ups as Jason is forced to fight Freddy in the dream world and then, thanks to some plukcy teenagers (one of which being Destiny's Child singer Kelly Rowlands), Freddy ends up fighting Jason on his turf.
Whilst Jason gets his fare share of screen time and kills, I rather got the impression that the script was for a proposed Elm Street film that they re-wrote to include Jason from Friday the 13th in. As this definitely feels more like a "Freddy" film. I also share the same view of many Friday the 13th fans that Jason should have been played by series regular Kane Hodder, rather than choosing some other stuntman.
But anyway, this is still a "bloody" good laugh and worth watching even if just to see Kelly Rowland meeting a gory demise (why can't that happen in real life?).
