For fans of either seminal eighties horror film franchise (Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm St.) and especially for fans of both, the meeting of the minds that is Freddy vs. Jason is as good as could possibly be hoped. From the opening company logo (New Line's) that's been converted to red to more closely resemble the company's original logo that opened the first Nightmare of Elm St. to the hint of Jason's theme that accompanies it, the filmmakers get all the small details exactly right. Maybe most impressively, they came up with a believable story that would bring both maniac killers together and allow them to fight on each others respective home turf (Freddy's being dreams, Jason's, of course, being Crystal Lake). I'm just astounded that they were able to squeeze so many seminal moments of eighties horror into one film without the film devolving into parody (like A Nightmare on Elm St. 5) or a complete bloodbath (like Friday the 13th, Part 5).
Of course, this comes from a fan of both series who has recently watched all the films that preceded this one. If a viewer came into this film with only the vague ideas of Freddy and Jason that they've gotten from Halloween masks and occasional references in other media, I'm not sure how successful the film would be for them. It's impossible to imagine myself as one of them but it's safe to assume that, when Jason enters the house to kill his first victim and the victim's girlfriend is in the shower, people not familiar with the series wouldn't get the joke and would, rather, think of this scene as clichéd and old hat. I, on the other hand, loved the reference to the classic Friday the 13th shower scenes of old. And the fact that the girl in question is never really imperiled in this shower is part of the joke.
Some of the picture's best moments, the ones that are most loaded with subtext, are the murders themselves. For instance, the murder that accompanies that shower scene is of a man in bed and is filmed in such a way as to unmistakably reference the sex act. But since it's Jason doing the killing (Jason kills most of the men in the picture. Freddy takes care of the women) and his killings of men are usually decapitations (read: castrations), indeed, his later killings of men in this film are decapitations, what to make of the fact that this first murder is by repeated penetration (read: rape)? And then, later in the film, a girl is trapped asleep in Freddy's nightmare world as a drunk guy is poised to rape her in the real world. The drunk guy is about to save her from death by raping her. But then Jason comes along and stabs both of them. So, while Freddy is metaphorically raping her mind, the drunk guy is literally raping her and Jason is symbolically raping them both with his knife. That's some pretty heady stuff from a slasher flick.
This brings up the question of what role exactly Jason is playing in the film. Is he the hero of the piece? The kids eventually unleash him against Freddy in the hopes that he will save them (since Jason on the loose would only really be a problem for Crystal Lake and hence not such a threat for them since they live in Springwood). Does this make him the hero or some sort of failed romance (since he kills the girl he's ostensibly saving)? Perhaps he's some kind of heroic ambition run amok and perverted to evil by the lack of a mother figure to direct that ambition in the proper direction. Ever fearful of the sex act, Jason's been unable to overcome his trepidation and partake in the act in the rightful way. Instead he has his rapes of steel as a substitute. In the same way, his heroism is slanted and skewed. It can be harnessed by others but never truly takes the right form.
There's an awful lot going on under the surface of this film, too much even to get to it all on the first viewing. There's the part where the girl wants a nose job and then later has her nose hacked off by Freddy. There's the valiant (for a change) geek character who is actually respected and listened to and even has a somewhat heroic death. (Is this a sop to the geek fan base of the picture or does it say something about what is most valued in today's society?) There's the father, used by Freddy to murder his own wife, who comes after his daughter in exactly the same way as he went after the mother. Basically there's a ton of stuff in this film. And it's been put there by people who, for once, treat this genre with the seriousness normally accorded ancient myth. This film shows that such treatment is not only warranted but also quite fruitful. This is the film that points out just how far from mere titillation the slasher flick can be. It's a great film and nothing could have done the two franchises prouder.
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