2003’s slasher showdown Freddy and the Dream Demons against his secret daughter in a desperate attempt to tie the franchise together. Both slashers needed a fresh start and a face-off between the two titans of the horror sub-genre seemed like the ideal setup for such a comeback.
When Freddy vs. Jason arrived in cinemas in 2003, the gory R-rated horror-comedy was broadly seen as a return to form for both franchises despite its flaws. With a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was by no means a critical triumph. However, it did represent a marked improvement on some of each franchise's most recent offerings. However, despite this relative success, Freddy vs. Jason sacrificed some wild, exciting, and promising ideas to make their way onto the big screen.
Thanks to the complicated issue of securing the rights to both competing horror franchises, Freddy vs. Jason took a long time to make it to the screen. Much like how the earlier Nightmare on Elm Street sequel Dream Warriors changed a lot of its original ambitious plans during the production process, a lot of the original vision for Freddy vs. Jason was lost between script and screen. What made it to fans was a well-liked, fast-paced story with some standout set-pieces and an agreeably tongue-in-cheek tone. However, what fans could have been in for was a movie that tied together both franchise’s plots, an appearance from a third horror icon, and the return of numerous pivotal legacy characters.
Peter Jackson’s Freddy Vs. Jason
While he might be better known as a blockbuster director, in the early ‘90s, Peter Jackson was a rising star in the world of horror cinema thanks to his inventive, inexpensive early horror-comedies. Having already written a rejected draft for the House of 1000 Corpses.
Jackson rejected the opportunity in the late ‘90s and, by the time Freddy Vs Jason went into production in 2001, a famous fantasy franchise ensured that the helmer would never have been free to shoot the slasher movie regardless. As for the other emerging horror auteur who was offered the job of helming Freddy vs. Jason, Zombie ended up working on another iconic slasher franchise instead. The success of House of 1000 Corpses success led Zombie to reboot Halloween, the other famous slasher series with an inconsistent screen history.
Freddy Vs Jason Vs Pinhead
Since both characters started the story of Freddy vs. Jason in Hell, it only makes sense that Freddy vs. Jason plot holes when it fused the canon of all three franchises. This idea was revisited in a successful comic spinoff, where Ash Williams faced off against both villains and (just about) secured a hard-won victory.
Returning Friday the 13th and Nightmare On Elm Street Characters
Frequently recast Friday the 13th franchise legend Tommy Jarvis was originally intended to appear in Freddy vs. Jason, as was Dream Warriors ing star Dr. Neil Gordon. The return of these legacy characters could have definitively fused the canon of both franchises, but the finished movie instead opted to focus on new characters and avoid the complicated stories of either series. In fairness to the filmmakers, both Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th had fairly convoluted plots by the time Freddy vs. Jason came to be, so avoiding the earlier movies wholesale was the easiest way to avoid untangling these storylines. However, finally answering the mystery of what happened to Neil Gordon after the events of Dream Warriors would have been a satisfying plot hole for Freddy vs. Jason to fill in, and there was one major Friday the 13th star could have appeared without the movie needing to explain the entire franchise’s canon. Mrs. Voorhees herself Betsy Palmer was even offered a cameo but opted not to return as the salary being offered was not sufficient.
Freddy’s Connection To Jason
Several unlikely connections between Freddy and Jason were considered during the early phases of Freddy vs. Jason's development. Unlikely scenarios such as Freddy being Jason’s father and Freddy letting Jason drown were all discussed before the filmmakers decided that the personal connection between villains added nothing to the movie's story. Since Freddy vs. Jason's final girl Lori is the real victor of Freddy and Jason’s showdown, it makes sense that the director and screenwriters opted not to waste screen time on a complicated backstory that would inevitably retcon parts of both franchises. While dropping the cameos from Dr. Gordon and Mrs. Voorhees left the movie feeling unmoored in both franchises, adding a connection between Freddy and Jason would not necessarily have done anything to deepen their conflict or make it more compelling. As such, the filmmakers likely made the right call in vetoing this particular Freddy vs. Jason idea early on in production, leaving the Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th stories as separate and endlessly complicated as ever.
