As long as Hollywood has been around, the idea of pitting two fan-favorite characters against one another in one crossover conflict has held the potential for pure box office gold, even if sometimes the films ended up missing the mark. Frankenstein took on the Wolf-Man, Godzilla had numerous tussles with King Kong, and even Batman has thrown a few punches at Superman. But for years, the holy grail of movie showdowns was Freddy vs. Jason, a clash of slasher movie killers that took decades to finally be realized.
While the idea was solid, New Line Cinema and a small army of writers struggled to find a plausible reason why Freddy and Jason would want to cross blades. A Hollywood project that became infamous for just how much time it spent in incubation and the dozens of scripts that had been written to get it off the ground, many fans believed Freddy and Jason’s main-event brawl would remain in limbo forever. That was until two fans of the horror franchises, screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, managed to develop a script that saw both of the icons return to their terrifying roots, addressed several homicidal elephants in the room, and even convinced New Line’s pencil-pushing executives to greenlight an R-rated quake at Camp Crystal Lake, rather than a PG-13 horror title, which has become far more fashionable in the years that followed.
Two decades later, Freddy vs. Jason is still one of the best outings starring the slashers. Sure, some aspects have aged badly, but for what it is, there’s a terrific slow burn through psychological terror, impressive special effects, and creepy antagonists that pays off with a big-screen brawl that delivers. Freddy vs. Jason is a tale of horror’s deadliest monsters meeting, but behind-the-scenes, this film took years to become a bloody blockbuster that would eventually make a killing at the box office.
Jason goes to hell, but he’s not alone
Serious ideas for a Freddy vs. Jason crossover had been pitched since the late 1980s, but a combination of factors kept the two slashers from crossing paths according to Friday the 13th Part VI director Tom McLoughlin.. New Line Cinema held the rights to A Nightmare on Elm Street, Paramount Pictures was in control of Friday the 13th, and numerous writers struggled to figure out how to develop a script that made sense. Eventually, the rights to Friday the 13th reverted back to producers Phil Scuderi, Steve Minasian, and Bob Barsamian after the release of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. They were then sold to New Line Cinema, and the project slowly simmered away in the background.
While the project was stuck in limbo, Jason did return four years later in 1993’s Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. One of the better films of the series, it ended on a fantastic cliffhanger as Jason’s discarded hockey mask was dragged into hell by Freddy, a teaser that essentially welcomed the infamous killer to New Line Cinema after his IP rights had been purchased by the studio.
Fun fact: That’s longtime Jason actor Kane Hodder’s arm dressed in Freddy’s festive sweater colors in that scene, making him the only actor to have technically played both Freddy and Jason. Still, that didn’t lead to the crossover we wanted. Instead, Jason went to space in Jason X.
Cults, Holy Grail urinals, and Jason on trial
New Line reportedly spent $6 million on several scripts for Freddy vs. Jason, with numerous writers proposing some wild ideas to bring the two together. One script saw a cult of Freddy fanatics–dubbed Fredheads by writer David J. Schow–hellbent on resurrecting the dream demon, another draft had Jason on trial for his many murders, with Freddy using the Holy Grail as a toilet in yet another story, and another pitch revolved around dark sexual assault themes.
The pitch that saved Freddy vs. Jason from development hell
Eventually, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift came up with a script that impressed New Line Cinema head of production Michael DeLuca, who had been trying for years to get the project out of development hell.
“We had a very strong take from the beginning on what the movie should be–and what the movie should not be. So [Michael] got the full pitch: characters, story, action set pieces, everything,” Swift and Shannon said in a 2016 Bloody Disgusting interview. “DeLuca had explored so many different ideas at that point, [that] he was really lost as to where to start. We came from a place where we didn’t want to change their backstories at all; we didn’t want to ‘throw out’ the other movies. We wanted everything to count. We pitched what we as fans would want to see. DeLuca loved it, and hired us pretty quickly after the pitch.”
Freddy vs. Jason was almost a PG-13 movie
Shannon and Swift would still have to convince several New Line executives–DeLuca had been fired in the wake of expensive box-office flops like Jason X, Little Nicky, and 13 Days. The writing duo requested for some market research to be done, and while fans interviewed at malls were keen to see Freddy vs. Jason, the marketing department recommended that it be rated PG-13.
“When we heard this, we wrote an impassioned email to the head of marketing at the studio, begging him to not only to back the movie, but to keep an R rating,” the duo said. Fortunately, Freddy vs. Jason would aim for a bloody R-rating, which may have been a smart move given how another cinematic tussle, Aliens vs. Predator, ended up going down a friendlier PG-13 route to disastrous box-office consequences.
After some script-tweaking to hack the film down from two hours to 100 minutes and the hiring of Bride of Chucky director Ronny Yu to helm this project, the opening bell had finally been rung for Freddy vs. Jason.
Ronny Yu didn’t want to direct the film at first
Having made a name for himself with dozens of Hong-Kong action films and broken into the US film industry with The 51st State, Yu was approached to work on Freddy vs. Jason once the script was finalized. The only problem was that Yu wasn’t interested, and back then, he’d never even seen A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th movie. This was actually one of the reasons why Yu was considered for the directing job, as New Line sought an outside perspective, and after he was promised a lot of creative control, he signed on to take charge of the project.
A change of Jason
One other slight change made for Freddy vs. Jason was a new face inhabiting the hockey mask of the Camp Crystal Lake slasher. Reports vary as to why Kane Hodder, who played Jason in Friday the 13th Parts 7-10, wasn’t asked to reprise his signature role, which went to Jason Takes Manhattan stunt double Ken Kirzinger. Hodder would say in later interviews that New Line gave him no reason, while speculation from Shannon and Swift is that Kirzinger matched up–and towered over–Englund’s Freddy better on the big screen.
“Before I was on board, the studio decided that they wanted a new Jason,” Yu explained in the Never Sleep Again documentary, which chronicles every film in the original Elm Street franchise. “I said fine, this is their call, and I’m fine with it.”
Scream Queen
Monica Keena, who played Lorie Campbell in the film, had a lot of screaming to do as she found herself caught between Freddy and Jason’s rampage. In Never Sleep Again, Keena recounted a childhood fear of Freddy that took her over a year to get over, which she tapped into for her scream scenes. “Your scream can break glass,” Yu said in the documentary. “She almost lost her voice after the movie.”
Freddy’s got a tiny killcount
While Jason hacked his way through a grand total of 22 people–slightly behind his all-time record of 25 people in Jason Goes to Hell–Freddy only managed a single kill in this crossover. Brendan Fletcher, who played Mark Davis in the film, would receive the honor of being Freddy’s single victim in a dream sequence where he was terrorized and burnt alive, helping to fuel Freddy’s return to power as he sought to stop Jason from stealing his kills.
The bloody root of all evil
As a horror movie in the early 2000s, Freddy vs. Jason mostly relied on practical effects for some of its gnarlier sequences. In Fletcher’s dream sequence, the unlucky sleepyhead would be tormented by visions of his dead brother, another victim of Freddy, in a sequence that saw his feet rooted to the ground by bloody roots that took four hours to properly set.
Another gnarly special effect was Zack Davis’ arm, which was rigged to pulsate with oozing pustules, burn marks, and general grossness. How do you accurately make fake burnt skin act like it would in a nightmare? By having several special effects guys behind you blowing smoke into tubes connected to the arm, shuffling silently behind you while you’re doing a monologue, according to Davis. Movie magic!
Rey Mysterio (briefly) fought Jason
Even though he’s uncredited, WWE Hall of Famer and the master of the 619, Rey Mysterio, was hired to play Robert Englund’s stunt double in the boiler room dream sequence. Sadly, Rey’s brief scenes have zero hurricanranas off the top rope.
An homage on Elm Street
Kelly Rowland, who played Kia, met the wrong end of Jason’s machete in the final showdown. While her original monologue–and Freddy’s line–definitely hasn’t aged well since then, the original plan was to have Kia pay tribute to the original Nightmare on Elm Street by confronting Jason and standing her ground, according to Swift. Similar to how Nancy defied Freddy by refusing to remain scared of him, Kia would echo that scene. At this point, she’d turn around and find Freddy in front of her, who would taunt her by saying, “Wrong one, bitch” before he murdered her.
A third horror icon almost made a cameo
Multiple endings were thrown around for Freddy vs. Jason, with one proposed conclusion to the clash being a showdown in hell as both monsters prepared for a new round of violence. Just before Freddy and Jason could start hacking away at one another, chains would appear and pull the two apart, as Pinhead from Hellraiser would enter the scene as a third force in their clash. “That didn’t work for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that New Line didn’t own the character,” Swift said in Never Sleep Again.
The ending was inspired by Apocalypse Now
The original ending for Freddy vs. Jason saw two monsters beaten, and a little later, Lorie and Will Rollins (Jason Ritter) were about to engage in a tender moment. Plot twist! Will would raise his hand, pop Freddy’s signature razer blades from his fingertips, and attack Lori. Fade to black, the movie was over.
And test audiences hated that ending, according to Swift.
Yu’s idea was to have the film end with Jason emerging from Crystal Lake while clutching Freddy’s severed head, a scene that was inspired by Apocalypse Now when Martin Sheen rose up from the lake in that film. Producer Robert Shea wanted Freddy to wink at the camera, and with that new ending written and filmed, the story of Freddy vs. Jason was complete.
Who won Freddy vs. Jason?
Even though Jason ultimately appears to be victorious, in director Ronny Yu’s opinion, Freddy gets the win in the end. “In my mind, not necessarily in other people’s minds, I think it’s Freddy,” Yu said in Never Sleep Again. “I think it’s Freddy, Freddy, Freddy!”
Swift had a more grounded response to that question, simply stating that depending on your fandom, you’d be convinced that either character won by the end. As for Englund? “Freddy’s still winking at the end there, so he’s still clicking,” Englund said with a smile on his face in the documentary.
A groovy sequel was considered
How do you top Freddy vs. Jason? By bringing in everyone’s favorite boomstick-wielding everyman, Ash Williams. For a brief time, New Line toyed with the idea of Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, a film that would see Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead hero eventually triumph over both killers. Those plans were eventually scrapped, but the story was picked up in a comic book mini-series in 2007 by Dynamite Entertainment.
New Line actually held a Las Vegas weigh-in
How do you promote one of the biggest fights of the century in a blissful age before social media? By going all-out in the capital of prize-fighting, Las Vegas! New Line Cinema actually held a weigh-in for Freddy and Jason–complete with Michael Buffer delivering his iconic and trademarked catchphrase–with Robert Englund appearing on stage and in costume. Freddy was ready to throw a few jabs at his colossal opponent in a press conference, while Jason appeared on stage with a face for radio and a voice for print.
Freddy vs. Jason carved up the box office
Freddy vs. Jason was a huge hit at the time, grossing over $36 million at the US box office in its opening weekend. The top-grossing weekend for a horror movie, that record would stand until 2009’s Friday the 13th remake ($40 million), and would be broken once again in subsequent years by films like 2017’s Halloween ($76 million US box office opening weekend) and 2017’s It ($123 million US box office opening weekend). The film would make $116 million globally off of a $25 million budget.
Robert Englund’s final big-screen appearance as Freddy
After decades of terrorizing the dreams of Springwood, Robert Englund officially hung up his burnt fedora after Freddy vs. Jason was finished. At least on the big screen that is, as Englund would continue to sit in the make-up chair for the hours-long transformation process for special appearances at conventions, charity events, and at least one episode of the TV sitcom The Goldbergs.
A remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street would surface in 2010, although this version of Freddy starred Jackie Earle Haley as the Springwood Slasher.