Freddy vs. Jason

Freddy Krueger is stuck in Hell. The adults of Springwood have wiped out every trace of him. Anyone who dreams about him is locked up at Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital and given the dream-blocking drug Hypnocil. With no one afraid of him, Freddy cannot get into dreams. He finds Jason Voorhees, who has also ended up in Hell. Freddy shows Jason a dream of killing a camper, then takes the form of Jason's mother Pamela and raises him from the dead. He sends Jason to Elm Street to kill, hoping the town will blame Freddy and start fearing him again.

Lori Campbell lives with her widowed father at 1428 Elm Street, the old Thompson house. Her friends Kia and Gibb are over, along with Gibb's boyfriend Trey and his friend Blake. Jason walks in and stabs Trey over and over, then folds the bed in half on him. A cop mentions Freddy's name before the sheriff shuts him down. New Deputy Scott Stubbs starts to suspect the other officers are hiding something. At the station Lori falls asleep and Freddy stalks her in a dream, but he is not strong enough to hurt her yet. Freddy tries to kill Blake in a dream but is still too weak. Blake wakes to find his father's head cut off, and Jason kills him too. Police call it a murder-suicide.

At Westin Hills, Lori's ex-boyfriend Will Rollins and his friend Mark Davis see the news about Elm Street and break out. Will believes he saw Lori's father kill her mother. At school Mark tells Lori's friends about Freddy, and Lori faints when she sees Will. Mark realizes that spreading Freddy's name was exactly what the town tried to prevent. That night the kids hold a rave in a cornfield. A drunk Gibb wanders into a barn and Freddy attacks her in a dream. Jason gets to her first and impales her, and the boy trying to assault her, on a pipe. A burning Jason tears through the rave with his machete and kills Shack and many others. Freddy is furious that Jason is taking his victims.

Lori, Will, Kia, Charlie Linderman and Bill Freeburg escape. Will tells Lori what he saw. At first she does not believe him. Freddy kills Mark in a dream, slashing his face, setting him on fire and burning 'Freddy's Back' into his back. Stubbs joins the teens and tells them Jason's history. Lori falls asleep, fights Freddy, and pulls a piece of him out of the dream when she wakes. The group works out that there are two killers and that Freddy can be dragged into the real world. They break into Westin Hills to steal Hypnocil.

At the hospital Jason kills a guard. Freeburg gets high, sees Freddy as a caterpillar, and is possessed. He gets rid of the Hypnocil. Jason gets tangled in a live control panel and drags Stubbs into the current, killing him, then throws the body through a door. The possessed Freeburg shoots Jason full of tranquilizers, and Jason cuts him in half before he goes down. In Jason's dream, Freddy cannot kill him, until he finds Jason's childhood trauma of drowning at Crystal Lake and uses it against him.

The survivors haul the sleeping Jason to Camp Crystal Lake so the fight happens on his home ground. Lori takes a sedative to go in after Freddy. In the dream Freddy shows her that he murdered her mother, and that Will saw her father trying to wake her, not hurt her. Jason wakes up in the van as Kia leans in to give him mouth-to-mouth, and the van crashes at the camp. Jason attacks the group in a cabin and throws Charlie onto a shelf bracket, killing him. Lori's hand drops into the fire, she wakes, and she pulls Freddy into the real world.

Freddy and Jason tear into each other across the camp. Kia distracts Freddy to let Lori and Will get away and is killed by Jason. The fight moves onto the dock, and Freddy has the upper hand until Lori steps in. Jason punches through Freddy's chest. Freddy drives Jason's machete into his side, and Jason tears off Freddy's gloved arm. Lori and Will set the dock on fire and jump into the water. Propane tanks explode and blow both killers into the lake. Freddy climbs out to kill Lori and Will, but Jason rises and stabs him with Freddy's own severed arm before sinking. Lori takes the machete and cuts off Freddy's head. Both bodies fall into the water, and Lori and Will walk away.

The next morning Jason walks out of Crystal Lake carrying his machete and Freddy's severed head. Freddy's head winks at the camera and laughs, and the winner is left open.

Story notes

• Freddy manipulates Jason Voorhees into killing in Springwood so fear of Freddy can return.
• Jason becomes uncontrollable, turning the scheme into a direct battle between the two killers.

Release & Reception

The film premiered on August 13, 2003 and opened in the United States on August 15, 2003 at 3,014 theaters. It rolled out overseas from August 2003, reaching South Korea last in August 2004.

It opened at number one with $36.4 million. It stayed number one in its second weekend with $13.4 million and fell to sixth in its third with $7.1 million. Box Office Mojo reports $82,633,448 domestic and $34,009,973 overseas, for $116,643,421 worldwide. It is the highest-grossing Friday the 13th film. Wikipedia ranks it second among Nightmare films worldwide behind the 2010 remake, but Box Office Mojo's current totals put it about $1 million ahead of the remake.

Critics were mostly negative. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 42 percent from 166 reviews, with a consensus that fans of both series will enjoy it but everyone else gets the same old slice and dice. Metacritic gives it 37 from 29 critics. CinemaScore audiences gave it a B+. Kim Newman of Empire gave it three stars out of five. Sacha Molitorisz of The Sydney Morning Herald called it a solid effort. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune gave it two and a half stars out of four and called it a guilty pleasure.

It was nominated for Best Horror Film at the 30th Saturn Awards and for Best Fire Stunt at the 2004 Taurus World Stunt Awards. In a 2023 Entertainment Weekly interview Robert Englund said he was really proud of the film and credited Ronny Yu.

Press and marketing

• Theatrical key-art / poster campaign reference: IMP Awards — Freddy vs. Jason poster archive.

Cast

Crew

Production

New Line Cinema and Paramount Pictures first tried to make a Freddy and Jason film in 1987. Frank Mancuso Jr. brought in Tom McLoughlin to bring the studios together, but no deal was reached, and Paramount made Jason Takes Manhattan instead. After that film flopped in 1989, the Friday the 13th rights went back to the original owners, who sold them to New Line. Director Joseph Zito tried to restart the project two years later with no success. Craven's New Nightmare and Sean S. Cunningham's Jason Goes to Hell came first. In a 1995 Fangoria interview Craven dismissed the crossover idea. Cunningham's frustration with the delays led him to make Jason X, which lost its biggest backer when production president Michael De Luca resigned.

New Line reportedly spent $6 million on scripts. Lewis Abernathy wrote the first one, Nightmare 13: Freddy Meets Jason, and wanted to direct it. David J. Schow revised it and added a cult that worships Freddy. In 1994 De Luca passed and hired Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore, whose Jason vs. Freddy had a more adult tone. Peter Briggs followed with a draft that brought back characters from many earlier films. Around 1996 Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff wrote Freddy vs. Jason: Millennium Massacre for director Rob Bottin. Bottin dropped it for his own treatment, which David S. Goyer and James Dale Robinson turned into a script nobody liked. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger wrote another draft, and Bottin left. Mark Verheiden came on in 1999 and pitched two versions with different winners. Mark Protosevich wrote a new script in 2000, and Todd Farmer also worked on it.

Mark Swift and Damian Shannon were hired in March 2002 after a pitch De Luca liked. Goyer came back to trim their 120-page script. Swift and Shannon considered several endings, one with a surprise appearance by Pinhead from Hellraiser, but New Line did not want to get the rights. Wes Craven, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson and Rob Zombie all passed on directing, and Jaume Balagueró campaigned for the job. Ronny Yu signed in May 2002 after being promised a lot of creative freedom. Yu had turned the film down at first.

Robert Englund signed on in 1999 for his eighth turn as Freddy. In August 2002 Entertainment Weekly reported Kelly Rowland, Brad Renfro and Kane Hodder in the cast. Monica Keena won the lead after a long search. Most of the supporting cast were Canadian actors. Jason Ritter replaced Renfro one week before filming. Betsy Palmer was asked to return as Pamela Voorhees but turned it down over money, and Paula Shaw took the part.

New Line wanted a fresh start for Jason and recast the role over Cunningham's objections. Kane Hodder had played Jason in the previous four films, received a script and met with Yu and executives, but was never told why he was passed over. Yu said he wanted a taller, slower, more deliberate Jason who towered over the 5-foot-9 Englund. Canadian stuntman Ken Kirzinger, 6 foot 5, had doubled Hodder in two scenes of Jason Takes Manhattan. New Line did not sign him until they saw him on film, and his first scene was Jason walking down Elm Street.

Filming ran from September 9 to December 10, 2002 in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. Test audiences were confused by the original ending and thought Will was turning into Jason, so the lake ending was reshot in Los Angeles with Douglas Tait as Jason. Tait said he was padded with extra clothing because he looked too thin when wet. To walk underwater, he held a rope tied below the surface with the same hand that carried Freddy's head.

Filming locations

• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Principal photography, September 9 to December 10, 2002, including a Vancouver house standing in for 1428 Elm Street
• 13476 40th Avenue, Surrey, British Columbia: Cornfield rave, per the original 66-page shooting schedule
• Los Angeles, California: Additional photography, including the reshot Crystal Lake ending with Douglas Tait
• Freddy vs. Jason photographed principally in and around Vancouver, British Columbia from September 9 through December 10, 2002; the production replaced the Los Angeles 1428 exterior with a Vancouver house and used Surrey-area locations for material including the cornfield rave.

Effects and makeup

Bill Terezakis and WCT Productions built Freddy's makeup from about fifteen foam latex pieces. It took about three hours to apply and an hour to remove. The pieces were sealed so they would hold up through the film's water scenes. WCT also made the angrier demon Freddy makeup. The press kit says Terezakis's shop turned out seventy-two gags in all, including wounds, corpses and dismemberments.

Digital work came from Cinesite, Pixel Magic and Digital Dimension, with Ariel Velasco-Shaw credited as visual effects supervisor. Effects include the dream worlds, Freddy's caterpillar form, and the fire and explosion at the dock.

Doug Chapman doubled Englund and Glenn Ennis doubled Kirzinger for the double full-body fire burn on wires. The stunt was nominated for Best Fire Stunt at the 2004 Taurus World Stunt Awards. Chuck Jeffreys choreographed the fights.

Bill Terezakis and WCT Productions built Freddy from roughly fifteen foam-latex facial pieces. The makeup took about three hours to apply and an hour to remove, and the appliances were sealed to withstand the film's extensive water work.

WCT also created the enlarged demon-Freddy makeup plus wounds, corpses and dismemberments; the press materials describe seventy-two makeup gags supported by a large shop and on-set effects crew.

Props and costumes

Costume designer Gregory Mah dressed Freddy in his familiar sweater, hat and bladed glove. Freddy's face pieces were sealed so they would survive the water scenes.

Jason wears a battered hockey mask and carries his machete. Freddy stabs Jason with that machete during the dock fight, and Lori later uses it to cut off Freddy's head.

Graham Coutts was property master.

The Freddy hero glove combined a leather work glove, copper-colored metal plating, articulated finger joints and steel blades; surviving screen-used examples show soot/scratch distressing and production-dulled blades for set use.

Costume designer Gregory Mah maintained Freddy's established silhouette while the effects department adapted the face and costume package for repeated water/stunt work opposite the much larger Jason performer.

Production artifacts

Scripts and documents

The killers

Deaths

Graeme Revell wrote the score. It was performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mario Klemens, with Robert Revell as solo guitarist. Machine Head performed three cues, two of which work in Harry Manfredini's Jason theme.

Varèse Sarabande released Freddy vs. Jason: Original Motion Picture Score on CD on August 19, 2003. It runs 42:29 over 20 tracks, from 'The Legends' to 'Is It Ever Over?'. Varèse reissued an expanded 41-track version in its 8-CD A Nightmare on Elm Street box set on October 16, 2015. Death Waltz Recording Company put the score out on vinyl in 2021.

Roadrunner Records released Freddy vs. Jason: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on August 12, 2003. It has 20 metal tracks, 14 of them previously unreleased, and runs 77:59. It peaked at number 25 on the Billboard 200 and number 4 on the soundtrack chart. It came in a Freddy cover and a Jason cover, plus a clean version.

Track list: 'How Can I Live' (Ill Niño), 'When Darkness Falls' (Killswitch Engage), 'The Beginning of the End' (Spineshank), 'Sun Doesn't Rise' (Mushroomhead), 'Condemned Until Rebirth' (Hatebreed), 'Snap' 1997 demo (Slipknot), 'Army of Me' (Chimaira), 'The After Dinner Payback' (From Autumn to Ashes), 'Leech' (Sevendust), 'Bombshell' (Powerman 5000), 'Welcome to the Strange' (Murderdolls), 'Out of My Way' (Seether), 'Inside the Cynic' (Stone Sour), 'Swinging the Dead' (DevilDriver), 'The Waste' (Sepultura with Mike Patton), 'The Middle of Nowhere' (The Blank Theory), 'Ether' (Nothingface), 'Trigger' (In Flames), '11th Hour' (Lamb of God) and '(We Were) Electrocute' (Type O Negative). Track order differs between sources.

Singles: 'How Can I Live' by Ill Niño came out July 22, 2003 and reached number 26 on Mainstream Rock Tracks. 'Sun Doesn't Rise' by Mushroomhead followed on August 12, 2003.

Songs heard in the film but not on the album: 'Clap Your Hands Pt. 1' and 'First Time' by IMx, 'Nightmares' by Junkie XL, 'Forward', 'Guru' and 'Running' by Smitty, and 'Slavery' by Spineshank. Foo Fighters' 'Come Back' plays over the alternate ending on the Blu-ray.

Home Media

• 2004 DVD screener, Warner Home Video.
• January 13, 2004 VHS, New Line Home Video. Pan and scan.
• January 13, 2004 DVD, New Line Platinum Series, two discs. Widescreen and full screen, audio commentary by Ronny Yu, Robert Englund and Ken Kirzinger, deleted and alternate scenes with commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, storyboards, galleries, theatrical trailer and TV spots, soundtrack promotion, the Ill Niño 'How Can I Live' music video, the script, and trivia.
• October 4, 2005 UMD for PSP, New Line Home Video.
• 2008 DVD, New Line Home Video, 4 Film Favorites set with Nightmare films five through eight.
• September 8, 2009 Blu-ray, New Line Home Video. Same extras as the Platinum Series DVD. It sold $722,874 on Blu-ray.
• 2009 DVD, New Line Home Video, Jason Slasher Collection with Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X.
• 2012 Blu-ray, Warner Home Video, Triple Feature with Friday the 13th (2009, Killer Cut) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).
• 2014 DVD, Warner Home Video. Walmart exclusive double feature with Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
• 2017 DVD, New Line Home Video. Double feature with Wes Craven's New Nightmare, with the 2009 Blu-ray extras.
• Foreign Blu-ray, DVD, UMD and VHS editions came out in Canada, the UK, France, Russia, Japan, Australia, Germany, Brazil, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden between 2004 and 2012.
• The film is not part of Warner's 2025 A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection on 4K.

• Freddy vs. Jason novelization by Stephen Hand, Black Flame, published July 2003.
• Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, six-issue comic limited series from WildStorm and Dynamite, 2007 to 2008, written by James Kuhoric with art by Jason Craig, based on Jeff Katz's unmade film treatment.
• Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors, six-issue follow-up, 2009, written by Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric with art by Jason Craig.
• CR Freddy vs. Jason pachinko machine, Sammy, May 2006.
• Freddy Krueger Bishoujo 1:7 scale statue, Kotobukiya, Freddy vs. Jason branding.
• Soundtrack CD (Roadrunner, 2003), score CD (Varèse Sarabande, 2003) and score vinyl (Death Waltz, 2021).
• NECA / Reel Toys Freddy vs. Jason 19-inch Jason Voorhees action figure, based specifically on Jason's appearance in the 2003 crossover; removable hockey mask and machete.

Books and publishing

The catalog

Trailers & clips

Gallery

Posters & Key Art

Film Stills

Behind the Scenes

Press & Promo

Effects

Props

Costumes

Production Art

Alternate Art

Merchandise

Merchandise & Collectibles