Film / Freddy vs. Jason

Winner kills all.

Freddy vs. Jason is the long-awaited crossover horror/slasher film featuring the titular titans of terror.

The film takes place after Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.^note Which hinted at the crossover for the first time with its final shot - Freddy's claw dragging Jason's mask down to Hell Freddy Krueger needs someone to help him regain his powers, since people can only dream about him if they know about him and the town of Springwood covered him up completely. After searching "the bowels of Hell", Krueger revives Jason Voorhees and sends him to Springwood; Freddy figures Jason's murderous rampage will end up blamed on Freddy (which would give Krueger back his power), and Jason doesn't seem to care if he gets blamed so long as he gets to kill.

For a brief period, the plan works: after hearing the name "Krueger" from a police officer, a group of teenagers connected to Jason's first few victims spread Freddy's name around town, which soon allows the Springwood Slasher to regain his powers. However, a cop on transfer from Crystal Lake claims that the murders are remarkably reminiscent of the Crystal Lake Killer, and says it looks like a copycat. But when Jason ends up killing one of Krueger's intended victims, an enraged Freddy decides to take Jason out. As the supernatural serial killers battle with each other in both dreams and reality, the teens search for a way to stop both Freddy and Jason for good.

This film marks the end of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises, as a remake/continuity reboot of both series would be released a few years later. A planned film sequel to Freddy vs. Jason ended up becoming the comic book miniseries Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.

Freddy vs. Jason spent years in Development Hell before its eventual release in 2003. Despite mixed reviews from both critics and fans (of either franchise — or both of them), it's the most successful film in both franchises' histories: it raked in more money at the box office than any prior film in either franchise, and of the reboots that followed, only Nightmare made more (and that's only when factoring in worldwide gross).

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This film provides examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Lori considered Blake, the idiot best friend of Gibb's asshole boyfriend, to be this. Linderman is a downplayed example, as Lori doesn't seem that annoyed or disgusted by him.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Freddy and Jason's signature weapons fall under this trope.
• All Therapists Are Muggles: Inverted: the mental-hospital staff in Springwood know damn well that Freddy is for real, and use Hypnocil and fraudulent institutionalization of witnesses to ensure that Freddy's potential victims remain Muggles. That way, the dream-stalking killer can't gain strength from their fear.
• Ambiguous Ending: The movie ends with Jason rising from the lake while holding the decapitated head of Freddy, who then winks at the audience and starts laughing. Whilst Jason would return again in 'Jason X' this would be the end of the original Freddy cinematic storyline, the only later film a remake of the original. However, the comic book sequel verifies that Jason won the (physical) fight, leaving Freddy trapped in Jason's mind and in need of the Necronomicon to properly resurrect.
• An Arm and a Leg: At the beginning of their Dream World battle, Jason effortlessly slices off Freddy's arms. Freddy hams it up as horrible injuries before demonstrating he can simply heal. In the real world, Freddy loses his right arm after Jason tears it off and is not happy about it at all.
• Artistic License – Biology: Freddy is able to invade Gibb's dreams after she passes out due to heavy drinking. In reality, alcohol stops the REM stage of sleep where dreams happen.
• Artistic License – Geography: Springwood is in Ohio. Crystal Lake is in New Jersey. Originally there was supposed to be a sequence to show the teenagers driving all night to show how long it took for them to get between the locations. But the way the film was cut in the final production, it gives the impression that the towns are side by side.
• Asshole Victim:
  • The raver who attempts to rape Gibb.
  • The girl skinny-dipping at the opening. In an alternate opening, she was watching the little kids at Camp Crystal Lake and decides to leave when a boy wakes up from a nightmare. She just tells him to go back to sleep. Later, as she's being chased, she runs back to the cabin and tries to get inside but it's locked and the boy just gives her the finger. After Jason kills her, she comes back to life (via Freddy's dream) saying that she (and other teen counselors) should have watched the kids.
  • Trey, Gibbs' verbally and emotionally abusive boyfriend. He objects to her smoking not because of the health hazard, but because of how it makes her mouth taste.
• Attempted Rape:
  • Gibb is almost assaulted by a raver who discovers her passed out some distance from the party. His plans are ruined when Jason impales both Gibb and her molester with a pipe.
  • This might have happened again during Lori's last nightmare; if Krueger intended anything besides his usual unpleasantly suggestive murders, and she had failed to wake up, Freddy's attempt would have been a success.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Narrowly averted. The original ending of the film would have seen Lori killed by "Will" while kissing him and almost having sex, implying Freddy returned to pose as Will in her dreams or possessed her boyfriend to achieve his goal of killing her. It was scrapped for causing the test audience too much confusion in favor of the Bittersweet Ending, which still has most of the teenagers murdered and both villains are shown to be alive, but Lori and Will survive the entire movie.
• Badass Boast:
  Gibb: You're the one who killed Trey!
  Freddy: Oh, don't worry about my little errand boy. Only thing to fear is fear himself!
• Bait-and-Switch: At one point, it looks like Jason was walking towards the surviving characters to kill them. But the camera pans to reveal it's Freddy walking with a limp and about to kill them with Jason's machete. Only to be impaled by Jason, using Freddy's own severed arm that has his claws.
• Balls of Steel: During their final fight, Freddy kicks Jason between the legs — but Jason doesn't even flinch, and Freddy nearly breaks his foot.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: The first couple of minutes of Freddy's fight with Jason at the end of the film are spent in a cabin that's been set on fire.
• Bed Trick: From the deleted ending, Freddy either disguises himself or possesses as Will and they make it to (non-consensual) second base(she's scantily dressed, he's probably naked). When he starts biting her neck she asks what the hell is wrong with him, "Will" stands up and claws come out of his fingers(similar to a scene with Jesse Walsh from Freddy's revenge) and presumably murders her.
  • It is worth noting that this scene was deleted because it caused confusion with the test audience. Is Lori awake or asleep? Are we looking at rape/sexual harassment by deception or was the "Will" speaking to Lori actually her boyfriend and, like the NOES movie this scene was inspired by, Freddy possesses the boy when things turn intimate?
• Berserk Button: Freddy uses Jason's mother to awaken him at the beginning of the film, then uses the same disguise to throw Jason off his game during their battle in the Dream World. Naturally, Jason is not very happy about this.
• Big Bad: Freddy. While Jason has more kills, he's only Freddy's Unwitting Pawn and Freddy is the mastermind behind everything.
• Bittersweet Ending: While Freddy is defeated, Jason is still roaming Camp Crystal Lake, and Freddy isn't truly dead. While Lori and Will survive, all of their friends are dead (along with a security guard and several ravers), Will still broke out of Westin Hills and will no doubt face the consequences, Lori's relationship with her father is still strained from lying to her and sending Will there in the first place, not to mention she's scarred, physically by Freddy slashing her breasts, and no doubt psychologically from seeing her mother's murder and nearly being raped by Freddy. Also, if you consider the comic book sequel Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash to be canon, Lori and Will are murdered by Jason soon after the events of this movie anyway.
• Bizarre Beverage Use: A character throws some booze at Jason and then uses a torch to set him on fire.
• Blood Bath: In Mark's nightmare, Freddy first appears lounging in a bathtub full of blood, disguised as Mark's dead brother (who committed suicide while taking a bath).
• Bloodier and Gorier: There's a considerable amount of bloodshed in the film that's more explicit than several films in both franchises, particularly the later installments with the exception of Jason Goes To Hell. This is largely due to the MPAA having become less restrictive towards both series in the New Millenium.
• Book Ends:
  • Freddy's first victim after his death, Tina Gray, was a blonde; the Final Girl of this movie who takes part in his final defeat in the original continuity of A Nightmare on Elm Street films is Lori Campbell, also a blonde. Most of the Friday the 13th heroines were also blonde, including the first Final Girl, Alice Hardy.
  • Jason first appeared in the original Friday the 13th as a little boy drowning in a flashback. His final onscreen appearance in this continuity is him emerging from the same lake as a hulking powerhouse. Really has come a long way, hasn't he?
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Freddy's wink to the audience as his decapitated head is carried by Jason at the end of the film does this. Also, Freddy tells his story at the beginning of the film.
• Broad Strokes: The movie takes this approach to both franchise's canons to make the match-up between its two villains possible. For Nightmare, Springwood was basically destroyed by the chronologically last movie and Freddy was killed off (New Nightmare doesn't count as it's a Real-World Episode plot). For Friday, Jason was either dragged off to hell after his body was blown up by the FBI or he was kept and cryogenically frozen and wound up in space. Instead, Springwood found a way to block off Freddy's access to their kids by shutting the whole thing up and Jason is buried somewhere in the woods around Camp Crystal Lake after his last outing (?). Also, Lori's house is implied to be the same house that Nancy lived in, and her mother was killed in a similar way to Nancy's mom, so the implication is that Lori and her friends were the first generation of teens previously affected by Freddy.
• Brought Down to Badass: Freddy loses his nigh-invulnerability and reality-warping powers when he's dragged into the Real World, but this doesn't mean he's going down without a fight. He's still Made of Iron and strong enough to inflict lasting damage on Jason (with assistance from improvised weaponry and Jason's own Machete).
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Two ravers encounter Jason and mess around with him. It doesn't end well for them. They were high and drunk at the time, but even then it's still not a good idea to piss off a scary-looking behemoth who showed up out of nowhere.
  • Freddy does the same to Jason when taunting him about his fear of water. To add further insult to injury he playfully shows Jason his mother's severed head.
• The Cameo: Robert Shaye, who was a producer on every Elm Street film (as well as Freddy vs. Jason), appears as high school principal Mr. Shaye. There is also a cameo by an uncredited Óscar Gutiérrez^note according to the IMDB. He served as Robert Englund's stunt double twice - first, under the layers of "Demon Freddy" makeup during the dream sequence when Lori wanders around Camp Crystal Lake (specifically, when Freddy rockets out of the lake and onto the pier) and second, during the second fight scene, where Freddy demonstrates some unusual dexterity. He may also have been one of the extras during the rave sequence, but that part is unconfirmed as of 2016.
• Cannot Dream: The parents of Springfield use the drug Hypnocil to suppress the dreams of the quarantined teenagers who were exposed to nightmare monster Freddy Krueger to destroy every memory of him, as he feeds off of fear. It keeps them safe from Krueger's dream invasions, at least temporarily.
• Canon Discontinuity: Despite being made after both films, Freddy vs. Jason ignored both Jason X and Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
  • Freddy bringing Jason back from Hell could be what set up the events of Jason X, the events of which began in the then-future of 2010 (which would make this film a sort of interquel between parts 9 and 10 of the Friday the 13th franchise).
  • New Nightmare is set in an alternate universe, and the villain isn't actually Freddy, it's a demon.
  • Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare is a maybe case; shots from it are used in the montage at the beginning, but the whole "All kids in Springfield are dead, all adults are insane" thing is ignored. While that movie states that it takes place "Ten years from now", it would possibly be like Jason X in that it just hasn't happened yet, in the original theatrical cut of Freddy's Dead, Maggie is introduced turning 28, and given when Freddy died, the movie has to have already happened.
• Censored Child Death: Zigzagged. In his opening scene, Freddy is shown with one of his child victims, but her death is only implied with her screams as the camera focuses on her doll being burned in a furnace. Later, Lori comes across the same little girl in the dream world... with her eyes gouged out.
• Chekhov's Skill: When Freddy fights Jason in the Dream World, Freddy uses his reality-warping to manipulate the environment against Jason. When dragged into the real world, Freddy fights Jason from a distance and uses the environment to his advantage, albeit without the reality-warping.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Freddy's powers are diminished thanks to Springwood preventing kids from learning about Freddy (and by keeping those who know of Freddy locked up at Westin Hills on the anti-dream drug Hypnocil). Freddy Needs Fear Badly.
• Clean Cut: Blake doesn't realize his father's been decapitated until he nudges him and the head falls off. Jason seems to have done this solely for his own amusement.
• Cliffhanger:
  • The final shot of the film shows Jason emerging from Crystal Lake with the decapitated head of Freddy, which is apparently alive (it winks at the audience before the credits begin to roll). Considering the nature of the shot and the characters, there's no way to know for sure who "won" the battle or if either character even lived through it.
  • A scrapped ending was also a cliffhanger: It shows Freddy and Jason, now deep in Hell, still fighting, until Pinhead walks into the scene and says "Gentlemen, what seems to be the problem?"
• Combat Pragmatist: The main reason Freddy doesn't receive an utter thrashing by Jason is by being crafty enough to use his surroundings to his advantage. Once he gets some distance between them he launches compressed air canisters at Jason to knock him back, pins him in place with rebar, keeps him off balance with a large swinging weight, and almost runs him down with a minecart full of rock.
• Compensating for Something: Kia tries to distract Freddy by trash-talking him. Among other things, she says that the knives on Freddy's glove are probably his way of compensating for the obvious. She also notes that in contrast to him, Jason wields a huge machete instead. She meets said machete a few moments later.
• Construction Zone Calamity: During the final battle at Crystal Lake, Freddy and Jason stumble upon a construction zone where Freddy makes creative use of various things he finds there to mangle his opponent.
• Continuity Nod: Given the nature of the film and the characters, there are quite a few of these, but one of the best is the Hypnocil drug — Nancy took the drug in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors and recommended it to the doctors at Westin Hills.
  • Freddy's narration at the beginning is laid over a montage of scenes from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series.
  • When Lori pulls off a piece of Freddy's flesh and brings it into the real world, it instantly turns into maggots. This is a callback to the original A Nightmare on Elm Street film, where Freddy oozed maggots and slime whenever he cut himself.
• Cool Versus Awesome: Freddy vs. Jason.
• Corpse Land: Jason's dreamscape is one of these, as it's filled with the bodies of all his victims.
• Creepy Cemetery: This is where Lori ends up in her first nightmare, and finds the specters of Freddy's child victims playing and singing his warning rhyme.
• Crossover: Between A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • The first part of Freddy and Jason's fight heavily favors Freddy because Jason is no match for Freddy's Reality Warper powers in the Dream World. However, Jason manages to not only frustrate the hell out of Freddy by being impossible to kill but also gets a few licks in himself, emphasizing how much Freddy has underestimated him.
  • When the venue changes to the waking world, the fight is much more balanced though rather weighted towards Jason, who retains his impressive physical strength and nigh-invulnerability, whereas Freddy is deprived of most of his abilities. Still, Freddy inflicts plenty of damage against Jason by utilizing his greater speed and cunning.
• David vs. Goliath: Freddy (played by the 5'8 Robert Englund) vs Jason (played by the 6'7 Ken Kirzinger).
• Decapitation Presentation: Freddy presents Pamela Voorhees' decapitated head to Jason in his nightmare.
• Determinator: Jason is utterly relentless in his drive to kill. At one point, Freddy even screams out in frustration "Why won't you die?!"
• Dirty Old Man: Freddy towards Lori. He's old enough to be her grandfather.
• Distracted from Death: Charlie Linderman gets himself mortally wounded by attacking Jason in an attempt to keep him away from Kia. Later, he tells Kia to leave him because he'll slow her from getting help. Kia is reluctant to do so, but eventually agrees, telling him she's going to come back with help. He dies the moment she turns her back to leave.
• Dude Magnet: Lori. Aside from her boyfriend, other men who have shown an interest in her are Blake, Linderman and Freddy (the latter's interest is more to murder her than romance, but he makes some very disgusting comments which, depending on the interpretation, could easily land him on this list as an attempted rapist).
• Ear Ache: Lori tears off one of Freddy's ears and still has it in her hand when she wakes up. When she drops it on the floor, it turns into a pile of maggots.
• Eerily Out-of-Place Object: The goat in Blake Mueller's nightmare. It just stands in front of his house, doing nothing, but it is rather creepy nonetheless.
• Enemy Mine: Both Freddy and Jason pull this off with the kids. Freddy possesses Freeburg in order to stop Jason , and Jason in turn saves Lori and Will from Freddy by stabbing him with his own glove arm.
• Evasive Fight-Thread Episode: While Freddy is the mastermind behind the events of the film, Jason ends up getting the most kills of the two. The final fight between the two ends with both of them sinking to the bottom of Crystal Lake, Freddy having been decapitated and Jason having suffered a multitude of injuries at the hands of Krueger.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Jason comes back to life and goes to Elm Street because he believes his mother told him to do it. When Jason figures out his mother was Freddy in disguise, he is... unhappy.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Lori saves Jason from drowning in the Dream World, he appears to pay her back later by saving her from Freddy — twice. Jason is still a raging killing machine, though, so other teens are caught in the crossfire.
• Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Freddy displays a previously unseen grasp of martial arts, including flying high kicks, when fighting Jason.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Freddy provokes Jason into attacking Springwood under the assumption he can send Jason away once Voorhees' job is done. The big dog won't quit eating, though, so....
• Evil Versus Evil: Freddy Krueger vs. Jason Voorhees. Both are mass-murdering serial killers. The winner is fuzzy, but on the whole most people find themselves siding with Jason (even if he does have many, many more kills). Even the heroes end up rooting for Jason over Freddy because they decide Jason is the Lesser of Two Evils between them. There was also a pragmatic reason for the protagonists supporting Jason over Freddy. While Jason may have had a bigger body count, he's generally less dangerous because he tends to stay in Camp Crystal Lake unless provoked. Freddy actively hunts for victims and can kill you anywhere in the world as long as you're asleep.
• Expy: Freeburg is an expy for Kevin Smith's character Jay.
  • Hilariously referenced in the Never Sleep Again documentary:
  Jason Mewes: I mean, it was amazing when they offered this, and I went and I played Freeburg, and it was like, a lifelong dream come— *needle scratch* Wait — I didn't play Freeburg! I wasn't in that movie! *walks off set*
• Eye Scream, Fingore: Freddy does these to Jason during their final fight.
  • The little girl in Lori's police station nightmare has bleeding vertical slashes and gaping holes where her eyes should be.
• Facial Horror: Kia, dozed off in class, has a brief dream in which Freddy sticks his knives up her nose and flicks it off her face.
• Fan Disservice: Monica Keena is an attractive young lady and her character of Lori having her bare legs shown would be considered Fanservice... however, it happens because Freddy is lifting her skirt with his glove..
• Final Boy: Will Rollins.
• Final Girl: Lori Campbell.
• Fingore: Freddy deprives Jason of his machete during the climatic fight when he cuts off his fingers on his right hand. This doesn't seem to affect him from holding Freddy's head later.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: One of the many techniques used to set Freddy and Jason up as symbolic adversaries. In one discussion, it's specifically pointed out that Freddy's origin story involves him being reborn through fire, and Jason's origin story involves him being reborn through water.
• Foil: Freddy and Jason's differences come into sharp relief now that they're in a movie together. Jason was killed by drowning while Freddy was burned to death. Freddy is a sadist who loves to play with his prey before killing them and draws out their suffering, while Jason's kills, though brutal, are quick and sudden. Freddy is loud, bombastic, and darkly humorous while Jason is quiet and deadly serious. Freddy can kill anyone anywhere on earth so long as they dream, requiring an elaborate conspiracy to keep him from killing, while Jason only stalks Camp Crystal Lake and won't bother anyone beyond its borders unless forced. During their final duel, Freddy uses every dirty trick he can think of, while Jason plows forward to beat the crap out of him.
• Fold-Spindle Mutilation: Jason folds his first victim up inside a collapsible bed, feet and head jutting out side by side.
• Forceful Kiss: During the nightmare where Lori's friends plan to sacrifice her to Freddy (because she's a virgin), Freddy — disguised as Lori's father — forcefully kisses her and sticks his tongue in her mouth. After she pushes him off, he returns to his original form and tries it again before she wakes up.
• Foreshadowing: When Freddy and Jason first fight, Jason chops off both of Freddy's arms, only for Freddy to use his dream powers to regenerate them. When battling in the real world, Jason rips off Freddy's glove arm, this time inflicting real damage against him.
• Framing the Guilty Party: Freddy uses Jason to pull this on himself, intending to take credit for Jason's first few murders so the kids of Springwood would be afraid enough of him to empower him again. Unfortunately for him, Jason doesn't have an off-switch.
• Gas-Cylinder Rocket: Freddy launches a whole barrage of them from a rack at Camp Crystal Lake, although his aim's pretty poor as they mostly streak right past Jason.
• Go-Go Enslavement: When her plan to bring Freddy to the real world fails, Lori gets trapped and placed in a dream version of her house in a white nightgown. Not as revealing as most examples despite cleavage, although she doesn't seem to be wearing underwear, making the scene where he slowly lifts her skirt more disturbing.
• Gone Horribly Right: Freddy brought Jason back and manipulated him into attacking Springwood, knowing that he himself would be blamed for Jason's killings, which would give him enough power to escape Hell and go about haunting Springwood again. The plan works, but Freddy never anticipated that Jason would continue to intrude on his territory and steal his potential victims.
  Freddy: Everyone forgot! That's why they weren't afraid anymore! That's why I needed Jason to kill for me, to get them to remember! But now he just won't stop!
• Gorn: Not surprisingly, this mashup between two classic slasher series features buckets of blood.
• Grand Finale: To the original Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street franchises; they continued in spinoff novels and comics, but the films rebooted after this.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: When Freddy tries to kill the last survivors, Jason impales him with his own severed, claw-arm, distracting him long enough for the Final Girl to seize Jason's machete from Freddy and finish him off.
  • Earlier in their rematch, Freddy falls victim to a more elaborate version of this. After pinning Jason to the spot by impaling him with some falling rebar, Freddy sends a heavy container full of sand on a rope swinging around to smack Jason several times. While Jason is being pummeled by the container, Freddy tries to push a cart full of sand down a ramp at him, but it gets stuck, much to his frustration. He gets on the ramp to try to dislodge it but eventually, the first container swings by, hits the ramp, and causes Freddy to fall and get his pant leg caught on the container, leaving him hanging upside down and utterly defenseless as he swings towards a now supremely pissed Jason. To add insult to injury, the cart eventually does get dislodged, hitting them both.
• Home Field Advantage: Lori and Co. lure Freddy and Jason to Camp Crystal Lake with this trope in mind.
• Honor Before Reason: Mark refuses to assist Freddy in passing on a message, even though Freddy promises to leave him untouched for the moment. Mark refuses to do so, even though it would make precious little difference to Freddy's plans. Freddy kills him horribly for it to pass on the message himself.
• Hope Spot: "Not my arm!"
• Horrifying the Horror:
  • After realizing that Jason's fear is water, Freddy throws him into a nightmare where he's forced to relive his traumatic childhood memories, being relentlessly bullied and picked on and then pushed into Camp Crystal Lake to drown.
  • In the final battle, sadistic dream stalking Serial Killer Freddy Krueger looks like he's about to wet himself when he realizes that he's been pulled into the real world - where an extremely pissed off Jason Voorhees is approaching him with a machete.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: This is Freddy's primary attitude toward Lori during her dreams. He starts out by kissing her, then puts her in a nightgown, calls her pet names like "Princess" and ultimately shares a scene evocative of attempted rape.
• I Love the Dead: Lori finds Freddy having his way with a camp counselor's corpse during Jason's nightmare.
• I'm Not Afraid of You: The scene from the original Nightmare On Elm Street was going to be parodied in an early version of this film. Kia repeats Nancy's lines almost word for word, and then turns her back... on Jason. As Freddy put it, right before Kia is killed, "Wrong one, bitch."
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: A slasher movie wouldn't be one without a few of these. The most notable example in this film comes when Jason chops off Freddy's arm, then shoves it through his chest.
• Improvised Weapon: Once fighting Jason in the real world, Freddy finds a construction site and begins making liberal use of these in place of his normal Reality Warper powers he'd have in the dream realm.
• Infernal Retaliation
• Instant Sedation: Occurs rather inevitably when Freddy (possessing Freedburg) delivers two massive syringes of highly concentrated tranquilizer directly to Jason's neck. Jason manages to cleave poor Freedburg in half before toppling over.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: The comic series Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash brings Ashley J. Williams into the mix as he fights both Freddy and Jason for control of the Necronomicon following the events of Freddy vs. Jason.
  • According to The Other Wiki, one planned yet scrapped ending had Jason and Freddy finding themselves in Hell and about to continue their fight there, only to have hooked chains spring in from nowhere to pin them both in place. As they both struggle, the two hear a familiar (to us) voice: "Gentlemen, is there a problem?" In walks Pinhead, end scene.
  • Kyle Labine (who played Freeburg) appeared as a teenage party-goer in Halloween: Resurrection; this makes him the only person to appear in films involving Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers.
• Internal Retcon: A vast majority of Springwood's local history from 1984 onwards is redacted or missing — for good reason.
• Interquel: At the very least the film is set before Jason X, and possibly also Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
• Ironic Echo: "Welcome to my world, bitch!"
• Irony: Jason's kill of the (attempted) Rapist Raver - he was penetrated with a steel pipe.
  • In the last seconds of their confrontation, it's Freddy who's wielding Jason's machete, and Jason who's using Freddy's glove (still attached to Freddy's severed arm).
  • The characters end up helping Jason even though he's killed ''seventeen times as many people as Freddy.
• Jack the Ripoff: Jason's killings are a plan by Freddy to drive Springwood into a frenzy and make people think he's the one responsible for the deaths.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: When his normal methods of slaughter prove ineffective against Jason, Freddy attempts this to get past Jason's invulnerability. It almost works.
• Jump Scare:
  • In Lori's first nightmare, she sees the specters of Freddy's previous child victims singing the "One, two, Freddy's coming for you" rhyme. Then Freddy jumps up out of nowhere.
  • Lori is talking to Will in the car, and he tells her that he believes that Lori's father killed her mother. Then Lori's father shows up banging on the car window.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Strangely, Freddy is given one of these with the dog being Jason. In his nightmare, Jason reverts into a scared disfigured child, how he was before he became an undead killing machine. Freddy then tears off his hockey mask, calls him an "ugly little shit", and shows Jason the decapitated head of his mother.
  • Those two ravers that mock Jason were previously shown picking on Linderman.
  • Freddy decides to suggestively attack Lori while cracking a rape quip Lori after forcing her to see how he murdered her mother.
• Kill It with Fire — or, failing that, blow 'em into the fucking water.
• Kill Steal: Freddy's plan works perfectly — until Jason stabs one of Freddy's intended victims.
  "She was mine! MINE! MINE!"
• Kiss of Life: Subverted when Freddy drowns Jason in the Dream World, and Kia, in the real world, has the unenviable task of performing mouth-to-mouth on him. It's Jason Voorhees (who looks like a rotting corpse underneath the mask); you can hardly blame her for being reluctant. Fortunately, he wakes up just before she appears to be ready to actually try it. See also Morton's Fork below.
• Kryptonite Factor: Freddy and Jason both show fear when it comes to the elements which originally helped to kill them (fire and water, respectively).
• Large Ham: Freddy is one of these, perhaps more than usual.
  "Now it's time to put this bad dog to sleep...FOR GOOD! HAH!"
• Leg Focus: The scene where Lori's legs are shown would normally be this trope, but it isn't so sexy since Freddy is attempting to murder her.
• Lesser of Two Evils: The heroes ultimately decide that Jason is this compared to Freddy, since while both are unstoppable killing machines, Jason would just stay at Camp Crystal Lake after beating Freddy.
• Let's Mock the Monsters: Jason walks through a cornfield and finds two (likely drunken) ravers, who are attending a party not too far away. Being the good sport that he is, Jason doesn't walk around them and give them a chance to assault him from behind, nor does he slice them in half right away. He waits for them to say something stupid and antagonistic to him. They don't disappoint:
  Raver 1: Well, hey there, Jethro! This is a rave, not a Halloween party! Why don't you go find yourself a pig to fuck?
  Raver 2: Invite only, corn-poke, and [pokes Jason hard in the chest with each word] YOU! WEREN'T! INVI—
  Jason: [breaks Raver 2's neck by twisting his head around 180 degrees... then pokes the still-standing corpse to the ground]
• A Lighter Shade of Black: They're both serial killers, but Jason is, at heart, a traumatized child lashing out at the universe. Freddy was a remorseless child murderer even before he became a demon.
• Lightning Bruiser (Freddy) vs The Juggernaut (Jason).
• Look Behind You: Kia thinks she's getting to Freddy with her stream of Compensating for Something barbs, but in actuality, he's just watching Jason coming up behind her with his machete.
• Losing Your Head / Off with His Head!: Freddy is decapitated at the end of the film. His head winks at the audience during the final shot when Jason carries it out of the lake.
• Man on Fire: When Jason attacks a rave, one of the teens throws grain alcohol on him, then lights it with a torch — which results in a flaming unstoppable killing machine. Additionally, Jason averts the common theme of running around like a maniac while on fire. With his entire body engulfed in flames, he uses the same slow, deliberate, lumbering walk he's known for— presumably either ignoring the pain or not feeling it at all. His machete also ends up covered in flames. Every time he swings it, it leaves a wake of fire behind it.
• Manipulative Bastard: Freddy assumes the form of Jason's mother in the Dream World in order to awaken Jason and send him to Springwood — all so Jason will kill teens and instill the fear of Freddy into Springwood again, which would give Freddy his power back.
• Menacing Stroll: Done by Jason, as usual. One such moment involves him plodding along as Freddy sends several propane tanks flying his way during their final fight (before he gets hit by a couple).
• Mercy Kill: Jason unintentionally gives one to Gibb, killing her instantly before a raver can rape her in reality and Freddy can slowly and torturously kill her in her dream.
• Mind over Matter: Freddy can easily move objects with his mind in the dream world. He even plays an ad-hoc game of pinball with Jason's body.
• Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The film's posters and DVD covers employ this trope.
• Mirror Scare: In Mark's nightmare, he's getting some pills to help him stay awake from the mirror cupboard in the bathroom. When he closes it again, his reflection is replaced by Freddy.
• Morton's Fork: Towards the end of the film, with Jason tranquilized and being "returned" to Crystal Lake by Will, Kia, and Linderman (under the assumption that he'll remain there and stop terrorizing their town unless provoked), they realize that he's being drowned by Freddy Krueger in a nightmare, which would kill Jason (or at least incapacitate him) in the real world as well. Since their plan involves setting up a showdown between Freddy and Jason (they have their money on the big guy), they panic, knowing they need Jason alive. They determine that there are two options— use CPR via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive Jason (who looks like, and more or less IS, a rotting corpse underneath the hockey mask), or do nothing and let Freddy kill him.
  Will (driving): We need him alive!
  Linderman: Dude, what do you want me to do?! Like, give him mouth-to-mouth or something?!
  [Beat as Linderman stares blankly at Kia]
  Kia: ... hell no. Why are you— no! I'm not gonna do that, no!
  Linderman: Kia, look, I would do it myself, but I've had asthma since I was 6, okay? I don't have the lung power.
  Kia: ...
  Will: Kia, he has asthma!
• Motif Merger: The opening credits feature the Leitmotifs of the respective franchises following each other.
• Motive Decay: Subverted in relation to the various Elm Street sequels, as Freddy returned to his traditional "killing kids for revenge" motive.
  • The same can be said of Jason, who's returned completely to his 'killing because he thinks his mom wants him to' motivation.
• Ms. Fanservice: Lori Campbell, played by Monica Keena, is a young lady in form fitting jeans and most males in the film, even Freddy, find her attractive.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Mark has this reaction when he realizes that, by warning Lori and the others about Freddy, he just made Krueger's return that much easier.
• Neck Snap: Jason does the "180 Degree Neck Snap" variant to some jock during the rave who told him to fuck off, all while poking him. Then it becomes a invoked Funny Moment when Jason nonchalantly pokes the still standing corpse, pushing it to the ground in front of the jock's friend.
• Nice Jewish Boy: Linderman, who's an all-around nice, dorky guy.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: One cop accidentally blurting out Freddy's name kickstarts his return. Without that, even Will's return later in the film might not have achieved what Freddy set out for.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Jason is Made of Iron, while Freddy is Fighting a Shadow. When he's dragged into the real world, Freddy is significantly weaker, although he's still pretty good competition for Jason.
• No-Sell: Until Freddy manages to take possession of Jason's machete, his attacks do nothing to Jason.
• Novelization: By Stephen Hand.
• Offscreen Teleportation: During the fight between Jason and Freddy at Camp Crystal Lake, Jason is propelled to a construction site by a propane tank projectile. Freddy then shows that he's standing on top of it, somehow having moved past Jason.
  • As shown in most of his appearance Jason moves much quicker when he's not in sight. Rule of thumb: if you don't see him then he's probably right behind someone just off screen no matter where he was last shown.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Freddy regrows his arms during their first fight, Jason briefly pulls back in surprise.
  • Freddy has this reaction when he realizes he's been pulled into reality — and Jason is waiting for him.
  • Freddy gets caught on a piece of swinging construction equipment and is helplessly careening toward the waiting (and angry) Jason.
  Freddy: Oh no. OH NOOOOOOO!
  • This happens again when he sees Lori about to cut his head off. Killing her mother, getting her boyfriend committed, killing her friends, and nearly raping her wasn't a good idea after all.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Freddy wants Jason to kill a few Springwood teens to reintroduce fear to the town — but when Jason wouldn't stop, Freddy demonstrates this attitude.
• Opening Monologue: Freddy gets one of these to recap his origin and purpose, and a montage of clips from the first six Nightmare movies accompanies a part of it.
• Orifice Invasion: Freddy, in the shape of a grotesque caterpillar, forces himself down Freeburg's throat.
• Papa Wolf: Lori's father does genuinely want to protect her. His secret drugging of her orange juice, lies, and general overbearing nature do a fair job of keeping this from being positive, however.
• Plot Hole: The protagonists somehow manage to leave Springwood in a van with a drugged-up Jason Voorhees in the back despite the fact that Sheriff Williams had set up 24-hour roadblocks.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Freddy takes the time to note he savors the chance to sample "dark meat" with Kia.
• Religion of Evil: An early script featured a deranged cult that worshipped undead serial killer Freddy Krueger. They were called the "Fredheads".
• Revenge Before Reason:
  • A raver tries to assault Jason for killing his brother and gets killed on the spot.
  • After learning Freddy murdered her mother, Lori decides that despite Kia getting killed and there are two supernatural killers, she wants to see Freddy die first.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The opening includes showing the parents of Springwood coming for Freddy and "taking justice into their own hands."
• Scared of What's Behind You: Kia starts trash-talking Freddy to distract him from the others, and he starts advancing toward her. At one point it seems that the tide has turned and her attempted intimidation is working, as he starts to back up himself. Then he points behind her with a wicked smile and she sees he was backing up because Jason is right behind her.
• Serial Killer: Freddy and Jason, both of the supernatural kind.
• Sex Signals Death: No film with Freddy or Jason would be complete without this trope.
  • This is averted in Lori's nightmare. In an alternate ending, Lori and Will finally have sex, but when it starts gets rough, Lori realizes Will isn't who she's making love to…
• Shout-Out:
  • Freddy takes the shape of a hookah-smoking caterpillar in Freeburg's nightmare.
  • The red cap worn by Gibb is a shout-out to P. J. Soles' character Norma in Carrie, who also wore a red cap; Katharine Isabelle, who played Gibb, also co-starred in a 2002 remake of Carrie.
  • After escaping Freddy in his dreams, Blake awakens to find his father beheaded before being killed by Jason. A similar scene occurs in the 1974 film Madhouse.
  • In the scene where Jason's being impaled by his own machete in the dream world, the final three metal plates Freddy sends towards him form the New Line Cinema logo.
  • The Final Girl's last name is "Campbell" and her first name, Lori, may remind you of another horror movie heroine.
    • Campbell could also be a nod to Neve Campbell who played Sidney Prescott, the iconic Final Girl from the Scream series.
• Skinny Dipping: After Freddy's introduction, the movie begins with a girl skinny dipping at Camp Crystal Lake.
• Spanner in the Works: Freddy is quite ticked off that Jason just won't stop after serving the purpose that Freddy brought him back for.
• Speak of the Devil: Freddy's powers are fueled by the fear of Springwood's children, but his powers are drained until a random mention of his name (combined with Jason's killings) beget more mentions and more fear.
• Start of Darkness: During the opening flashbacks, Freddy claims this.
  "When I was alive, I might've been a little naughty. But after they killed me, I became something much worse - the stuff nightmares are made of."
• Stupid Sacrifice: One of the ravers jumps in front of Jason as he is about to cut down one of the girls. Both die in the ensuing slash.
• The Stoner: Freeburg
• Terms of Endangerment: Freddy, part of his attitude to Lori, calls her "Angel" and "Princess" at different points of the film, both before he takes to different levels of said attitude.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!:
  • "Welcome to my world, bitch!" — which is said by both Freddy and Lori at different points near the end of the film.
  • Freddy also says "Let me handle this, bitch!" to Will when he's controlling Freeburg's body.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The scene where Jason throws his machete (which is on fire) through the fat guy's chest is a great example. It also doesn't seem too hard for Jason, a super-strong guy who seems to know how to properly use any form of weaponry.
• Title Drop: The page-topping quote, which is from a deleted scene used only in the trailers (it was removed from the final cut due to its potential Narm factor).
• Too Dumb to Live: When Freeburg sees a monster bug shows up, he thinks it's awesome when it takes out a hookah and decides to follow it when it runs off. This might be explained by the fact that he's stoned out of his mind, but getting high in the first place while knowing that they're on the run from two undead serial killers was his own decision as well, so he still qualifies.
  • The jock and his fat friend at the rave. Even if they're drunk and don't realize it's Jason Voorhees, they should at least realize it's always a bad idea to antagonize the behemoth of a man wearing a hockey mask.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Lori.
  • Freddy too when you think about it. In the first Nightmare on Elm Street film he couldn't even outfight a petite teenage girl once he got pulled into the real world and couldn't access his dream powers. Here's he's apparently picked up some MMA skills since then and can to an extent actually go toe-to-toe with the superhuman heavyweight powerhouse that is Jason.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Springwood's children and teenagers are unaware of Freddy and his past deeds until Jason starts killing, thanks to the adults refusing to speak his name and all records relating to Freddy having been deleted. The few people who do know of Freddy in even the vaguest manner are locked up in a psychiatric facility and drugged nightly to prevent them from dreaming.
• Tranquil Fury: Jason is done with Freddy. When they face off in the Final Battle, Jason is calm and methodic as he attacks Freddy, but only his utter savagery and piercing Death Glare show his rage at Kreuger. This contrasts with his weaker opponent's snarling rage.
• Travelling at the Speed of Plot: Canonically, Springwood is a town in Ohio, and Camp Crystal Lake is in New Jersey. The protagonists drive from one to the other in about an hour.
• The Undead: Freddy is the dream-haunting ghost of a child killer, and Jason is the zombified son of Crystal Lake's cook.
• Underestimating Badassery: Freddy regards Jason with open contempt for most of the film, calling him "a big, stupid dog who won't stop eating." That changes pretty quickly when he gets to the real world.
  • Even when Freddy has Jason trapped in a dream, it takes him a while to realize that Jason can just fucking tank everything Freddy does to him until Freddy starts digging into Jason's most deep-rooted psychological issues (having drowned/almost drowned as a bullied child).
• Unflinching Walk: This trope combined with the Implacable Man and Megaton Punch tropes sums up Jason's fighting style.
• The Unmasqued World: Jason Voorhees's rampage throughout Springwood inadvertently exposes Freddy Krueger's existence and destroys the four-year cover-up. Unlike most examples of this trope, the authorities had a perfectly good reason to prevent the public from catching on, due to Freddy only becoming an active threat if people know he exists.
• Un-person: The people of Springwood have erased all documents that Freddy ever existed, and quarantined everyone who knew about him, because this was the only way they could stop him.
• Unstoppable Rage: Jason is made of this — and the last battle takes the cake.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The one cop who couldn't help but comment on Trey getting killed at 1428 Elm Street and how it must've been Freddy Krueger, saying it right where Lori and the others could hear him and thus planting the seed of Freddy's return well before Mark entered the picture. Springwood spent four years trying to erase any mention of Freddy to protect their kids, and this guy couldn't remember that before he opened his mouth and got Lori thinking about it.
• Unwitting Pawn: Jason is one of these in this film, the poor undead bastard.
• Versus Title
• Villain Opening Scene: For both Freddy and Jason. The film opens with a monologue by Freddy Krueger. He explains how he came to be, and that the parents of Springwood have stopped him by erasing him from memory. He has found someone (Jason Voorhees) who he will use to instill fear in the town of Springwood once again, which will allow him to come back. This is followed by Jason stalking one of his victims in Camp Crystal Lake in his dreams before Freddy manipulates him in the guise of his mother to go to Springwood.
• Villainous Valor:
  • Even Freddy's detractors must admit it takes balls to fight something like Jason. Even after Freddy gets pulled into the real world (where he is mortal and seriously outclassed by Jason), he fights Jason anyway.
  • The teens hope Jason will be this if they get Freddy to Camp Crystal Lake for the fight. They also hope if Jason wins the fight, he'll stay "home" and not bother anyone outside it. The original Friday the 13th series justifies this, as Jason is known to never leave Camp Crystal Lake unless forced to do so.
• Virgin Sacrifice: During one of Lori's dreams, Freddy makes her believe her friends wish to do this to her to lure Freddy — right before he plants a kiss on her. This is also a hint that Freddy was trying to take Lori's virginity later.
• Weaker in the Real World: As always, this comes into play for Freddy. In dreams, Freddy is a nearly unstoppable and invincible Reality Warper, and even Jason is more or less at his mercy there, unable to do anything to put a real dent in Freddy. In the real world Freddy might have a degree of Super Toughness compared to normal humans, but otherwise his powers, depending on the number of souls he's collected, are either reduced or go out the window. The only reason a Freddy Krueger who only has one kill to his name has even a sliver of a chance against Jason in the real world is thanks to being much faster and being able to make clever use of tools.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Springwood decided to deal with Freddy by censoring any possible mention of him. This includes locking up any still-living kids that know his name and drugging them with unapproved anti-dream medicine that rendered dozens of kids comatose from an overdose when it failed to work. They successfully stopped him for four years.
• What Does She See in Him?: Lori asks Gibb what did she sees in her boyfriend Trey, who is rude and uncaring to everyone around him and demands sex from her.
  I don't know, but he has a cute ass.
• Why Are You Looking at Me Like That?: When the kids notice that the sleeping Jason is being drowned in his dream, Linderman suggests mouth-to-mouth. Cue everyone looking at Kia...
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Jason has a fear of water and Freddy has a fear of fire. This is discussed by Lori:
  Lori: Wait a minute — Freddy died by fire, Jason by water. How can we use that?
  • Freddy discovers Jason suffers from hydrophobia due to the way he died as a child. This leads to a Continuity Snarl when you remember Jason was completely fine around water in his series — though there is an out, as Jason's fear of water comes into play only after Freddy brings up Jason's trauma in the Dream World, and later in the real world Jason shows no fear of water.
    • Confirmed in the novelization: Jason's hydrophobia is a DEEPLY buried fear that Freddy could only exploit because he was inside Jason's head. In reality, Jason's viewpoint about water is 1) He doesn't give a shit, and 2) It's good for drowning people.
  • Freddy himself flinches and expresses fear when the cabin he and Jason are fighting in is ignited. He gets over it pretty quickly, though.
• "Why Won't You Die?": Said the ghost to the zombie.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Freddy and Jason both use wrestling-inspired moves when fighting each other, befitting the framing of the matchup as effectively a massive bloody wrestling match between two superstars. Freddy even pulls out an elbow drop!
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Jason, of all people, comes off as one of these, especially during his Dream World battle with Freddy. Jason's actor was specifically recast to an actor who could emote with his eyes and make them sympathetic.
• "You!" Exclamation: When Lori interrupts Jason's nightmare in which Freddy is killing him through drowning, Jason vanishes from the dream as he wakes up. Freddy turns to Lori, lets out an enraged "YOU!", and focuses his attention on her.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: By the time Freddy becomes powerful enough to kill people, Jason has become more trouble than he's worth to Freddy, so Freddy attempts to kill him. This turns out to be easier said than done.

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"Place your bets!"

— Lori^note in the trailer