On July 19th, more than 3000 people gathered at the Comic-Cons Grand Ballroom to get a first glimpse of the horror showdown, Freddy Vs. Jason. Back in 1980, Friday the 13th gave birth to Jason Vorhees whose mom did all the killing in the first film while he waited until the sequels to establish himself as the machete-wielding serial killer in a hockey mask that we now all know.
CLIP Jasons theme
Then in 1984, Nightmare on Elm Street introduced audiences to the razor-fingered Freddy Kreuger who killed victims in their dreams.
CLIP Girl: "One, two Freddys coming for you"
Freddy racked up 7 sequels and Jason 10, so pairing the two psycho killers has long been a tempting prospect.
RONNY YU: "Its like T-Rex vs. Godzilla. Its two monsters duking it out so it give me a good excuse to push the envelope especially in the last forty minutes when they really fight each other."
And Hong Kong director Ronny Yu knows how to push the envelope. He directed the breathtaking Hong Kong fantasy The Bride with White Hair and then went to the altar again with Bride of Chucky, the sequel to Childs Play. Yu finds irony in the fact that he grew up wanting to imitate American movies and now Hollywood is importing Asian filmmakers.
RONNY YU: "Now the table seems turned around."
What Yu brings to the table is Hong Kong stylean over the top, no holds barred filmmaking approach thats inspired by the pace of Hong Kong life.
RONNY YU: "The people are always in a rush, they have this fast food mentality you want to go in and get want you what right away I dont want to wait for the set up, for the pay off. if you want to make me scared, scare me right away, if you want to astonish me with some fantastic action, do it now do it quick. Thats sort of the audience requirement. So as a filmmaker in Hong Kong you have to come up with something in short while, thats why the pacing, the editing is so fast in Hong Kong we start, okay, we end, we dont need middle part."
But that free-flowing Hong Kong stylewhich relies on a directors ability to improvise on location and be able to make immediate changes to accommodate ever changing logisticsdoesnt mesh well in Hollywood where everything is planned out in extensive pre-production meetings.
RONNY YU: "And also the script, it has to be pre-determined and pre-agreed and you have to follow the script like a Bible. But in Hong Kong since we have such limited resources, so you have to be flexible."
And its the script that keeps Freddy, Jason and director Ronny Yu down. It wastes time and energy on endless exposition, setting up contrived situations and making the teenagers so obnoxious that we root for Freddy and Jason to kill them off. You feel as though Yus horror set pieces keep getting interrupted by plot needlessly rearing its ugly head. After all, Godzilla and King Kong didnt need any complicated reasons for squaring off. They just took one look at each other and said bring it on. And the set up for Freddy and Jason shouldve been as simple. For instance, this is all the explanation you need for Freddy.
CLIP Girl: "One two Freddys coming for you. You know why they sing that because thats when they come for you. In your dreams. Hes a child murderer that the parents around here burned alive then he came back for revenge in our nightmares."
And nightmares is the operative word here. Yu shouldve just been given free reign to throw logic out the window and create an abstract horror fantasy thats like a nightmare. When Yu is allowed to enter that nightmare realm, he knows exactly what to do.
RONNY YU: "This movie deal a lot with blood, with killing so we want to give it a festival of color. Blood is blood red. And theres a big sequence in dream world when Freddy gets Jason in his world then we play with water, we play with boiler room, with red, green, blue, primary colors to enhance the emotions so its like its good to the eye."
Yu displays a visual flair for slasher film excess, removing the violence from the real world and placing it in a surreal realm. This kind of filmmaking is definitely not for everyone, but horror fans can enjoy Yus flamboyant style.
Freddy Vs. Jason serves up the horror heavyweight match-up with predictable results. But I was hoping that in the face-off between Hollywood formula and Hong Kong style, Ronny Yu would come out victorious. Yu definitely wins some battles but unfortunately loses the war.
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