The Bar

Starring: Robert Englund, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Ken Kirzinger

Director: Ronny Yu

Writer(s): Damian Shannon & Mark Swift

Studio: New Line

Rating: R

Official Bar Score: 

This film finally brought together two of the biggest names in horror history; Freddy Kruger (Englund), and Jason Voorhees (Kirzinger). The first buzz I remember hearing about this film was when I was the tender age of 11, which was about 13 years before the movie actually was made. We horror fans had been anticipating the eventual production of this film at least since the end of Jason Goes To Hell, and perhaps some of us even longer than that. It took years to find a script that the people at New Line deemed worthy of bringing these two icons together, and in my eyes, it was definitely worth the wait.

Freddy Kruger has been trapped in Hell, powerless to escape because his source of strength has been stolen from him; the fear of his teenage flock of victims. He had been forgotten, and all memory of his existence had been painstakingly erased by the adults of Springwood. Parents also drugged their children with an experimental dream suppressant called Hypnocil in an attempt to place the final nail in Freddy’s coffin. He used what little power he had left to disguise himself as Pamela Voorhees to coax her son Jason to return from the grave once more and go after the innocent children of Springwood. When the killings began again, Freddy was sure that the suspicion would be directed toward him, and the people of the town would once again fear him, giving him the power he needed to escape from the confines of Hell. Freddy’s plan was a success, but when he got out, Jason wouldn’t stop killing, and was stealing Freddy’s victims out from under him. This led to the inevitable conflict between the two mass murderers, and no matter which one was to get the upper hand, the people of Springwood were in dire trouble.

It was up to a group of teenagers, led by Lori (Keena) and Will (Ritter), both of whom have a history with Kruger, and an unwitting police officer (Baby Dick from Scary Movie) to try to stop these two evils from destroying the entire town in their efforts to take each other out. They got the brilliant idea of getting Jason back to Crystal Lake , where he would have home-field advantage, and then luring Freddy there so they could fight where innocent people wouldn’t get in the crossfire. They manage to render Jason unconscious using a high-powered tranquilizer, and begin the trip to Crystal Lake . While Jason is unconscious, Freddy takes advantage of his weaknesses as they battle in Kruger’s home turf. As the group nears Crystal Lake , Jason in tow, Lori takes some of the tranquilizer so she can go under and pull Freddy out of the dream world and into the real world, where he will have to face Jason in his comfort zone.

They end up getting into a car accident right outside of Crystal Lake , and Jason flies out of the back of the van as it tumbles. The gang takes Lori’s unconscious body and drags her to one of the cabins in the camp. In the dream world, Lori sees that Freddy is in the process of drowning young Jason when the tranquilizers finally wear off following the accident, and he wakes up, disappearing back to reality. Freddy then attacks Lori, and she manages to wake up while holding on to him, pulling Freddy out of the dream world and into the real world, just as Jason has arrived. Looking to settle the score, Jason attacks Freddy now that he has the decided advantage. The two titans engage in an epic battle with each other, killing a few unfortunate souls along the way, which eventually leads to the Lake itself. In the end, Lori and Will look on as they see Freddy and Jason kill each other, ending their paths of destruction once and for all, yet nicely leaving it open for a sequel!

I saw the first ever showing of this film when it entered theaters on August 15, 2003, and I got the DVD the day it came out on January 13, 2004. This DVD comes packaged as a 2-Disc set, with a plethora of special features any fan is sure to enjoy. On Disc 1, we have both the widescreen and full screen versions of the film, along with Full-Length commentary by the Director, Ronny Yu, and the icons themselves, Robert Englund and Ken Kirzinger. There is also the ever-popular Jump-To-A-Death feature made famous in the previous Freddy flicks. Disc 2 contains a horde of deleted scenes, including the original opening and ending of the film, complete with filmmaker commentary. There are also several behind-the-scenes documentaries covering several aspects of the making of the film, including screenwriting, set design, make up, stunts, and more. Also on this disc are Visual Effects explorations, storyboards, still galleries, the original theatrical trailer, TV spots, music videos, and a bunch of DVD-ROM stuff for all you computer geeks like me out there! How can you go wrong?!?!?

If you read my picks on the bartenders page, you know that this is hands down my favorite movie of all time. I have always been a huge fan of Freddy Kruger films, and to a lesser extent the Jason flicks as well, and when I heard that this movie was finally going to be made, I was absolutely ecstatic. I had a lot of high hopes going into this film that I thought for sure would be nearly impossible to live up to, but this movie met and exceeded any and all expectations I had! Freddy Vs. Jason is definitely the Greatest Movie of the Ever. Official Movie Bar Score: Zero Beers!!! Put down whatever it is you’re doing, drinking, or smoking, and go see this movie now! If nothing else, it’s worth it to just see that one annoying bitch from Destiny’s Child get axed. No, not Beyonce, the other one. Nevermind. Go get this movie!!