Freddy vs Jason The State of Modern Horror Films

     But why did it die so miserably? Perhaps we can look to the late eighties as the beginning of the end. Financially, the horror field was dominated by ill-advised sequels that lacked a trace of originality. Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees were the prime names, and both carried horrendous tales of shame that led to horrific ends.

     Krueger was an angry, disturbed man who molested young children and teens. He was a natural monster given supernatural powers. Voorhees was a much more sinister story. Krueger wanted to exploit you, while Voorhees wanted revenge. As a child, he was a camper at Crystal Lake, where other youngsters would tease him for being an outsider, a victim of Down syndrome. When his drowning was ignored by typically self-absorbed horny counselor teens, he returned and made it a point to annihilate the selfishness in teens, to deprive them of the fun that they are having, he feels, at his expense. His youth was robbed from him, and he is responsible for evening the score.

     Both characters with their sinister motives put more of a personal and specific face on the horrors that had flooded the bedrooms of young horror fans. Serial killers and zombies were frightening, but unpredictable. The horror in Jason and Freddy lies in knowing exactly how they would strike and understanding there was nothing one could do. Michael Myers, Pinhead and, to a lesser extent, Chucky the doll, worked the same way.

     However, as we became more familiar with these characters, their predictability became numbing. Soon, we were cheering Jason as he hacked campers to death, and laughing along with Freddy as he flung one-liner witticisms towards his victims. These characters had become too familiar, too common to fear.

     The modern day horror film has devolved to the point where we have seen too many boogeymen and understood how they have worked. Soon, we were laughing at them. The most-well known film to poke fun at these conventions was "Scream", from the man who created Freddy himself, Wes Craven. "Scream" showed audiences how ridiculous the horror movie format was, even stating flatly (by the villain himself) that the scariest killer is the one who has no motive.

     "Scream" gave the American public an okay to laugh at horror film conventions. Soon, Pinhead and co. moved to the direct-to-video bin. Later installments of these horror films, including "Bride of Chucky", "New Nightmare" and "Jason X" stressed that these characters were indeed now comedy fodder.

     Perhaps even the makers of "Jason vs. Freddy" are getting the point and moving on. Recent press releases have talked about recasting Jason, shuffling out the burly Kane Hodder, who played Jason most recently in the last string of "Friday the 13th" films. Producers have spoke about an actor with a smaller frame, one who goes back to the roots of the character. They have mentioned they are looking for an actor with soulful eyes, ones that can reflect pain and loss, a "Phantom of the Opera"-type character. In short, they are interested in finally, after ten films, fleshing out the character of Jason. Coupled with the analysis of Freddy’s life in "Freddy’s Dead", it’s clear the producers of these films have become more interested in character rather than cheap thrills.

     Then again, maybe it’s a reflection of our times. What has become scary is different in this world. Horror films are not "Hellraiser" and "Nightmare on Elm Street". Horror films are "Requiem For a Dream", in which characters are fighting the beast that is addiction, a monster that doesn’t fully manifest itself but never leaves. Horror films are "In The Bedroom", where parents are forced to deal painfully with the murder of their only son.

     In this post-9/11 world, most of us are living with the feeling that, with the Twin Towers collapsing, we have been privy to the most frightening image we will ever witness in our lives. Boogeymen don’t have scarred faces or hockey masks. Boogeymen walk amongst us, and there is no clear way of identifying them. With younger generations growing up faster and faster, they are becoming desensitized not by what they have seen happen in this world but, through television and the Internet, how many times and in what ways. It takes something like drug addiction, something like domestic assault, a horror of the in-house type, to really affect us.

     "Jason vs. Freddy" could represent two things. It could represent the dying cry of a genre that is far from being taken seriously. Or it could mean the maturing of movie staples from punch lines to actual characters. Nevertheless, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, however frightening these boogeymen once were, will no longer ever be as scary as real life.

Editors Note: Thanks to Gabe Toro for this fantastic article. A great read.