Freddy vs Jason: the most LIT movie I’ve ever seen in theaters

So it’s a mid-August night in the summer of 2003. My mom, her boyfriend, my sisters and me are all on our way to the only two movie theaters they have in Chapel Hill where we live at. Our plan is to see the long awaited and highly anticipated film Bad Boys 2. We went to the first theater, The Timberline, and it was all sold out. We went to second theater, The Plaza, and it was also sold out there as well. We were disappointed because we were really looking forward to seeing the movie, but since we couldn’t my mom and her boyfriend Leroy suggested we might as well just see something else instead. Now I forget who exactly said something first, but what I do remember is my sister and Leroy suggesting that we see the also long awaited and highly anticipated slasher crossover film Freddy vs Jason.

Now when I first heard this suggestion I was taken aback. Personally, me and my big sister Rudy are big horror fanatics, especially when it comes to slashers and the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises are both two of my top favorite slasher series. My mom however, absolutely HATED horror films, she didn’t like being scared. Because of this she didn’t know what Freddy vs Jason was and agreed with Rudy and Leroy’s suggestion. As for me, I never necessarily said we should or shouldn’t see it, I actually was just afraid to watch it in theaters and that was saying a lot considering that I’ve always been a big fan of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. Yet, I still went with the flow, scared and excited at the same time.

There were a number of things I was expecting from this movie before we walked into the screening room. I knew it was gonna be scary, I knew I was gonna jump out of fright a few times, I knew my mom was gonna be ready to kill us all for tricking her into watching a scary movie, but what I did not expect is that Freddy vs Jason would end up being the most exciting movie that I would ever watch in theaters. This movie was a fright fest from the moment it started. I sat in my seat with my eyes barely open and my fingers plugged in both my ears until both my ears and fingers started hurting and I couldn’t hold them together anymore. The earliest appearances and actions of Freddy and Jason both had everyone in the screening room jumping out of their seats.

Between Freddy’s dream sequences and Jason’s killing methods, that packed screening room just could not stop bouncing off the walls. The film’s fair amount of humor also contributed to how entertaining the movie was as well. As we got into the movie more and more my mom got irate with how scary it was and got angry and said she wanted us to leave and go watch Spy Kids 3D: Game Over which was also playing, but being the cheapskate that she was she realized that she didn’t want to spend money twice because that would be a waste, so she decided to just stay and rough it through the rest of the movie.

When Freddy and Jason finally started fighting everyone in the room turned into the audience at a live boxing match. As the two horror titans went back and forth you had one side of the packed screening room cheering on one horror icon and you had the other side of the packed screening room cheering on the other horror titan. All this cheering was of course accompanied by screams of shock and terror. When the film came to its final scene and Jason came out of that water as the victor holding Freddy’s head as a trophy everyone erupted in thunderous applause glad to see him as the winner. At the same time we all jumped for joy as Freddy ended the movie by giving the audience a fourth wall wink. As we all walked out of the theater everyone was celebrating amongst themselves with enjoyment, my mom included. What made this movie the most epic film I ever watched in theaters was the fact that no one expected to enjoy themselves that much. I’ve seen a lot of epic movies but unlike Freddy vs Jason I expected to enjoy myself like I did when I saw the likes of the biggest Marvel movies or Harry Potter movies. Freddy vs Jason however was the fun that I didn’t know I was gonna have.

I was checking the newsfeed on my Facebook today and saw that yesterday marked 20 years since Freddy vs Jason first came out in theaters and amazed a 10 year old me. To this day Freddy vs Jason is still a horror masterpiece and one of my favorite entries in both of the franchises of which it is a crossover. No matter how many great experiences I have in theaters in the future, none will ever compare to that night at the the Plaza Theater 20 years ago when I first saw Freddy vs Jason.