In the time between Freddy Vs. Jason and the Platnium Dunes Friday the 13th 2009 remake, a lot happened for the franchise. First, the original 8 movies were released on DVD in a collector's box set called From Crystal Lake to Manhattan. The newer Deluxe DVD editions are better, but the 2004 box set includes commentaries that the newer DVD editions do not have. Second, and most importantly, a coffee table sized book on the franchise was released in 2005. Crystal Lake Memories started a trend in doing retrospectives of slasher series and it set the bar extraordinarily high. Third, and this is what I'm reviewing now, Freddy Vs. Jason got a sequel...in comic book form.
Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash, like Freddy Vs. Jason, went through development hell. There are a lot of rumors circulating the project. Most of them involve Bruce Campbell not wanting to do it. I don't blame the man. They made a really great trio of films and The Evil Dead is so tonally different from Friday and Nightmare I can understand why he passed. Having said that, I think the comic is excellent. For those of you who have kept up with me: if you have not read this comic or it's sequel which I'm reviewing next, I strongly urge you to stop reading now and to go out and read it for yourself.
Ultimately, the decision was made to turn Jeff Katz's script into a 6 limited edition comic book series. We begin with our previous final girl Lori. 5 years have passed and she's returning with Will to Crystal Lake to make sure Freddy and Jason are truly dead and to give closure to that chapter in their life. For the first time since Part 2, our surviving characters get killed in the opening scene. They are both killed by Jason. I like this turn of events quite a lot. It makes Jason stronger and more like what he was in the beginnings of the franchise. It's a lot more in character than Freddy Vs. Jason presented him as. He's strong and unforgiving. He wouldn't have made a friendship with Lori even though she saved him for the sole purpose of killing Freddy. Will was pretty forgettable in the last movie to me, so I'm not too upset by his passing. We quickly learn that the narrator is the chosen one, or Ash, from The Evil Dead trilogy.
Bringing Ash in doesn't tonally make sense to me. I know there was that one shot in Jason Goes to Hell, (which is used and explained in this comic book series, thank goodness!) but that was just a random nod to another franchise. It wasn't thought out by those filmmakers. Jeff Katz put more time in explaining their mess in this installment than they did for their film!
Basically it goes like this: Freddy's stuck inside Jason's head, so he gets Jason to go back to his house where the Book of the Dead is. Freddy uses the Book of the Dead to come regain full power, giving Jason more intelligence at the same time. Ash explains that Freddy and Jason are Deadites or demons, like the ones in The Evil Dead trio. Mrs. Voorhees used the Book of the Dead to resurrect Jason. Although it's a cool addition, it doesn't make sense with the first movie, but let's face it: none of the sequels make sense in the reality based original movie, so this gets a pass.
The final girl, Carrie, is even more forgettable than Lori was. I know nothing about this girl other than she survived, is a love interest for Ash, and worked at the Crystal Lake S-Mart. Ash is the true final survivor, but as this is based on a final girl analysis, Ash won't get analyzed.
I really only have one complaint about the comic book. Freddy goes all blasphemous mocking Christian communion and drawing an upside down cross on himself. I found this to be incredibly offensive. They didn't need that to be in there. It felt like simply a jab at my religion, my relationship with God and that's not cool. I was extremely disappointed by that decision.
Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash was released in 6 limited edition comic books from November 2007 to March 2008. In September 2008 the 6 editions were combined into one book. That is the book that I read. In between this and the sequel, the Platinum Dunes remake was released. Seeing as it'll make more sense to finish off the original series with the next comic, I will review that first and end with the remake. We're getting near the end guys! But what would happen in the third chapter of the Freddy Vs. Jason trilogy? Would Jason finally die...well, we'll discuss that next time...
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