Freddy (Robert Englund), making his eighth appearance, meets up with Jason (Ken Kirzinger) in his thirteenth outing in Ronny Yu's film. Both are in hell but Freddy has lost his powers; the teens of Elm Street have forgotten about him and if they don't dream, he cannot stalk them. But if he can send Jason to his old haunts to start killing, Freddy can be remembered and take over his rightful place as slaughterer-in-chief. Unfortunately, Jason gets to enjoy his role too much and Freddy must teach him a lesson.
In the same way that, in the 40s, Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man ended up in The House of Frankenstein while in the 60s, Godzilla did battle with King Kong, the meeting of monsters is nothing new with, of course, the potential to double the audience. But Yu, best known for his all-action martial arts films, brings a certain levity to this; Jason and Freddy bicker over teen-slaying rights like an old married couple.
The teens (including Monica Keena from Dawson's Creek, Kelly Rowland from Destiny's Child, Jason Ritter and Chris Marquette) are largely there to look good, die horribly and, in their afterlife, explain the plotting but the battle royale at the end belongs to two icons of the slasher genre. New Line, who bought the rights to the Freddy franchise, could do worse than see if Miramax are ready to sell Halloween and then Michael Myers can join the party.