Why Wes Craven Passed On Freddy Vs Jason

He may have created one of the titular slashers, but here’s why Wes Craven passed on helming Freddy Vs Jason. Despite creating Freddy Krueger, Craven didn’t have much input in the series following the original film. He rejected the first sequel as he felt the script being developed was inferior, and while he co-wrote a draft of A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, this was later heavily rewritten for the final movie. He also didn’t have any profit participation in the follow-ups, and he watched from a distance as his literally nightmarish creation gradually becoming a ghoulish comedian.

The director would finally return for 1994’s Wes Craven’s New Nightmare after New Line made amends with Craven. New Nightmare was a meta deconstruction of both horror and the franchise, with the makers of the films reckoning with their creation. The movie was ahead of its time and predated Craven’s own meta slasher Scream by two years. New Nightmare is a cerebral and creepy horror that would prove to be Craven’s last outing with Freddy.

Talk of a Freddy Vs Jason movie began brewing in the late 1980s and was in active development by 1993. It would famously take ten years and an endless amount of discarded screenplays before Ronny Yu’s Freddy Vs Jason hit screens in 2003. While the crossover has its share of problems, it’s still an enjoyable beat ’em up that managed to (mostly) stay true to the roots of both slashers. Some were disappointed that Wes Craven himself had zero involvement with Freddy Vs Jason, and he later explained that after New Nightmare, he was essentially done with the series. He spoke in Fangoria issue 148 in 1995 about his lack of interest in the movie, and how he couldn’t think of a concept to make it work.

“But I frankly could not come up with an idea that I wanted to do. I feel like I drew my own personal closure to the series with New Nightmare, but New Line is going to do whatever they decide they want to do with it. There’s a certain market inevitability that dictates they will squeeze every dime out of it that they can. I wish, in a sense, that they would let it have its dignity and end with New Nightmare. Now it’s sort of like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Freddy vs. Jason is taking something that had a lot of impact and dignity and dragging it down to another level. But who knows? Maybe they’ll come up with a new direction that will make it work.”

Wes Craven always took an introspective approach to his work, so in a sense, it’s easy to see why Freddy Vs Jason held little appeal. When the concept is boiled down to its core, it’s a desire to see two reigning horror icons hack pieces off each other, and while that might be viscerally exciting, there’s not much subtext to explore. The director wasn’t a fan of the final movie either, stating in the acclaimed horror documentary Never Sleep Again:

“There’s nothing that brought it up to the level where you could feel this was about some important human issues, aside from just two men smashing each other. So it didn’t do it for me.”

Freddy Vs Jason would prove to be a major success upon release, though its critical reception among fans and critics was more mixed. Both franchises have been dormant for over a decade, with little sign of revival, with Friday The 13th being caught up in a messy legal battle over rights. Wes Craven would sadly pass away in 2015, but between Freddy, Scream. The Hills Have Eyes and many more, he left behind an incredible legacy.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3485 Articles Published)

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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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