Since the 1980s, horror nerds have been arguing about who would win in a head-to-head match between the razor-gloved Freddy Krueger of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise and the machete-wielding Jason Voorhees of the Friday The 13th films. Apparently, some film executives caught wind of this controversy and thought there might be some money to be made here. And so, 13 years ago yesterday, New Line Cinema released the mashup film Freddy Vs. Jason, finally bringing these two legends of cinematic carnage together on the screen. Sure, the script had to contort itself like a carnival sideshow performer to get these two wildly incompatible characters together. And, yeah, the ambiguous ending was the kind of coy cop-out that tries to please everyone and ends up pleasing no one. But the late summer film attracted enough curiosity seekers to earn $114 million at the box office.
Since then, Messrs. Krueger and Voorhees have largely gone their separate ways, each enduring the indignities of the dreaded franchise reboot. A full-fledged rematch has yet to happen, except in the fevered imaginations of fanboys everywhere. Perhaps the happiest coda to their saga is Freddy And Jason Have Fun, a 2012 booklet of whimsical illustrations by artist Rafael Koff. Here, the janitor and the goalie are the best of friends and spend plenty of quality time together in carefree revelry. Among their favorite leisure time activities is carefully recreating iconic scenes from classic movies, like this romantic moment from Titanic.