New Yu movie is hardly a ‘Scream’

Last night I finally got around to seeing Ronny Yu’s “Freddy Vs. Jason,” the latest lame attempt to make even more money on two horror franchises that were tired to, uh, death a decade ago. Yu is a talented filmmaker who made a number of films in his native Hong Kong (though he attended college in the U.S.) before coming to Hollywood and making such films as “Formula 51” with Samuel L. Jackson and “Bride of Chucky.”

But “Freddy Vs. Jason” acts as if the “Scream” films never happened. And that’s unforgivable. You can split the horror genre any way you want, but one way is pre-“Scream” and post-“Scream.” Since that clever franchise was created by Wes Craven , whose “Nightmare on Elm Street” character Freddy Krueger is one of the title characters in Yu’s film, it’s hard to figure out what’s going on. It was Kevin Williamson who actually wrote the first “Scream” screenplay, so maybe Craven just sold all the rights to take the payday.

Whatever, “Scream” was clever in how it deconstructed the very concept of the modern horror film. It’s all explained in the following dialogue between Jamie Kennedy (Randy) and Matthew Lillard (Stu):

Randy: There are certain RULES that one must abide by in order to survive a horror movie. First, you can never drink or do drugs.
[crowd boos]
Randy: Second, you can never have sex. BIG NO NO. It’s a sin. It’s an extension of number 1. And last, you can never, ever, ever under any circumstances say “I’ll be right back,” ‘Cause you won’t be back.
Stu: I’m gettin’ another beer, you want one?
Randy: Sure.
Stu: I’ll be right back.
Randy: See, you stretch the rules and you end up dead. I’ll see you in the kitchen with a knife.

Many thanks IMDB . “Scream” set the standard. It meant that we know what’s going on. We stepped behind the curtain and saw the reality of the great and powerful Oz. And now we can’t go back. We can go only forward into a world of fright that is… different. And whatever else “Freddy Vs. Jason” is, it isn’t different. It’s just more of the same old, same old.