Before they turn on each other, Freddy needs to resurrect Jason in Freddy vs. Jason, and here's how he retrieves the Crystal Lake killer from Hell. As the iconic villain of the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises, respectively, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees ruled the horror genre in the 1980s, along with Halloween's Michael Myers. By the 1990s though, both Freddy and Jason were ready to die, literally.
In 1991's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Freddy was confronted by his long-lost daughter, who pulled him out of the land into dreams into reality, then killed him with a pipe bomb. In 1993's Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Jason - after having spent the majority of the film as a body-hopping demon - ends up back in his normal body long enough to be stabbed with a magic dagger and dragged straight to Hell by various demons.
Of course, in a landmark moment for horror, the very end of Jason Goes to Hell sees Jason's hockey mask still on the surface, before being grabbed and taken down to Hell by the glove of Freddy Krueger. This was intended to setup a showdown between Freddy and Jason, now that both slashers were controlled by New Line Cinema. However, that project spent a decade in development hell, not arriving until 2003. Thankfully, their returns from the underworlds were at least somewhat explained.
Freddy vs. Jason: How Freddy Brings Jason Back From Hell
At the beginning of Freddy vs. Jason, both killers reside in the depths of Hell. Freddy is powerless back in the mortal realm, as after his most recent death in Freddy's Dead, the residents of Springwood enacted a plan to effectively erase his existence from history. Without fear to fuel him, Freddy was stuck in the netherworld. In order to get back to the business of killing, Freddy found Jason Voorhees' corner of Hell, then used what juice he had left to transform into Jason's mom Pamela. Still a mama's boy at heart, Pamela's encouragement wakes Jason up from his eternal slumber, sending him off to Springwood to claim victims.
Jason arriving in Springwood and hacking up teens naturally leads the local adults to wonder if Freddy has returned, and when younger people overhear this chatter, fear of Freddy quickly spreads. Before long, the Springwood Slasher is fully back, and able to haunt nightmares once more. Unfortunately, while Jason accomplished Freddy's goal of facilitating the latter's return to full strength, Freddy miscalculated by thinking he'd be able to somehow stop Jason once he'd started him. This leads to Freddy vs. Jason's titular showdown, and a true battle of the titans.