Before they faced off on the big screen, A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger and Friday the 13th's Jason Voorhees did a real pre-fight weigh-in as promotion for Freddy Vs Jason in 2003. When their respective franchises began in the ‘80s, horror fans worldwide were undecided on who would win in a showdown between Freddy and Jason. The question of whether the diminutive, talkative Springwood slasher could take down the hulking, wordless Jason Voorhees divided the horror community for decades and eventually led to the creation of 2003's Freddy Vs Jason.
However, while anticipation was high for this face-off, the movie took its time coming to fruition. The ending of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday may have seen Freddy’s trademark razor-tipped glove snatching the madman’s mask, but it would be over a decade before the fight between them reached cinemas due to a messy development process. When Freddy Vs Jason did arrive, it was not beloved by critics but was well-liked by audiences, and has since been reappraised as a campy cult classic that sacrifices scares in favor of fun.
Even before the crossover arrived, it was clear to fans Freddy Vs Jason’s success would rely on the movie never taking itself too seriously. This point was proven with a 20-minute weigh-in promotional presentation live from Las Vegas that teased the film a month before its release in 2003. Unearthed by Bloody Disgusting back in 2017, this weigh-in is both a fun piece of promotional material and a time capsule to the early Internet era when it occurred, with this sort of stunt becoming more commonplace in the years that followed as studios attempted to drum up viral marketing for otherwise-inexpensive horror movies. However, not a lot was revealed about the plot and characters of Freddy Vs Jason during the weigh-in, with the organizers aware that eager horror audiences were there to see the two icons.
A ringside promoter MC’ing the event noted that Freddy Krueger had “over 1,000 career kills” and “seven resurrections,” but Englund’s slasher still weighed in at a paltry 174 pounds. In contrast, the “tower of power” Jason Voorhees did his hometown of Camp Crystal Lake proud with a whopping 322-pound weigh-in - at least, until he was relieved of his machete, dropping him to 275 pounds instead. The questions from the press are predictably comical as the pair are joined onstage by the movie's director and producer, with Jason answering his questions via a translator who only offers a deadpan “no comment.” Freddy meanwhile engages in his traditional trash talk, calling an unfortunate reporter “be-yotch” and calling “hockey puck” “mama’s boy” Voorhees “Steroid City.”
The entire promotion is filled with moments of campy shtick, with one subtle gag seeing Freddy actor Robert Englund gulp down water like a boxing veteran immediately after his weigh-in. An analyst argues that, despite the relative maneuverability of Krueger’s razor glove over Voorhees’ trademark machete, the Friday the 13th franchise figure earns the opening line favorite thanks to being resurrected three more times than Freddy. The odds are eventually set at “Freddy 7/5,” “Jason 2/3,” which was a pretty accurate summation that could have helped canny viewers guess how the actual movie would play out. In the film proper, Jason barely bests Freddy during the climax thanks to the assistance of Freddy Vs Jason’s final girl, Lori.