Among the modern horror classics, the icons of the slasher era still hold sway over large swaths of pop culture. Even before the current trend of combining franchises and series spiraled into shared settings like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, horror had a habit of allowing its creatures and characters to confront each other. 2003 even pitted two of them openly against each other. Freddy vs. Jason pitted two of modern horror's most iconic killers against one another, but at the end of the day, was it Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees who really stood out as the more prolific -- and terrifying -- slasher villain?
Freddy vs. Jason reveals that the events of the original Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street franchises had been quietly existing in the same world. After being defeated and trapped in the afterlife, Freddy Krueger's memory is hidden from the next generation of people in Springwood. In an attempt to terrify the populace into remembering him (restoring his powers), Freddy is able to resurrect Jason Voorhees. Quickly, rumors spread of Jason's newest rampage, setting up Freddy to make his return, but even as Freddy gets the chance to target a new generation of teens, Jason's insatiable habit of killing people steals a number of kills from Freddy. This forces a murder-hungry Freddy to turn against Jason, attempting to destroy his psyche.
The entire film is positioned as a duel between the slasher icons, building to the climactic third act. After being pulled into the material world, Freddy is forced to confront Jason head-on in a full-scale battle. Freddy's speed and inventiveness serve him well, allowing him to land a number of attacks on Jason, but Jason's nigh-unstoppable physical stature means he can more or less brush off every attack thrown at him.
The battle ends with both villains exhausted, but Jason uses one of Freddy's own severed limbs to seriously wound him, before collapsing into Crystal Lake. However, this leaves Freddy open to be beheaded by Lori, the film's final girl. The following morning, Jason is seen walking out of the lake carrying Freddy's severed (but still alive) head. This seems to set up the possibility that neither of them won.
Despite this, Jason really does end the film with an apparent advantage over Freddy in two crucial ways. Firstly, Jason still has his body attached. While Freddy's more overt supernatural nature allows him to ignore the otherwise fatal injury, it's clear he's still reeling from the battle. Jason, on the other hand, is seemingly prepared to continue his rampage, resuming his slasher ways after an extended period.
The more telling sign of victory comes with their respective kill counts. While Freddy is iconic in his own right, it's more due to his creative and cruel nature as a movie killer. Jason, instead, has a truly baffling kill count, and (along with Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise) has one of the highest on-screen numbers of murders in American horror.
Across the course of Freddy vs. Jason, there are 22 on-screen deaths. Of those, Freddy is only technically responsible for two: Mark Davis (who he slashes and burns to death) and Lori's unnamed mother (who is stabbed to death). These two are also fairly basic deaths.
Jason, by contrast, earns a whopping 19 kills across the course of the film. Although he uses his trademark machete for many of them, he also electrocutes, crushes and mutilates some of his victims. He even stabs the verbally abusive Trey multiple times before literally folding him in half in a mattress. Despite the ending of the film trying to imply something akin to a draw, Jason walked away from Freddy vs. Jason as the clear slasher movie champion.