DVD Review

Everyone's favourite supernatural serial killers have been beaten. The teenagers of Elm Street have forgotten about Freddy Krueger and his hunting ground, Springwood, has been peaceful for four years, while Jason Voorhees is lying in a shallow grave at Camp Crystal Lake as close to death as he can be. Freddy is powerless without fear and decides to enter Jason's dreams and con him into starting another killing spree on Elm Street that he hopes will resurrect the fear of Freddy and allow him to become the master of nightmares once more. But Jason refuses to play second fiddle to anyone and continues his killing spree, stealing Freddy's victims. Lori (Monica Keena), Kia (Kelly Rowland) and Gibb (Katherine Isabelle) and their friends were at the scene of Jason's first Elm Street murder and discover that the authorities of Springwood are covering up all mention of Freddy's previous crimes in a hope that their children will never fear him again. With two undead serial killers on the loose the teens decide to pit them against one another in the hope that they will kill each other and drive out to Camp Crystal Lake with a tranquillised Jason in tow with a plan to pull Freddy into the real world, leading to a showdown that fans have been waiting for for years.

Both Freddy and Jason franchises ran out of steam nearly 15 years ago and needed ironic, post-modern sequels in the shape of New Nightmare and Jason X to reinvigorate some interest in the characters. A Freddy vs. Jason movie has been a fanboy's dream since the mid-Eighties but the first thing apparent in this film is that both characters are tired caricatures with nothing new or interesting to offer. Yes the film offers some inventive new kill scenes and the opportunity to see these two horror legends enter into a battle royale but the screenplay is a mess and gets so bogged down re-establishing 'important' backstory that the film rarely gathers any momentum and becomes increasingly bitty. Freddy is as camp as ever and some of his scenes are unbelievably jokey; certainly by the time the final battle comes round I couldn't have cared less who came out on top. On the plus side Freddy vs. Jason offers some top notch female eye candy in the curvy shape of the scantily clad Keena (Orange County), Destiny's Child's Rowland and Isabelle (Ginger Snaps).

Optics:

This 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer looks pretty fine. Given the exceptional array of bright colours on offer through the film's varied lighting scheme, the colour control is nothing short of miraculous. Detail levels are good but nothing amazing. Most importantly given the movie's dark visuals, black levels are exceptional and no detail is lost even in the darker moments. The only minor downside is that the transfer doesn't encode a couple of the film's foggy/steamy moments particularly well resulting in a few brief artefacts, but it's nothing too severe. A 4:3 transfer from the Super35 filming process is included on the first disc.

Sonics:

This DD 5.1 EX soundtrack is the kind of mix I really love — highly aggressive use of the surround channels, excellent channel separation, a ramped up output level and clean crisp dialogue. Surrounds are used almost completely throughout from ambient effects like rain to discrete dialogue placement.

Extras:

When it comes to extras there's a strict policy of quantity over quality on this disc. The commentary is fun but not particularly insightful with Robert Englund aka Freddy joking his way through it with a sack full of anecdotes. Most of the production and visual effects featurettes are simply the crew talking up the film, especially in the case of the effects technicians, as some of the CGI shots are indefensible. The Freddy vs. Jason pre-fight press conference is unbelievably geeky, as is the summer camp inspired world premiere featurettes.

Well?

It's a pretty terrible film that, I hope, spells an end to these two long-in-the-tooth franchises, but the disc is presented with a certain degree of love and attention that will appeal to the hardcore fans.

James Buttery