Two old slasher warhorses get it together for a "dumb, but occasionally fun, attempt to squeeze some fresh blood out of two of horror's longest-running franchises". Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday The 13th both spawned multiple hits in the golden age of video, but how will they fare on DVD?

Rocky Meets Freddy

The extra features on this two-disc set offer nothing innovative in style, with the majority of the expansive selection of material consisting of well made but unexciting behind-the-scenes featurettes. The only revelation comes from the Development Hell featurette, where Ronny Yu discusses how he modelled the look of the fights on Rocky. OK... Also covered is the ten-year period it took to get this film off the ground, which along with the Fangoria magazine article included on the subject, should prove interesting to anyone who likes industry stories about rival studios trying and failing to collaborate.

Buckets Of Gore

Gore hounds will get a kick out of the comprehensive footage on the gruesome effects in the film. Despite some CG work, a lot of old school methods are used on the movie, including a particularly long flaming stuntman sequence and other physical stunts. These are covered in depth and prove far more interesting than other discs that bore with endless breakdowns of computer effects where some geek sits in front of a monitor and talks.

Lingering Deaths

There is a pile of deleted footage on disc two - no less than 20 scenes in total. Most of this - by Yu's admission - is trims off scenes that were too long, and as a result are hardly worth a look.

Added to that, you get the distinct impression from them that this was a project without clear plot objectives. You're better off watching the film, which comes with a stunning DTS sound mix that engulfs the speakers around you in horror effects. It's great fun.

EXTRA FEATURES

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.