After years in the planning, the hybrid flick Freddy Vs. Jason finally hit the screens in 2003. A pairing of Friday the 13th’s Jason and A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy, the movie promised the ultimate showdown between two true horror icons.

Audiences ate it up, as with a gross of $82 million, the film did very well for something from this genre. However, the end result seems more like the same old, same old, without much innovation of creativity.

Forgotten and powerless, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) needs something to scare the kids of Elm Street again so he can return to glory. He delves into hell and revives Jason Voorhies (Ken Kirzinger). Freddy impersonates Jason’s mother and sends the facemask-wearing killer to spread mayhem on Main Street.

Jason terrorizes various teens, but they eventually attempt to turn the tables. This leads to the titular battle between Jason and Freddy.

Or that’s what the title promises, at least, as despite the film’s name, we really don’t get a lot of fighting between the pair. They exist as adversaries for maybe half of the flick but don’t spend much time battling. The last act features more of that sort of mayhem, though even then, the focus stays on the kids and not the baddies.

In truth, Freddy plays more as an Elm Street movie with some 13th elements than as a true hybrid of the two series, and this seems especially true in the flick’s first half. Jason hacks and slashes on occasion, but the plot largely concerns itself with the Freddy legend and menace. Jason’s story becomes more prominent in the film’s second segment, but this remains less integral to the overall plot.

Ah yes – the plot. When I went into Freddy, I essentially assumed that the story would be about how Freddy yanked Jason out of hell to kill and spread the Krueger legend as a result. When Jason wouldn’t stop killing, Freddy’d come back and the pair would go at each other. Did anyone really want anything more than that from this flick?

Since I don’t count myself as a big fan of either series, I can’t answer that. However, I feel that such a tale would be enough to satisfy people who see the film.

We definitely don’t need to tremendous amount of exposition and the intricate plot of Freddy. What with the various teens, the efforts by their parents to suppress dreams, and whatnot, it gets very complicated. While I offer a simple synopsis, the movie goes down a slew of paths, most of which seem unnecessary.

All of this nonsense robs the film of its energy, though I admit I like some of the depth the plot offers. The main concept behind the flick – that Freddy thrives on attention and can’t function without it – seems cool, and the notion that he’ll use Jason to stir up interest appears clever. However, all of the bits with the teens get old quickly.

That seems especially true since the film doesn’t really offer all that much action between the two horror legends. Yeah, things heat up moderately well in the third act, but it takes a lot of dull exposition to get to that point.

Even when we find some fighting, it feels like too little, too late, especially since constant interruptions ruin the flow of the battle. Just when they start to go after each other, we head back to the teens and their actions.

The lack of drama or excitement that appears along the way comes as a problem, though Freddy manages the occasional chilling image. For the first time, we get a real feel for Krueger’s origins as a child-killer, and the scenes with a young girl he tortures and slays are genuinely horrific.

The shots of a pre-teen Jason also help create a feeling of sympathy for the character. That seems kind of odd, but it gives the story a little more depth than I anticipated and offers a few truly creepy bits.

Unfortunately, most of Freddy Vs. Jason is the same old, same old. Occasionally the killings provide memorable moments; the shot of a flaming Jason as he slays in a cornfield comes to mind.

Otherwise, the simplistic characters and excessively convoluted plot weigh down this flick. I don’t know if the die-hards will like it, but it leaves me fairly cold.

By the way, is Springwood located in the Silicone Valley? I didn’t realize that so many high school girls sported breast implants these days.

Freddy Vs. Jason appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Despite some iffy moments during the flick’s early moments, Freddy mostly provided a solid presentation.

Sharpness usually appeared positive, as the majority of the flick came across as accurate and well defined. A few shots displayed a mild amount of softness, but those elements seemed minor.

No issues connected to jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, but some light edge haloes seemed apparent. Grain was appropriate and I noticed no print flaws of any sort.

Given the dark setting of Freddy, not a lot of bright hues appeared. Some stylized lighting showed up with moderate frequency, though. Various sequences became heavily infused with blue, red or green tones, and those seemed distinctive and well represented. In general, the colors were tight and accurate.

Black levels also seemed deep and firm, while most low-light situations appeared cleanly depicted. A few dark shots were a smidgen murky, but the majority of the film’s shadows seemed clear and concise. Despite some niggling issues, Freddy largely offered a nice presentation.

Many will love the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio of Freddy Vs. Jason because it offered an extremely active affair. The soundfield made lively use of all five channels virtually from start to finish.

The surrounds speakers didn’t play a support role. Instead, they often remained as loud as the front channels, and they presented a high level of unique audio.

The various elements seemed well placed within the spectrum and meshed together nicely. Again, each channel got a lot of work. The surrounds featured a wide array of pieces, and even included a moderate amount of directional dialogue from the rears..

Audio quality also appeared strong. Speech was always concise and crisp, with no problems on display connected to edginess or intelligibility. Some of Freddy’s narration also sported deep bass that made his lines more ominous. Music sounded bright and detailed, as both the score and occasional rock songs seemed tight and dynamic.

Effects played the most important role in the film, and those also worked well. The various elements came across as distinctive and accurate. Highs were clean and clear, and bass response sounded deep and rich. No concerns with distortion occurred, and Freddy presented a consistently satisfying soundtrack.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the original 2004 DVD? Audio was more dynamic and better balanced, as I thought the DVD’s mix could use to surrounds in a distracting way, but this version melded together more naturally.

Visuals were also more precise and film-like. All areas showed improvements.

Most of the DVD’s extras repeat here, and we find an audio commentary from director Ronny Yu and actors Robert Englund and Ken Kirzinger. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific piece.

Englund heavily dominates this mediocre commentary. For the most part, he attempts to liven up the proceedings with wisecracks.

However, most of these don’t seem very amusing, so the track falls flat and becomes moderately annoying at times. Englund also frequently tells us how much he likes various elements and lavishes the praise.

Between the jokes and the love, we don’t get much time for actual information, though some pops up on occasion. Englund knocks out some notes about his work on prior Elm Street flicks and his experiences on the Freddy set, and when he quiets down long enough to let the others chime in, they provide reasonably useful remarks about their own work.

However, those elements appear more infrequently than I’d like. Kirzinger simply lacks the personality to override the chatty Englund; sometimes he tries to get out an anecdote but his fellow actor prattles on so much that he can’t win.

Yu seems content to let the others carry the load. Chalk this one up as a pretty disappointing discussion.

21 deleted/alternate scenes fill a total of 16 minutes and 16 seconds. That means most are pretty short and they don’t leave much room for anything to happen.

Indeed, most of these clips just provide brief trims from existing scenes, and they add little. Even the longer ones don’t offer much that seems interesting, so as a whole, they’re pretty forgettable.

The scenes can be watched with or without optional commentary from director Ronny Yu and executive producer Douglas Curtis. They cut the vast majority of these sequences for time reasons and because they provide unnecessary exposition, so that’s essentially all the pair say most of the time. A couple of bits receive additional discussion, but most earn basic remarks.

After this we find six production featurettes. These include “Genesis: Development Hell” (10 minutes, 22 seconds), “On Location: Springwood Revisited” (14:33), “On Location: Cabin Fever” (6:09), “Art Direction: Jason’s Decorating Tips” (11:13), “Stunts: When Push Comes to Shove” (21:38), and “Makeup Effects: Freddy’s Beauty Secrets” (6:30).

We hear from director Ronnie Yu, producer Sean Cunningham, co-chairman and co-CEO of New Line Robert Shaye, New Line senior VP of production Stokely Chaffin, screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, production designer John Willett, stunt coordinator Monty Simons, stunt actors Glenn Ennis and Deborah MacAtumpag, makeup effects artist Bill Terezakis, actors Robert Englund, Chris Marquette, Kelly Rowland, Monica Keena and Ken Kirzinger.

One can infer the various subjects from their titles, but I’ll go through some of the topics nonetheless. “Genesis” looks at some elements of how the flick made it to the screen, most of which look from a slightly different viewpoint than the Fangoria articles; happily, not too much redundant material appears.

“Location” and “Fever” includs only a few comments, as they mostly present images from the set. “Tips” presents some information about the visual look of different places – especially the dream worlds – but also mainly consists of behind the scenes shots.

“Shove” mostly examines the stunt in which a fiery Jason walks through a cornfield as well as some general topics, and video from the set dominates it as well. Lastly, “Secrets” divulges information about how the complicated makeups are developed and applied.

These featurettes show more than tell, so don’t expect many insightful details. Nonetheless, the behind the scenes shots are quite interesting, and they make these featurettes a lot of fun.

More of these sorts of pieces appear in the Visual Effects area. This domain looks at 12 different sequences in a collection that runs 35 minutes, 22 seconds when viewed with the “Play All” option.

Presented as a “tour” with visual effects supervisor Ariel Velasco-Shaw and visual effects producer Kevin Elam, this program intersperses their interview snippets with movie clips and elements of the effects in production. They go through the various challenges in detail and provide a nice examination of their work; the featurette helps us get a good grasp on how they did their effects. The men are very frank about their challenges, so this is a terrific discussion.

Pre-Fight Press Conference – Bally’s Casino, Las Vegas, July 15, 2003 gives us a three-minute and 48-second event to hype the flick. The ever-annoying Michael Buffer hosts and does his ever-annoying shtick as all involved treat Freddy and Jason like prize-fighting boxers. It’s very lame.

Next we get the movie’s theatrical trailer plus eight TV spots. A music video for Ill Nino’s “How Can I Live” features the kind of pop metal usually found in horror flicks.

The video mixes lip-synching with a minor plot in which someone stalks a babe on Elm Street. To my surprise, it includes no movie clips, but it also presents no inspiration and it seems dull.

After this we find My Summer Vacation: A Visit to Camp Hacknslash. This three-minute and 57-second featurette covers a big premiere event in Austin, Texas.

Basically this put a bunch of fans at a summer camp for the day before they watch a screening of the flick. It’s a clever way to stage a premiere but not a very interesting event to watch, except for parts of the wet T-shirt contest, I suppose.

Freddy Vs. Jason did well enough financially to invigorate both movie franchises. Unfortunately, the film lacked much creativity and came across like a missed opportunity. Too much yak, not enough hack! The Blu-ray brings very good audio along with largely positive picture and supplements. This becomes a disappointing team-up film.

To rate this film visit the DVD review of FREDDY VS. JASON