Seven: MOVIES: Butcher boys; Slasher icons go face to mask in a disappointing showdown.

IT'STHE clash of the horror movie titans. In the red corner: razor-fingered child murderer Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare On Elm Street films; and in the blue corner: machete-wielding behemoth Jason Vorhees from the Friday The 13th series.

Two iconic figures who have thus far haunted completely separate worlds - Freddy stalking victims in their dreams,Jason running amok in the real world.

Now, in Ronny Hu's long mooted horror-thriller, these two fearsome big screen bogeymen meet in a showdown to prove who's the scariest of themall.

It should be a thrilling encounter, were it not for the merely workmanlike screenplay.

Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has been condemned to Hell for all eternity. He is unable to terrorise the children of Elm Street in their dreams because their parents are doping them up with tablets.

So the razor-clawed killer hatches a devious plan and hoodwinks the recently resurrected Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) into stalking them instead.

Caught between Freddy in their nightmares and Jason in the real world, plucky teens Will (Jason Ritter), Lori (Monica Keena) and Kia (Kelly Rowland) hatch their own outlandish plot: to drag Freddy into reality and then turn the two killers against one another.

The result adheres to all the classic horror movie conventions -the couple who have sex are doomed to a sticky end -and makes sure to include all of the necessary iconography.

Fans of each respective bogeyman will no doubt thrill to all of these visual signposts,but once the nostalgia subsides, Freddy Vs Jason boasts only a few genuine thrills and spills.

CAPTION(S):

BLUNTED BLADES: Nostalgic excitement for the return of two old favourites is soon replaced with tedium