Before he sent Vin Diesel's star shooting off for its brief trip into the stratosphere, director David Twohy brought him crashing down to a barren, dusty planet. Stranding a group of survivors on a triple-sunned, scorched world alongside Diesel's charismatic serial-killing machine, Twohy pushed the boundaries of a slim $23-million budget to craft a taut, tension-filled thriller that defied all our expectations.

The trailer screamed bottom-shelf B-movie, but the final product was something altogether different. The film's biggest surprise? The vicious beasts that lurked beneath the planet surface, flying monstoids that, once an eclipse consumed the light, picked off the crash survivors one by one. No actor is starry enough to be safe, so we can't help be gripped as the Aliens-with-wings tension is cranked up to nail-nibbling levels.

DVD Extras:

The commentary from Twohy, Diesel and co-star Cole Hauser may be light on anecdote, but it's still lively and far more engrossing than the dry gab from the effects team. Neither commentary nor the five-minute Making Of will be new to anyone who bought Pitch Black the first time around, though at least A View Into The Dark - an equally brief look at The Chronicles Of Riddick hosted by Twohy - hasn't been seen before.Also new is a set of diary entries narrated by Black's Riddick-hating bounty hunter Johns, which set the scene for the first film. There's also a Chronicles visual encyclopaedia, which explores the universe of both the original and its sequel. Other than that, it's the usual promo guff, advertising the short animé film that links Pitch Black with its follow-up (Dark Fury, available separately for £12.99) and the tie-in game. Finally, there are a couple of minutes from the opening scenes of Chronicles itself. For first-time buyers and completists only.