Final Destination

FINAL DESTINATION (15)

D: James Wong

New Line (Warren Zide, Craig Perry & Glen Morgan)

USA 🇺🇸 2000

97 mins

Horror

W: Glen Morgan, James Wong & Jeffrey Reddick

DP: Robert McLachlan

Ed: James Coblenz

Mus: Shirley Walker

Devon Sawa (Alex Browning), Ali Larter (Clear Rivers), Kerr Smith (Carter Horton), Kristen Cloke (Valerie Lewton), Seann William Scott (Billy Hitchcock), Amanda Detmer (Terry Chaney), Tony Todd (William Bludworth)

Teen-orientated horror film which sees a high school student who foretells a plane crash shortly before departure. He and a handful of his student buddies manage to disembark before takeoff, watching in horror as the chilling prediction comes true.

They may have got one over on the grim reaper on this occasion, but death waits for no man, and the group of survivors find themselves haunted by strange events and fatal accidents.

The acting and screenplay may be incredibly cheesy and the general premise is ridiculously far-fetched, but it's little matter, since the death scenes are quite inventive and realised quite well with some grizzly, macabre visual effects.

Silly, but fun, and having the principal characters share a surname with a legend of the horror genre makes for quite a fitting homage.

6/10

FINAL DESTINATION 2 (15)

D: David R. Ellis

New Line (Warren Zide & Craig Perry)

USA 🇺🇸 2003

90 mins

Horror

W: J. Mackye Gruber & Eric Bress

DP: Gary Capo

Ed: Eric Sears

Mus: Shirley Walker

Ali Larter (Clear Rivers), A.J. Cook (Kimberley Corman), Michael Landes (Thomas Burke), T.C. Carson (Eugene Dix), Jonathan Cherry (Rory Peters)

Cash-in sequel which follows practically the same formula but substitutes a plane crash for a pileup on the motorway. One of the survivors from the first film is promoted to an "expert" on near-death experiences in this and swans around like cock of the walk while all the other characters are basically walking dead.

The death scenes are just as inventive as the first film but the story is complete codswallop. Two more sequels followed, both far inferior to this. Alas, as long as there's an audience there'll always be a Hollywood studio to exploit it.

5/10

FINAL DESTINATION 3 (15)

D: James Wong

New Line/Hard Eight (Glen Morgan, James Wong, Craig Perry & Warren Zide)

US 🇺🇸 2006

93 mins

Horror

W: Glen Morgan & James Wong

DP: Robert McLachlan

Ed: Chris G. Willingham

Mus: Shirley Walker

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Wendy), Ryan Merriman (Kevin), Kris Lemche (Ian), Alexz Johnson (Erin), Sam Easton (Frankie), Jesse Moss (Jason)

No aeroplane or traffic accident this time, in this third Final Destination film, it’s a roller coaster which the main character cheats death on, leading to more of the same from the previous two movies.

It’s difficult to care when the characters are so boring, but alas, it’s only 93 minutes of a waste of time.

I enjoyed the first Final Destination movie for bringing something new to the genre, but after two movies, the same formula gets tired and I can’t help but wonder if it needed to be a franchise at all. Clearly the studio did and wanted to squeeze every last penny out of it.

4/10

THE FINAL DESTINATION (FINAL DESTINATION 4) (15)

D: David R. Ellis

Warner Bros/New Line (Craig Perry & Warren Zide)

US 🇺🇸 2009

82 mins

Horror

W: Eric Bress

DP: Glen MacPherson

Ed: Mark Stevens

Mus: Brian Tyler

Bobby Campo (Nick), Shantel VanSanten (Lori), Nick Zano (Hunt), Haley Webb (Janet), Mykelti Williamson (George), Krista Allen (Samantha)

You may very well hear the sound of the proverbial barrel being scraped in this fourth film of the Final Destination saga, which uses the stencil from the previous three movies, this time using a catastrophe at a motor racing event as the catalyst for death catching up with the survivors.

Mykelti Williamson adds some gravitas as the only adult amongst a cast of teens, but it’s really difficult to care about characters who are so one-dimensionally written, especially the lead (Bobby Campo) who inextricably becomes an expert on the concept of death after the calamitous opening sequence.

The concept was utilised well in the first film, but it really has been done to death here, which was clearly rushed through post-production to cash-in on the 3D gimmick which was all too abundant around the time of release.

4/10