31 Days of Horror: Final Destination

"In death there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, and no escapes."

Filmology Rating: 2.5 out of 4

Death has a plan for us all, to some death will come quicker than for others, but it is wise for each of us to remember that we cannot outrun death.  

Alex, played by Devon Sawa, is a superstitious person who believes every little incident could affect his life.  Alex does everything in his power to play it safe so he will never end up hurt.  Alex has a premonition about his plane exploding moments after takeoff which propels him into a panic mode.  Alex rushes off the plane and takes some of his friends with him.  His friends try to calm him down telling him that he is crazy.  The flight takes off without them, and it does indeed explode causing his group of friends to live in fear that Death may soon be coming after them.  

Final Destination could only exist before 9/11 with the terrifying plane sequence of the film.  I usually have no issue flying and overall enjoy the experience more than driving, but watching all the terror that takes place on Flight 180 makes me rethink my love for flight travel.  How realistic the terror looks during that scene is what makes it so effective.  This scene will make anyone who have been on the fence about flying never step on the plane again.

As someone who enjoys dark comedies, I enjoyed the morbid ways that Death came for the characters.  Since the characters don’t actually believe that they cheated Death,  they are just going about their normal lives while watching all the ways in which Death sets up the end for these characters is interesting to watch.  It’s basically a rube goldberg of death and for those who like inventive kills in your horror films,  then I strongly suggest watching this film.  And for those who enjoy dark comedies then you will find yourself laughing at the outcome of some of the deaths.  

One aspect of this film which clearly doesn’t work is the entire FBI subplot.  Ideally some people would not go along with the supernatural aspects of the film,  so you would need a human force fighting against the protagonist as well.  It just comes in swinging but then once the third act of the film hits they are completely gone, which is foolish because it’s during the third act that the FBI could actually build a case for what they want the outcome to be.  Either writers Glenn Morgan, James Wong, and Jeffrey Reddick forgot how about the small number of characters who are actually in the film or they simply didn’t care about the subplot that they added to the film.  I would suggest that wasting screentime is a sin that movies do too often and that the film almost falls off the rails when it focuses time on characters and then moments later acts like they don’t exist.  

During the final act of the film Alex becomes incredibly paranoid and starts to place security measures in place so Death will never be able to come for him.  Everytime I watch Final Destination I always think about all the ways that fate could come down upon me. At times I think that I should take steps like Alex and be overprotective,  but then I realize that I wouldn’t be actually living at that point.  Nothing in Final Destination is scary but it does have some great tension and some of the best games of cat and mouse in recent memory.

Rating: Rent It

-Jonny G