Final Destination
This was another film that I hadn’t actually heard of before watching it. I’m not really much of a Horror fan and my other half won’t usually watch them at all. It came highly recommended however so we thought we would give it a shot. If you’d rather not know about the plot then jump on a section...
This was another film that I hadn’t actually heard of before watching it. I’m not really much of a Horror fan and my other half won’t usually watch them at all. It came highly recommended however so we thought we would give it a shot. If you’d rather not know about the plot then jump on a section.
Plot
A group of students are going on a trip to France. While they are waiting for their plane to taxi from the gate, Alex (Devon Sawa) has a premonition that the plane will explode after take off. Alex tries to rush off the plane in a panic and six other passengers end up being thrown off with him. Just minutes later while they are being detained in the lounge they see the plane explode through the window.
Naturally everyone is very suspicious of Alex and how he knew this was going to happen. Things start to become more sinister as the surviving passengers start to get killed off. While the FBI suspects Alex is involved, he suspects that a higher force is cleaning up from a mistake.
Video / Audio
Video quality is excellent, as you might expect from such a recent film. The picture comes in a 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and is sharp and richly coloured. There are quite a few dark scenes in the film and they come through very well.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is very atmospheric. The film is loaded with surround effects and the whole sound stage is used effectively. One of the more impressive things though is the use of subtle sound effects like the wind breezing through the windows. The film also has an excellent and atmospheric musical score.
Extras
First up is the commentary track. This track feature James Wong (Director), Glen Morgan (Writer / Producer), James Coblentz (Editor) and Jeffrey Reddick (Screenplay). One of the problems I always have when a commentary has this many people is that I can’t keep track of who’s currently talking. It would have been nice to have a subtitle display the name of whoever’s talking during the commentary. Complaints aside, it’s a pretty good commentary with some real insights into the background of the film. For example we find out that all the character names are tributes to Horror actors and directors.
Next up is a selection of three deleted scenes. These scenes are all linked as they make up a whole subplot and alternative ending to the film. It’s worth checking them out to decide which ending you prefer. Also hats off to New Line here for taking the time to make these scenes anamorphic.
There’s a 13-Minute featurette on the process of test screening the film. The feature discusses how they changed the ending after the results of test screenings. There’s also read out some of the more humorous comments on the questionnaires. There are some major spoilers on this extra so don’t even think about watching it before you watch the film.
The other featurette is a 20-Minute feature on Pam Coronado, a Psychic or Intuitive Investigator as they call it. Whether you believe in this stuff or not, the extra is interesting enough to watch once.
The rest of the extras are a Theatrical Trailer, some extensive Cast & Crew Bios and two games. One of these games is a Psychic Eye test in which you have to guess the card from a choice of five. After playing several times I can conclude that I’m about as psychic as a dead fish. The other games is called death clock. After answering a series of questions on your general health, it tells you the date you will die on, charming.
Finally, although I don’t normally mention them as an extra, I have to say that I quite liked the animated menus. They are fairly simplistic in style but very effective.
Overall
I actually fly around Europe quite a lot with my job and no matter how many times I get on a plane I still fear flying. If you’re like me then the opening 20 minutes will utterly scare the pants off you. The way Alex checks the body of the plane over and watches the flaps / engine etc to make sure they’re working is just like when I’m on a plane. This just goes to make it all the more scary as the flight starts to go wrong. When things do start to go wrong my stomach was churning just watching it.
As I mentioned at the start of the review, I am not a big horror fan. I quite enjoyed this film though, it has more than it’s fair share of jump out of your seat moments. The violent scenes, while pretty gruesome aren’t too over the top and I’ve definitely seen a lot worse. One of the things that always puts me off these kind of films is the fact that they always have a rubbish ending. This one isn’t actually too bad though, not the best I’ve seen, but definitely not the worst either.
The acting generally was very good with notable performances from Devon Sawa as Alex and Ali Larter as Rivers. There’s also a brief but very good role played by Tony Todd as Bludworth the undertaker. He comes across as extremely sinister and puts a real chill up the spine. Generally the rest of the cast are very good with only one or two actors looking really wooden.
Although I did enjoy it, this is basically another teen horror movie and if you’ve feel that you’ve overloaded on your scream movies it might be a bit too samey for you. For me though, with the jump out of your skin moments and very scary first twenty minutes, plus a good selection of extras, I’m going to give it 4 out of 5.
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