In the wake of watching a gazillion episodes of Supernatural, i needed something different to watch but something equally chilling. So i opted for Final Destination. Not the most spine chilling movie in my collection but it is still an interesting horror film.
I am a fan of single serve horror movies, which this one is not. Because they re-hashed the main plot four more times ( i still havent seen the new one, the 5th one yet ), the first one is hardly even a horror anymore, but nevermind. Whats a little negativity going in anyway.
I doubt theres anyone who has yet to watch these movies, but for anyone who hasnt, i shall give its desription a little whirl.
The main plot of the movie is that no one can cheat death, no matter how much they think they can mess with deaths design. The main character, one Alex Browning is about to embark on a senior trip with his classmates and teachers to paris. Once onboard the plane, Alex has a vision about the plane blowing up and everyone on board dying in a fiery ball of explosive terror. I'll pause here and reflect on the effects for a moment. It is some pretty scury shit. I hate seeing anyone in movies burn alive and this movie has burning flesh from bone in spades. Its a powerful 2 or 3 minutes on alex's premonition, but you can almost feel the terror. The kind that makes you never want to get on a plane again. Its good, but sometimes a little too good.
So, Alex wakes and realises it didnt happen (yet) and in a moment of frenzied clarity, he gets himself and 6 other people off the plane. They are detained in the airport and whilst cursing their bad fortune, they watch the plane blow up, just seconds after take off, just as in Alex's vision. Of course, everyone who got of the plane is freaked. Some bad acting here i think, but its early 2000 and everyones still sporting 90s haircuts and 90s acting. Think Clueless... see, i told you it was scary.
So, of course the survivors start dying in gruesome and terrifying ways. Alex laters discovers that they are dying in the order they would have if they had stayed on the plane. The deaths themselves, are really gruesome. Unlike so many horrors to come out in the last 15 years or so, you get to see the deaths. Instead of having the camera pan off to the corner, hearing a blood curdling scream and just assuming someone died a bloody death. You get to see some really fucked up deaths.
If you are slightly philosophical or worldy like i am, you might see there's some slight bends in the plot. The characters see death as a figure, a person with a personality and an attitude, instead of an entity or a force. Sometimes, its like your waiting to see the killer, smiling, looking at the news clippings of the dead survivors. But of course you never do, because its death itself, not a person. That is a trend that also runs throughout all the movies. And thats my main problem with the movie (s).
With a concept such as this, its a one trick pony...maybe two tricks if you ask nicely and dangle a carrot. But to drag it out for 5 movies is just stupid. Each character in each movie always assumes that death can be stopped, that you can interveen in deaths plan, but of course death is inevitable and can never be stopped. I do understand that these are movies, but this thin and sparse subject matter has been drawn out too much that movies 3, 4 and im guessing 5 are just sexy teen slashers and in no way can be considered original horror dynamite. In my opinion, it makes for some sketchy pictures.
But nontheless, i do like the first movie. Its a smart concept but almost too obvious. And like i said, its been dragged on far far too long. So watch it, dont watch it. Just don't insult yourself by watching the other ones.
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