Death comes in many forms. One thing is for sure: at one point your number will come up. I’m just glad I don’t know when that moment will arrive, nor would I ever want to know. There are people who believe that time is pretty much set, and you don’t have any influence on it whatsoever. I for one believe that’s partly true. I could go and try to jump out of a plane without using a parachute, but I guess than it’s pretty much a given that I would not survive the attempt. But that would mean I would have to get over my fear of flying, in order to enter a plane in the first place. So yeah, no chance of that ever happening. Okay, that’s enough of these morbid thoughts let’s get on to something more cheerful, shall we? How about a review for a horrormovie about death? Erm…wait….

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You did see that big fireball up in the air right?

What’s better than learning French in class? Well how about a schooltrip to Paris? And that’s exactly what highschool student Alex is about to do, together with the rest of his class. Arriving at the airport he boards the plane that will take him and his fellow classmates to the city of romance, flight 180. But then when he has just taken his seat, he experiences a terrifying vision. In this vision he sees the plane explode right after take off leaving no survivors. The experience was so real that he tries to leave the plane in horror. This ofcourse causes quite the commotion and eventually six other students together with a teacher exit the plane together with Alex. They are forced to stay behind by the airline, and flight 180 leaves for Paris. It doesn’t come very far however as the horrifying vision Alex had, becomes a reality and the plane explodes in mid air. Both relieved but also in total shock that they survived and basically cheated death, the survivors try to pick up their lives as best they can. But it seems death doesn’t take kindly to being cheated, as one by one they begin to die…….

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Erm, you do know that lipstick is supposed to on your lips, not on the rest of your face right?

I had a blast watching this movie again. Although it is not as big a classic as the other movies that I have so far been featuring in my Countdown to Halloween series, it’s still a highly enjoyable movie that will entertain most lovers of teen slasher films. I thought the concept of the film was pretty original. You sometimes hear about certain miracles that happen in real life with people surviving disasters or walking away from accidents, that under normal circumstances should have left them dead. Final Destination is of course taking things into the extreme zone, but that’s why we call this a movie in the first place. One of the things we watch films like these for, and please don’t deny that, is seeing these teens die in horrifying and inventive ways. And yes I do know how that sounds. Luckily Final Destination serves that up, and then some, but it is also pretty refreshing that it never gets really gory. The death scenes are certainly gruesome, but the red stuff doesn’t explode in fountains across your television screen.

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And erm, I’m also pretty sure that knives are not supposed to go in there either.

The cast of the movie is made up of your stereotype bunch of teens, or in other words actors and actresses that were much older at the time but still looked young enough to pass as teenagers. That said, the acting certainly isn’t bad, and a cut above the normal level for these kind of movies. Ali Larter is probably the best known actress from the film, as she has since gone on to play in several other horrormovies including the Resident Evil series. In Final Destination she plays Clear Rivers, the love interest for Alex, and she would also return for the second installment. She was the character in this film that I had the most sympathy for. The rest of the survivors were all pretty self centered but she at least had a bit of depth and some back story to her. Also worthy of note is a small, but highly entertaining role for veteran actor Tony “Candyman” Todd. His sinister voice and natural creepyness are always a joy to watch, and in this film that was no exception.

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Cleaning a bathtub can be a dangerous job.

The Franchise

From all the franchises that are featured in this special Halloween series of blog posts, this is the one with the least amount of parts. Final Destination went on to produce four more sequels until death finally called it quits. There have been rumors for a sixth installment for a while now, but nothing really concrete has so far emerged for that. The sequels all featured variations on the first film, with a big disaster occuring at the beginning of the movie, and a couple of teens escaping from that at the last second. I honestly have to say that the sequels were not bad. The fourth part for me was the overall weakest of the bunch, but the rest of them were actually quite entertaining. I especially liked the ending of part five, that featured a really cool twist. As usual though, the gorelevel rises a bit in the sequels, but it never reaches Saw-like levels thankfully. A trademark of the series is of course making you think twice about doing certain things, or exploiting a fear you might have had already. I am not a big fan of roller coasters for instance, but after seeing the opening scene of part three, I think most people will give them a pass. I have included the scene below for your viewing pleasure 😀

The Verdict

So there we have it. As they say, all good things must come to an end, and we have almost reached it for my Halloween series. But there is still one more movie to come, namely the John Carpenter classic Halloween. That one will be coming up next week. Let’s not forget the verdict for Final Destination though. As mentioned this movie may not be such a timeless classic, but it is actually quite a good horrormovie. With a fun storyline, pretty decent acting, and a couple of awesome deathscenes you could definitely find worse movies out there. If you like films such as Scream or I know what you did Last Summer, this one can be added blindly to that list. So over to you! Have you seen the movies from this franchise? Do you have any favorites? Or perhaps even a favorite deathscene? Let me know in the comments section below. As always, thank you for reading and see you at the next post!

I give Final Destination a 8 out of 10 score.