Movie Review: Final Destination 5

Sep 7 2011 by Ian Bunting, Airdrie & Coatbridge

Final Destination 5

FINAL Destination 5 sees another group of accident survivors, led to safety by Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto), try to outrun Death itself.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Final Destination movies. The first is terrific and the second very entertaining.

But here’s where the hate comes in. Number three was pretty dire and fourth entry The Final Destination is one of the worst horror movies I’ve ever seen. Just appalling.

Ah, but when we get to the third sequel in a horror series then quality inevitably declines you may say?

Not necessarily. Saw VI was one of the series’ best entries, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (the seventh in the franchise) is very good and even this year’s Scream 4 was a worthy addition to that series.

Final Destination 5 is a welcome return to form and on a par with the second movie.

There are early attempts by writers Eric Heisserer and Jeffrey Reddick to bring some character depth but this and the average at best acting play second fiddle to what has become Final Destination’s main selling point; gruesome kills.

Creative deaths kept you nicely on edge in the first two films but quickly became too silly in movies three and four.

The kills this time are suitably innovative and ghastly. The best is a bone crunching end to a gymnastics session but laser surgery gone wrong and comeuppance for P. J. Byrne’s super annoying Isaac that leaves him resembling Pinhead from Hellraiser are close seconds.

Steven Quale, making his movie directing debut, brings these kills to vivid life and uses establishing shots and close-ups on potential weapons of death to slowly build to each one.

His visual effects history (Avatar) is most apparent during the stunning bridge collapse where high angle shots emphasising the great drop below and blood splatter combine for one of the summer’s best set-pieces.

There’s some nice nods to the previous films too; logs, rollercoaster picture, Paris, and Tony ‘Candyman’ Todd making his first on-screen appearance in the series since the first sequel.

But it’s not all good. After rock music dominates the broken glass credits, Bryan Tyler’s score quickly becomes a near movie-long carbon copy of Hans Zimmer’s music from the ferry climax of The Dark Knight.

Heisserer and Reddick’s script is too up and down. They stick to the traditional Final Destination formula; opening premonition, funeral, then survivors discussing their fate (although not as much this time) before being picked off one-by-one.

They embrace the ridiculousness of it all. There’s an inappropriate but funny joke at a funeral and one character utters the line: “Who dies during a massage? Seriously.”

The writers also introduce an interesting new storyline ‘get-out of death free’ clause that results in an ending different from the previous films... but sadly it doesn’t really go anywhere, except to ask the question, can we ever truly cheat death?

Final Destination 5 is as good as you’re likely to get for a fourth horror movie sequel and works well as an OTT thrill ride that should satisfy genre fans and cinema’s ‘Friday night crowd’ alike.

Rating - 6 out of 10.