Final Destination (James Wong, 2000)
4 Stars
The late nineties and early “noughties” (a term I utterly despise by the way) were something of a hay-day for teen horrors. With Wes Craven’s re-vamp of the genre in Scream, adolescent audiences flocked in their popcorn gobbling hoards to see a plethora of sub-par scary movies (and the parodies thereof), most of which have since been lost in the nether regions of naffness.
One outing that stands out amongst this often under-appreciated genre however, and indeed despite its ever-worsening stream of sequels (the true curse of an ingenious horror flick) is James Wong’s (who would later soil his name on the uber-flop Dragonball Evolution) Final Destination.
What sets Final Destination apart from its contemporaries is not necessarily anything out of the ordinary within the teen-spook fest; we have a cast of unknowns, a semi-competent script, and some decent directing. No, what makes it both spine-tinglingly spooky and wickedly funny is the simple and original premise; a kid (Devon Sawa – Idle Hands, Casper) has a vision of a plane crash and drags a group of his classmates from the plane before it subsequently explodes. Thereafter, death picks them off one by one in more and more elaborate fashions, proving that there truly is no way to cheat the fates. It’s such a simple idea, and yet one that had beforehand remained unseen on the big screen. The villain is not some masked madman or monster from the beyond; it’s the one force in the world that no man can fight.
Of course the deaths themselves stand out as some of the most intricate and memorable in cinema history, with Amanda Detmer’s sudden demise at the business end of a bus making almost every “scariest moment” poll of the last decade.
The actors each throw themselves into the tale full pelt, with Sawa giving wonderful life to the haunted hero Alex. Sean William Scott, best known for his outlandish behaviour as American Pie’s Stiffler also delivers a much more tender performance as underachiever Billy.
In all, Final Destination is a great little horror movie, blessed with an intriguing hook, that will unfortunately be diluted for years to come by more and more sequels (I do believe FD5 is set for a 2011 release), that duly cautions us; perhaps we really should fear The Reaper…
The late nineties and early “noughties” (a term I utterly despise by the way) were something of a hay-day for teen horrors. With Wes Craven’s re-vamp of the genre in Scream, adolescent audiences flocked in their popcorn gobbling hoards to see a plethora of sub-par scary movies (and the parodies thereof), most of which have since been lost in the nether regions of naffness.
One outing that stands out amongst this often under-appreciated genre however, and indeed despite its ever-worsening stream of sequels (the true curse of an ingenious horror flick) is James Wong’s (who would later soil his name on the uber-flop Dragonball Evolution) Final Destination.
What sets Final Destination apart from its contemporaries is not necessarily anything out of the ordinary within the teen-spook fest; we have a cast of unknowns, a semi-competent script, and some decent directing. No, what makes it both spine-tinglingly spooky and wickedly funny is the simple and original premise; a kid (Devon Sawa – Idle Hands, Casper) has a vision of a plane crash and drags a group of his classmates from the plane before it subsequently explodes. Thereafter, death picks them off one by one in more and more elaborate fashions, proving that there truly is no way to cheat the fates. It’s such a simple idea, and yet one that had beforehand remained unseen on the big screen. The villain is not some masked madman or monster from the beyond; it’s the one force in the world that no man can fight.
Of course the deaths themselves stand out as some of the most intricate and memorable in cinema history, with Amanda Detmer’s sudden demise at the business end of a bus making almost every “scariest moment” poll of the last decade.
The actors each throw themselves into the tale full pelt, with Sawa giving wonderful life to the haunted hero Alex. Sean William Scott, best known for his outlandish behaviour as American Pie’s Stiffler also delivers a much more tender performance as underachiever Billy.
In all, Final Destination is a great little horror movie, blessed with an intriguing hook, that will unfortunately be diluted for years to come by more and more sequels (I do believe FD5 is set for a 2011 release), that duly cautions us; perhaps we really should fear The Reaper…
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