Run Time: 92 minutes
Rating: 18+
Now in its fifth installment, it’s pretty fair to say by now you’ll know exactly what to expect with a Final Destination film – namely gore, death, and not much else.
But while all of the films are without a doubt short of moviegoing mastery – with stiff performances, stilted dialogue, and a preference for style over substance – overall the franchise has succeeded in entertaining audiences for over a decade.
So has the franchise managed to avoid death yet again? Well not exactly. Some new additions may provide some interest for long term fans, but the movie reverts to the same formulaic structure and wooden character development as previous installments, with the only real drawcard again being the elaborate scenes of death and mutilation.
Having long ago left behind the dimension where logic, the physical laws of the universe, and all semblance of intelligence exist, Final Destination 5 is free to spend all its time and most of its budget on ever more outlandish death sequences. It kicks things off with a spectacular gambit, set on a suspension bridge high over a river, where a fresh group of eight bodies await their ritual dismemberment.
From there the familiar formula is shaken up with a couple of new ingredients, but the basic flavour remains the same: intricate, Rube Goldberg-style accidents that are incredibly elaborate and designed to draw your eye away from the eventual cause of death, which is lingered upon with loving, morbid and occasionally disturbing delight.
There are some thrills to be had in this, but the problem is that between these scenes of death and mutilation, there is almost nothing to actually progress any sort of coherent narrative. It cannot be stressed enough just how bad the acting is, and the relationships and devices used to drive what little plot there is are forced and almost laughably bad.
There is a nice little twist in the ending that actually works to an extent, but it does little to make up for a predictable, poorly written story that, to put it bluntly, doesn’t make any sense (not that it’s really trying to).
On one of the few positive notes to be taken from the film, the special effects are surprisingly good, doing an excellent job of beheading, incinerating, vivisecting, squishing and performing all other forms of morbid dismemberment – if you’re into that kind of thing.
It is also very effective at creating suspense. It makes no real secret when one of the characters is due to meet their bloody end, but it sets up the elaborate death sequences well, exploiting the everyday fears of paranoid audience members and building them up into a ‘so horrible I have to watch’ kind of scenario.
At the end of the day though this is a terrible film. It will please the morbid minded among us who enjoy watching people die, but anyone interested in any form of narrative or character development will be walking out within minutes of the opening credits.
Let’s hope this really is the final destination for this film franchise.
– Dane Halpin
1 ½ stars