Film REVIEW Final Destination 5

If people get the government they deserve, do cinema goers also get the films they deserve? The Final Destination franchise would suggest so. For readers not familiar with the premise, each movie starts with a spectacular set-piece accident that causes multiple gory fatalities. One character gets a premonition of the catastrophe, and manages to save a few of his or her buddies.

Debbie Stowe

But death feels cheated by this turn of events, and comes back to pick off the survivors in elaborate and gruesome ways. Each demise enjoys a protracted run-up to ratchet up the suspense, with various potential causes hinted at – water dripping near an electrical socket, a screw coming loose on an overhead fan, etc – but the actual method will always take the viewer by surprise and scale new heights – or possibly lows, depending on your viewpoint – of imaginative grisliness. Don’t take the kids.

Set out thus, it certainly seems like lowest common denominator stuff, designed to fulfill our base instinct for watching fictional people kick the bucket. But the movies are plotted with a neatness and inventiveness that defend against any cynicism. They do exactly what it says on the tin. All the actors are unknowns, so the focus remains firmly on the action. Best of all, the Final Destinations are entirely lacking in the weary self-importance of many modern movies. They’re about the wholesome family fun of watching characters get dispatched in horrible ways, with no ridiculous pretensions to making profound comment on life and death, free will or whatnot. Plus, it’s all in 3D. Let the slaughter commence!

Plot is somewhat irrelevant in the Final Destination universe, serving merely as a device to convey the doomed characters from one deathly calamity to the next, all of which are executed (ha ha) with pitch perfect choreography, panache and humor. FD5 starts with the staff of Presage Paper (viewers of a literary bent will appreciate the pun) boarding a bus for a team-building weekend. I shall divulge no more details in order not to spoil the fun, but needless to say the journey cannot be described as smooth. One more warning: anyone planning laser eye surgery may wish to have it done before seeing the film.

Accusations of flimsy characterization are fair but miss the mark. We can’t invest too much in the dramatis personae or we won’t relish seeing them bumped off grotesquely. What matters is that any Final Destination delivers creatively gruesome fatalities with twists and turns that get the audience doubling over in laughter and horror. And FD5 is dead on.

Directed by: Steven Quale
Starring: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Tony Todd
On at: Cinema City Cotroceni, Cinema City Cotroceni – Sala VIP, Cinema City Sun Plaza, CinemaPro, Cityplex, Hollywood Multiplex, Movieplex Cinema, Patria, The Light

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