Review of Final Destination 5 (2011) by Ricardo Junior S — 19 Nov 2012

James Wong's original Final Destination movie was one of those pieces of horror cinema which had to be seen to be believed. It was a revolutionary picture which introduced some very fresh ideas to a climate dominated mainly be post-modern genre deconstructions; an invisible killer, unexpected deaths which seemed so improbably that they came from out of nowhere, a metaphysical plot which question the notion of pre-destination and yet another chance for Tony Todd to cement his position as the Robert Englund of the 90s. Yes, Final Destination was a child of the late 1990s in every way shape and form.

There have since been four sequels, each of varying quality, and this final offering conveniently released to coincide with Halloween 2011 attempts to bring aging franchise full circle. Predictably however the result is little more than an unimpressive denigration of it's predecessors. Everything about the film feels predictable and makes no attempt to deviate from the format: whiny every man who has an unstable rivalry with the local douche bag and a struggling relationship with the female lead suffers a premonition foretelling the death of him and all his friends - this time using a set up resembling a really poor disaster film and exhibiting some of the most amateur CG gore effects ever (seriously I could do better than that and I've only just started learning how to do CG) - and whose intervention in fate brings a terrible curse down upon every one in his life. At no point does this model ever try to be original or even interesting since right from the beginning you instinctively know who will survive and who will die. True, many horror fans go to a tried and tested franchise to witness the gore and violence but any even larger proportion hope for original ideas.

The comedy aspect apparent throughout the franchise (again in varying degrees) is employed more effectively here than in previous installments and whilst much of the humor remains dark if at all, at least this time it doesn't feel like a collection of out takes (remember the nude bimbos dancing to RHCP's Love Rollercoaster on the sunbeds in FD3?). Still, this is not a comedy. This is a horror and sadly whatever brief humor is apparent in Final Destination 5, it can't compare to the ludicrousness of Devon Sawa eating tinned pudding in closet wearing welding gloves in Wong's original, Furthermore, the laughs are overshadowed by the laughable deaths, each succeeding in achieving nail biting tension but always ending in disappointing anti-climax.

Thank goodness then for Tony Todd. When all else fails, at least a loyal viewer can count on the star of The Candy-man to instill some much needed dread as the infamous Morgue Coroner (his Other iconic horror role). A shame then that even though he is the best performance in the film by far, his position in the film as the specter of death is now so blatant that one begins to wonder why the cast don't just murder him and end their plight right from the outset.

So what to make of this last hurrah for the Final Destination franchise? Is it the send off the franchise needed? No. Is it the send off the franchise deserves? No. Even with the whole inevitability ending, Final Destination 5 doesn't nearly do enough justice to James Wong's original film or even the second film starring A.J. Cook. Good for vegging out in front of the TV after a hard week but definitely not the sort of fare to which horror fanatics are accustomed.