FrightFest Review: Final Destination 5

• 23rd Aug 2011

The Final Destination series has its fifth outing in this funny, gory and silly entry. We all know how it goes: character has premonition about some tragedy or other, panics and saves a lucky few. Unfortunately for them (but not for us), they are now doomed to be stalked by a pissed-off death until the ‘balance’ can be restored. And so it goes here; this time, it is a bridge collapse, and it falls on Sam Lawton (played by a young David Miliband (not really)) to convince his co-workers to get off their retreat-bound coach before the bridge self-destructs.

The series’ directors/producers/writers are obviously aware that the audience is now really only interested in the death scenes – any attempt at character depiction feels almost like a periphery concern. You have a feel for who the ‘baddies’ are and have plenty of fun seeing them get their comeuppance, like the slimy horndog who dies a rather fitting firey death. Equally, and as always in this franchise, the characters who are innocent bystanders also cannot escape death’s grasp – and it’s just as much fun to see them bite it in various bizarre ways. The central characters, with their broken relationships or struggling careers, are little more than stereotypes being filled by pretty poor actors, but they really aren’t bad enough to really be off-putting. I am willing to tolerate quite a large amount of horrible dialogue if I know I am going to get a good gory death in the next few minutes. Thankfully, each death is as convoluted and as bizarre as possible, with each one ending in a slightly different way than you think…will it be the bare electrical wires? Will it be the dodgy fan? You can only wait and see.

The use of 3D is, as you may expect, solely to increase the impact of the gore-spattered deaths. In this way, it works better than most 3D films I have seen; it’s what My Bloody Valentine 3D wanted to be. It is also how you remember it from being at kid at Disney World, almost like you should be ducking out of the way as some bloody metal hook comes swinging towards you. This fun use of 3D is never so obvious than in the opening credits, which are utterly gratuitous, with the trappings of the death scenes from the previous films – the prosthetic arm, the exploding gas tank etc. –  smashing through plate glass in glorious 3D. It’s an amusing set of credits, and gives you a fun few minutes of trying to remember each death from the precursors.

The ending, in the FD tradition, is usually something that basically cancels out any of the feeling of happy resolution the film has been working towards; just when you think everything is going to be ok, a huge hoarding lands on the happy couple, or something similar. FD5 is no exception and they have really taken it up a notch this time. It’s a sneaky and shocking end – neatly wrapping up the series. If they do another, they lose all kudos for it, but it’s really quite ballsy!

FD5 isn’t trying to do anything different or innovative and you could be forgiven for writing off FD5 as yet another sequel in yet another established series; another example of the industry’s seemingly endemic preference for using familiar brands to rake in the dollars rather than attempting anything new or original. I would usually agree with this line of thought, however, this film is fun enough and outrageous enough to be worth a trip to the cinema.

Final Destination 5 is out this weekend and is screening at FrightFest on Thursday 25th August at 9.15pm.

Hannah Turner