You know what you’re getting when you’re watching a Final Destination film – big elaborate death scenes that get more shocking, more surprising and more inventive in sequel after sequel. And so we have Final Destination 5 in 3D.
The opening credits will really get you in the mood as everything bar the kitchen sink is thrown at you – from iron rods to fans and rotisserie forks – all crashing through plates of glass sending giant 3D shards into your lap.
Then comes the film’s fantastic set piece – the visionary death scene. Paper company salesman Sam is on his way to a team building exercise when the suspension bridge his coach is traveling on collapses. Cue: some outrageously gruesome deaths as his colleagues are garroted, crushed, impaled and drowned. It’s all squirmy, eye wincing good fun - and probably the film’s most exhilarating moment.
Escaping the grim reaper is only a brief affair for Sam and the gang however, and the next three deaths are truly inspired, taking place in a gymnasium, a health spa and a laser eye surgery, with the gym scene being the most surprising (the audience really lapped this one up), and the surgery scene being a subtle homage to Dario Argento’s Terror at the Opera.
While a cop (so stupid he must have gone to the same police training school as the detective in the OTT 1982 slasher Pieces) just can’t put two and two together, Sam learns from Tony Todd’s creepy coroner that if he kills someone then he can balance death’s book and evade being next on the grim reapers list.
Cue: the remaining cast on a mission to kill or be killed. This part of the film kind of lags and is never as exciting as the earlier scenes, but the best is left for last as we discover that everything we've seen precedes the first film. But does it signal the end of the franchise? I hope not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLKR3GdIK80&fs=1
