Who's that coming over the hill, is it The Grim Reaper? The Grim Reaper! (Final Destination (DVD))

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	Final Destination (DVD)
Date:	29/10/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A truly original idea that provides fans with plenty of nasty and shocking moments!

Disadvantages: Feels a little tired now, loses some of its effect after the first viewing!

When Final Destination originally came along, it is fair to say that there was very little around that equalled or even came close to it. Since then, many of the tricks used here have gone on to be repeated, sometimes less successfully, by other films and, whilst it is true that the follow-up, Final Destination 2, is often hailed as a much more mature and confident movie still this original still bears a sense of nostalgia for being the film that started the ball rolling as it were.....

Alex Browning and his fellow students are about to head to France with their teachers as part of an annual school trip when Alex experiences several moments of sheer terror. The plane explodes mid-air around him and he is forced to watch plenty of his class-mates dying as he himself faces death full in the face. Then he wakes up and realises it was all a dream....or was it? Certain things in his dream seem to have rept over into real-life and suddenly Alex becomex convinced that they are all going to die for real! Causing a scene, Alex and a select few of his companions are ejected from the plane and taken back to the Depature lounge. At which point, in the window behind them, we see the plane taking off and, in a spectacular and breath-taking scene, explode mid-air just as it did in his dream. At first it seems as though all of them have had a lucky escape but then it transpires that those who died first were the lucky ones as Death comes back to claim the lives of those he missed!

Cue lots of very nasty scenes as accident after accident occurs. Director and writers Wong and Morgan cut their teeth on paranormal show, The X-Files, and here they use that experience to bloody good effect! There are lots of red herrings and hidden clues ~ some aimed at the cast, some at the viewers ~ and plenty of gory, grisly and often surprising deaths. My favourite two include one with a bus, fans will know which one I mean, and then one with a train shortly after! Both are paticulary nasty and leave the first-time viewer shaking and going "WTF??!!???" at the television screen.

There is plenty here to get excited about and this was a very fresh and unique addition to the horror genre when it was first released. Subsequent viewings have kind of diluted the effect somewhat in later years ~ an experience the sequel has not yet repeated with me, that still leaves me gasping ~ and there are several flaws evident that include the less-than-satisfying climax and the open ending that leaves the viewers in no doubt that the survivors who thought they had broken the cycle have only managed to simply postpone their fate. Still this is a ery good movie that certainly brings a lot of fresh, new and innoative ideas to a genre that has often become saturated with dross and over-milked with dire second-rate slasher flicks that serve only to squeeze more dosh from a very tired franchise. (Yes Halloween H20 I am looking at you!)

It is a shame that FD3 was such a disappointment but if you want to remind yourself just how good this series was when it started, then you need look no further. A fourth installment was released earlier this year with the big gimmick that it was shown in 3D but from reports I have heard, this is simply another step backwards for the series. Best stick to this and FD2 then so you can see how horror should REALLY be done....

Summary: A group of teenagers cheat Death but Death doesn't like it!