Final Destination 5By Wilson Morales
When it comes to horror films, franchises are never a dead issue. Whether it’s the first sequel or the sixth or seventh, fans keep coming back.
In the days of 3D technology, we’ve seen a few franchises (Halloween, Saw, Nightmare on Elm Street) return to the big screen and for the most part, they haven’t changed the game, but at the same time, they haven’t turned fans away.
Despite terrible reviews, after the fourth film, 2009’s ‘The Final Destination,’ came out and did well at the box office, grossing over nearly $120 worldwide, you just knew that producers would continue the franchise.
Unlike the ‘Halloween’ franchise, which has been rebooted, ‘Final Destination,’ which began in 2000, is one of the longest running horror franchises to continue in theaters. Along with the ‘Saw’ series, they have kept the horror genre relevant in the game, and while the films don’t generate the same box office money or favorable reviews that comic book films bring in, its core fans still pack the theaters.
With ‘Final Destination 5,’ the producers have brought the franchise back to basics with more gruesome deaths and a twist that will have audience cringing in their seats while holding their stomachs.
Directed by Steven Quale, the film stars a cast of unknowns (Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Ellen Wroe, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta) with supporting turns by David Koechner and Courtney B. Vance. With Tony Todd as the only returning cast member of the series, the film starts off just like the others where someone has a premonition and sees their oncoming death scene.
Sam Lawton (Nicholas D’Agosto), while on a bus with co-workers going to a retreat, has a premonition that the bridge he is on will collapse and kill everyone including him. When he wakes up and sees the events that lead to the collapse, he quickly gets his friends off the bus before the inevitable occurs.
Lucky to be alive, neither he or the survivors can explain the freakish event to the detective (played by Vance), who’s looking for answers. Although mortician William Bludworth (played by Tony Todd) tells them that they can’t escape death, everyone is skeptical until each starts to die one by one.
What’s fun about the franchise is that going into the film, you know a couple of things are bound to happen. One, there is no human villain. The objective is to cheat death, which in these films, never happens for long. Most of the characters are going to die and folks come to the theaters to see how it will happen.
To explain each death scene would be pointless since that’s the sell of the film and franchise. Credit the writers for coming up with new inventive ways of keeping audience entertained for over 90 minutes. For those fans who have seen all of the films in the series, the writers have also thrown in some surprises that will keep them coming back for more.
Unlike the last film, which was also shot in HD 3D but didn’t look impressive, ‘Final Destination 5‘ will be released in Real D 3D and digital IMAX 3D and the kill effect is totally awesome.
If you’re into horror films and don’t mind the massive blood and gore, then this is the film that will please you.
