Buckets of gore

IS there really any point making a movie which audiences already know the ending to before they’ve watched it? Well, yes, actually.
 
In 1997 James Cameron made Titanic, which went on to become one of the most successful films ever … and I have a sinking feeling that most people knew how that story ended before they bought a ticket!

However, sometimes it’s not about how a film ends that intrigues us, it’s the series of events that lead up to it and the Final Destination films are a prime example.

The premise for this franchise is always the same, a group of young, beautiful people all die in horrific and spectacularly elaborate ways. The beauty of the formula is its simplicity. Everyone knows what’s going to happen but it’s how it happens that keeps people interested.

It has been argued that films of this nature are purely an excuse to showcase gore, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. However, for people who enjoy that type of thing it cuts out all the unnecessary subtleties such as a strong script or cast. I mean, you don’t exactly need to be able to quote Othello to play ‘guy hit by car’.

In the first installment of the franchise, a teenager has a terrifying vision of him and his friends dying in a plane crash, so he prevents the accident only to have ‘Death’ hunt them down, one by one.

In the second film, a different teenager has a vision of her and her friends dying in a car crash and prevents it, only delaying ‘Death’ not cheating him.

The third and fourth follow suit with a rollercoaster crash and another car crash respectively.

This time around things are pretty much the same except it’s a suspension bridge that collapses and … you guessed it, someone has a vision and a group of people cheat ‘Death’ … temporarily!

Since the franchise has been so successful with its niche audience, the crew has simply given people what they want, gore, and lots of it.

There are more subverse uses of black humour than in any of the preceding films which distracts from the monotony of the outcome.

There are also more red herrings which are cleverer than ever before, proving that the creators have enough sense to build a little suspense before dishing out the carnage.

As with the other films in the franchise, veteran horror star Tony Todd makes a cameo as a shady coroner who offers grave warnings about how death hates to be cheated.

I can’t really say too much about this movie without giving it all away but the deaths are more elaborate and, as with the last film, fantastic in 3D.

Movies of this nature lend themselves to the 3D genre and really work in unison to create the desired effect. There were times when I actually ducked to avoid flying entrails which seemed to miss me by millimeters.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was that the ending cleverly ties up all the preceding films and (thankfully) guarantees there will be no more sequels.

If you’re looking for a mentally stimulating, dramatic thriller then this film isn’t for you … but if you have the urge to see some gore, this film has buckets of it.

Showing in Cineco, Seef II and Saar Cineplex