Final Destination 2 (2003)

An insurance company's worst nightmare

The film here began the franchise that would take the death-trap idea and turn it into a full fledged formula and a no brainer. "Final Destination 2" is a very quick experience with very little getting in the way to think about as it's mostly laid out on the table and goes for straightforward entertainment that meanwhile causes the audience to do nothing more than aim for the bottom of the popcorn container. Compared to the first, this essentially amped up the deaths and the dark humor by even taking a poke at itself, and then steps even further away from reality and never lets the viewer forget they're watching a movie in the meantime.

"I saw it...there were bodies everywhere...there were logs. I saw it...it just happened," says Kimberly (A.J. Cook) to the officer after getting a premonition of a pileup to come on the interstate and taking the initiative to block the way with her car for those about to turn onto the road. Sure enough massive explosions and metal grinds on metal as the people behind her, that were initially annoyed with the delay, now think they're some of the luckiest people on Earth to narrowly escape death. Or so they think. They're taken to the police station for statements with one thing leading to another and they're reminded of the flight 180 incident. They maintain their denials and laugh it off while then attempting to go about their lives...except an inexplicable shadow keeps following them with accidents just a awaitin' to happen. This doesn't even try and hide the fact that it could be mere coincidence, as Death is furious this time around for missing loose ends that also tie into the survivors of Flight 180. The story is about as simple as Kimberly and the earlier officer quickly suspending their disbelief to figure out the clues for their and hopefully everyone else's survival. Including more paralyzing, I-feel-what-they-feel visions occurring and some surprise meet ups with past characters from the first: one defensive but then ready to help, the other sums up an opinion with: "Such fire in you now. People are always most alive just before they die."

Apart from some misplaced jokes, there's no prancing around, as the ground work is gone through fairly quickly and then this goes right for the throat in inventive over-the-top gory ways that would make a front page news article every time. They still manage to pull out some surprises as to which direction it's coming from and then when it happens it's shown in all of its juicy, not-for-those-on-a-full-stomach glory. The characters with the least background development usually means they're going to be victims, and then the ones gone into more are going to survive the longest. It's a horror movie in the slasher vain and this isn't really trying to invent anything new, just capitalizing at this point at what they already have. It's the type of movie where you know exactly what you're going to get and that part makes it somewhat superficial but at the same time still easy fun. The highly elaborate traps that would excite the most morbidly curious engineer, are set up for the audience to see them getting it beforehand because lets face it: the gorier the merrier and no one cares for their well-being and safety. It's sadistic and it unabashedly knows it. "FD2" can almost be looked at like a lynch party where the onlookers have froth at the mouth and venom spewing out, and aren't leaving without some blood being shed.

Rating: 6.5/10

Director: David R. Ellis
Stars: A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, Ali Larter, Tony Todd
Link: IMDB

Final Destination (2000)

A slasher in disguise

Apart from some stiffness or misplaced ailment when stepping out of bed in the morning, have you ever had the inkling that there was just something different about that day from others? Not just a fleeting feeling or a sense of change, but a strong emotion that twists and turns your guts because you believe something is going to actually happen of grave consequence? Most die with either a quick surprise or complete numbness when a sudden, freak accident catches them by unawares, though this is a story that swallows up peoples' souls and spits them out on the other side like a revolving assembly line. "Final Destination" involves a young man that takes the premonitions and warning signs seriously and perseveres through paranoia and accepting the unacceptable to not get taken up by cold, dark and incorporeal hands that are just a reach away.

"Live it up Alex, you've got your whole life ahead of you," his dad tells him just before a senior trip with his New York high school pals going to France for the summer. From the night before with an icy chill, to various omens that he picks up on going to the airport for what's supposed to be a fun trip--such as the accident prone, dead-as-a-door-knob John Denver spouting tunes in the restroom--Alex (Devon Sawa) doesn't just pass up on what his anxious nerves tell him. However, if something out there was trying to warn him any more, it might have slapped him in the face because it's everywhere he turns. But then again, most of us are skeptics to the supernatural until we see it with our own eyes and feel it with all of our being, simply because we don't want to look stupid going out on a limb in front of others unless we're positively sure. Alex ends up being right as rain, but dead wrong about the thunder with the forces he's messing with after an accident involving the plane he just got kicked off of with several others from going ballistic from a sweaty nightmare when he dozes off before departing.

Soon enough the safety boards, FBI and media encroach with their questions and speculations. "I got this feeling..this weird feeling," Alex says, because even though he gave a sort of premonition, he still seems just as confused, not to mention lucky as the worried family members arrive to take home their loved ones in one piece. For the seven survivors themselves, the whys and guilt that come with escaping and being that close to death are pouring down, not to mention with anger and confusion directed at the source of rescue. After a supposed accident with someone who survived from the plane, Alex suspects something amiss and that there might be a design or pattern to it all that he feels he can crack. Though after breaking into the funeral home to see if he can rule out foul play he meets the director who gives him a chilling warning, "In death, there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, and no escapes." So much for the heroic rescue attempt, which instead turns into people desperately running from something that's not entirely in physical form and with the only thing on their side being that the entity plays with a kind of sportsmanship just before its take-them-out-one-by-one game.

Like "X-Files" and "Millennium" that director James Wong and co-writer Glen Morgan were involved on, the lighting is often dark and the camera shots are often panned with dramatic music in the background. Shirley Walker (RIP) provides a score that resembles what she did on "Batman: The Animated Series" with big, bombastic and almost thumping hits, along with higher pitched horns and strings overtop to provide tension. Instead of playing out as a straight horror this also includes some elements of a drama/thriller to lend a hand to the steady but also escalating pacing. There are a lot wink-wink moments here that are going more for the theatrical than the realistic. It gives the audience a knowing-it's-coming point of view that gives this a sadistic sense of humor with a person being completely oblivious themselves. It's a movie that takes the omens over-the-top, but after awhile it makes you start to suspect danger at every little nuance and encroaching path. It makes every movement important and detrimental to the story, which creates a constant red alert atmosphere that can be carried anywhere whether that be night or day or in the safety of your own home: a regular bathroom, an innocent kitchen, just walking down the street. Not many movies are capable of every second being taken up with its concept, not to mention having the audience be an active participant, including Easter eggs throughout.

"Final Destination" isn't without its flaws, as it has some cliches, hit and miss performances to the point of caricature and some of the dialogue isn't perfect. Ali Larter, as Clear, has the most range with a background that gives her strength of character, Seann William Scott overdoes the whole goofy dude thing as Billy, Kerr Smith as Carter performs as a one-note jock and Devon Sawa plays the role of Alex a little spaced out at times. Though the thing this does have down is it provides an engaging cinematic experience and an original concept with a steady tone. This isn't just a straightforward march to the extermination chambers as some unexpected left hooks are thrown to make the fight more interesting. The sequels and spoofs have since capitalized on it to turn it into a recognizable formula but when it was in theaters it was definitely a fresh spin on an old take. This had the last word in a series of teens-on-the-cover-box slashers around 2000. It added a twist to that straightforward convention made infamous in the '80s, as the killer here is practically invisible compared to physical beings that you at least have a combative chance of escaping from like in "Scream," "Halloween" sequels, "Urban Legend" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer." It was more similar to what "Fallen" did but focused on the carnage, and came with less biblical themes and provided a different age demographic.

Rating: 8/10

Director: James Wong (The X-Files writer/producer)
Stars: Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Valerie Lewton, Tony Todd
Link: IMDB