WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Six years after a group of high-school students first cheated death, another teen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has a premonition that she and her friends will be involved in a horrifying roller-coaster accident. When the vision proves true, the student and her fellow survivors must deal with the repercussions of cheating the Grim Reaper.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
With two successful Final Destination movies under its belt, I didn’t know if a third film would have anything new to offer. I mean, we all have the formula down by now, don’t we? Someone foresees a terrible accident, rescues a handful of people, and then Death gradually claims them one at a time in ever more bizarre manners. However, I have to say, “Final Destination 3” took me by surprise with its roller coaster opening and some of the most memorable death sequences in the whole franchise. The movie starts with high school grad Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) going to an amusement park on graduation night with her friends. As she waits to go on a roller coaster named Devil’s Flight, she experiences a frightening vision of the ride derailing and killing all of those on board. She freaks out, causing a number of individuals to be taken off the ride prior to it crashing exactly as she foresaw. This opening sequence is quite spectacular. The tension builds perfectly – we notice little hints that something is amiss with the roller coaster (such as a loose screw and a hydraulic leak) as Wendy becomes increasingly nervous. When the premonition finally arrives, it’s complete mayhem. Bodies are flying through the air, metal is contorting, blood is spraying – it’s everything a horror enthusiast could hope for. Director James Wong, who helmed the first movie, knows how to create a lot of suspense with this film. The thing that makes “Final Destination 3” different from the other films is the clever use of photographs. After the accident, Wendy realizes that the photos she took of her friends before the crash hold clues about how they are going to die. This adds a pleasant mystery to the story. Wendy and her friend Kevin (Ryan Merriman) have to decipher what the strange shadows and blurs in each photograph mean before Death strikes again. I enjoyed the twist a great deal. It gives the lead characters something proactive to do instead of waiting around for Death to come. It also works extremely well when they are actually attempting to comprehend the photos as time is running out. The topic “the devil is in the details” could not be more appropriate. Honestly, we watch these films for the death scenes, and “Final Destination 3” delivers some real classics. The tanning bed scene is probably the most recognizable one, and understandably so. There are the two mean girls who get stuck in the tanning beds as they get hotter and hotter. It’s a confined space, really intense, and ends in a surprising image. And who can forget the weight room scene where a guy gets hurt in a really terrible way? The nail gun scene at the hardware store doesn’t get left out either – who knew those things could be so scary? Each death is like a dark puzzle box, with tricks and misdirection prior to the kill. What I love about this movie is the way it blends horror and dark humor. A few of the deaths are so outrageous that you almost laugh, yet they are still genuinely shocking. The filmmakers realize that half the fun is the anticipation – seeing all the pieces fall into place as you attempt to figure out how each character is going to bite the dust. One thing that “Final Destination 3” actually does better than its predecessors is in the character category. Mary Elizabeth Winstead provides a really good performance as Wendy. She is genuinely shaken by what she has witnessed, and her transformation from skepticism to believing to fear appears genuine. She is intelligent and able but obviously distressed by the pressure, so she is easy to sympathize with. Ryan Merriman as Kevin is Wendy’s good friend who shares a history with her boyfriend, who died on the roller coaster. Their interactions, which they’re not fully happy with but which come naturally, are easy to believe, and even a little romantic tension between them is convincing. Everyone else is a standard horror movie character type, but most of them have at least one scene to define their personality before being killed off. There is the goth couple, the jocks, and the mean girls – all horror movie cliches, yet they carry a unique personality to them, so their deaths are well worth it. Nothing is ever perfect in this third installment. Some of the computer effects look outdated, specifically in some of the death scenes where practical effects would have been better. There’s also a strange sub-plot with a weirdo at the hardware store that leads nowhere. The movie also struggles with tone. It can’t decide if it should be actually scary or play up the dark humor of its story. This leads to jarring tonal shifts between serious emotional scenes and campy death sequences. The ending has its ups and downs. I am not going to give away any spoilers, but it attempts to pull off a clever twist that fails. The authors seem not to know how to end the story properly, so they went for a shock factor instead. The one positive thing “Final Destination 3” does is that it has its suspenseful scene in a fireworks store or warehouse. After sitting through the entire film attempting to decipher clues and evade Death, Wendy finds herself in a location that is actually one giant death trap. Everything that can possibly go wrong does, creating an insane final segment that had me on the edge of my seat. This portion of the film demonstrates what is fun about these films – the filmmakers create a Rube Goldberg machine of death where anything has the potential to be lethal. It’s the perfect ending to all of the suspense that’s been building up in the film. “Final Destination 3” understands what the fans require and provides it with flair. It doesn’t recreate everything, yet it adds sufficient new ideas to ensure that it feels new. The photo premonition idea is clever, and the death sequences are some of the most iconic within the series. Mary Elizabeth Winstead elevates the story with her performance, and Wendy is one of the most realistic lead characters in the franchise. The prologue on the roller coaster is amazing, establishing a very high standard that the rest of the movie, for the most part, lives up to. Though it is plagued by some CGI problems and has some tone difficulties at times, “Final Destination 3” is one of the better movies in the franchise. It knows why people like these movies – the complex ways of dying, the excitement of seeing it happen, and the startling endings. It’s not a new kind of movie, but it’s a good horror sequel that does what it says it’s going to do. If you liked the first two movies or just like smart death sequences, “Final Destination 3” is definitely worth seeing. Just maybe avoid roller coasters and tanning beds for a little while afterward.
OUR RATING – DEATH TAKES A 7
MEDIA
Genre – Horror
- Street date
- Digital – February 7, 2021
Blu-Ray/DVD – July 25, 2006 - Video – 1080p
- Screen size 2.39:1
- Sound – English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0, Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
- Subtitles – English SDH, German SDH, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Hebrew, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Thai, Turkish
Extras
“Choose Their Fate,” allowing viewers to make decisions during the film, altering the outcome of certain scenes. This feature gives users the chance to influence character actions, leading to minor changes in the film’s eventsfeatures real-life accounts of near-death experiences.
• Other Extras:
The Blu-ray also includes “The Terror Gauge,” a test screening system, the interactive game “Choose Your Fate,” music videos, and theatrical trailers.
• Audio Commentary: Commentary from director James Wong, screenwriter Jonathan M. Cole, and cinematographer Robert McLachlan.
• Deleted Scene: An extended version of Wendy and Kevin’s conversation with the police.
• Documentaries: “Kill Shot: Making Final Destination 3” (behind-the-scenes) and “Severed Piece” (special effects and gore).
• Animated Film: “It’s All Around You,” explaining the ways people can die.
• Theatrical Trailer .