FrightFest 2011 Review: FINAL DESTINATION 5

rating: 2.5

After the horribly cynical 3D venture that was The Final Destination, I was like many viewers pretty much ready to give up on the over-extended series, which has seen beauteous teens get offed in increasingly more contrived and silly ways. Still, the film's $186m worldwide box office says not everyone is tired of the formula yet, and as such as we get the almost good though frustratingly flawed Final Destination 5. The good decisions begin with changing the name from the facepalm-inducing 5nal Destination and continue with appointing a fresh director who hasn't become complacent with the material, James Cameron protégé Steven Quayle, who seems to acutely understand the knowing B-movie tone set by the earlier films in the series. While it's business as usual in many ways - we're speedily introduced to a group of hapless teens who are soon mutilated in various elaborate ways before we discover it's a premonition, and the poor saps then try to avoid death while largely failing - what's different is both its reverence for what came before (teasing us with the series conventions we're used to but not following through with them) and recognising that the much-exhausted formula needs to be changed up. Firstly, gone are the surprisingly hokey visual effects of pretty much every previous instalment; it appears that some of James Cameron's ingenuity must have rubbed off on Quale (and a slightly increased budget couldn't have hurt). For all intents and purposes, the opening disaster - a suspension bridge collapse - is utterly convincing, as though a bridge was purpose-built and destroyed, giving the film more a look and feel of a blockbuster-grade disaster movie rather than a schlocky horror film in its opening moments. Gore effects, meanwhile, are grisly but comical as usual; akin to Piranha 3D both in gratuity and how advantage is taken of the 3D; organs protrude out of the screen enthusiastically, and so much more than the last film, it adds greatly to the fun factor. Narratively speaking, Quale wastes as little time as possible with preambles and gets to the good stuff fast, racing through the premonition sequence in a heartbeat. He does make the slight misstep of indulging too much in the pointless dramas of the protagonist, whose girlfriend has dumped him and who he makes it his quest to win back. For a series generally not concerned one iota about its characters - and one running in at 91-minutes no less - it feels utterly superfluous and rather cringe-inducing. What makes it functional, though, is how much more effort has been put into the deaths, not so much gore-wise but in terms of suspense and scares; Quale hurls plenty of red herrings into the mix, teasing the viewer to buy into series conventions before promptly usurping them, usually in a nauseating fashion, just as the audience requires. Another savvy move is the return of Tony Todd, who was sorely missed last time as the creepy mortician who is decidedly aware of the situation while remaining ever-enigmatic. Sure it's still absurd how easily the kids come to believe that Death is after them rather than pawning this off as a freaky coincidence, but what really shakes things up is a neat mid-film twist, that the poor souls can allay death's touch by killing someone and essentially stealing whatever years they had left. The problem - and the film's biggest, most frustratingly flaw by far - is that this near-genius concept (for this sort of film) is introduced far too late in the game to really have the savage effect required. It's nifty enough, though ultimately becomes more about putting someone in the frame for a death when it would have been more interesting if the kids had to more actively take their life in their hands and commit cold-blooded murder. The related character motivations are also incredibly murky and don't really coalesce very well even if the idea is still the most original the series has seen in at least two films. The final twist delivers with it a certain finality and the feeling that the series should end here, bringing things full circle in a satisfying way, but it's still a superficial refinement and very much the same otherwise; we know it's not going to be a happy ending and we're not surprised when it's not, even if the pretext to it is a lot more interesting than the mindlessness of the last film. The kill or-be-killed twist could have made this the best Destination since the first, but the idea is woefully underdeveloped even if the film is nevertheless gorier and smarter than the diabolical fourth instalment. Final Destination 5 is released in the U.K. today and is still in U.S. theatres.