Final Destination 3 (2006) New Line/Horror-Thriller RT: 93 minutes Rated R (strong horror violence and gore, language, some nudity) Director: James Wong Screenplay: Glen Morgan and James Wong Music: Shirley Walker Cinematography: Robert McLachlan Release date: February 10, 2006 (US) Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche, Alexz Johnson, Sam Easton, Jesse Moss, Gina Holden, Texas Battle, Chelan Simmons, Crystal Lowe, Amanda Crew, Maggie Ma, Ecstasia Sanders. Box Office: $54M (US)/$117.7M (World)
Rating: ***
Returning director James Wong (from the first movie) takes the series back to its Dead Teenager Movie roots with Final Destination 3, a sequel that not only understands its place in the horror genre but fully embraces it. Like I said in my review of the second FD movie, it’s basically a geek show, an excuse to show not-too-bright characters dying in bizarre, elaborately choreographed accidents. Hey, it works for me. You’re dealing with somebody who never misses a Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween or Saw sequel. The only thing different about the FD movies (besides the death scenes) is that the characters’ deaths are not brought about by a mad slasher but Death himself. You see, Death has a plan for everybody and God help the person who interferes with that plan. No matter what, Death will have his due.
Final Destination 3 follows the formula laid out by the previous two movies. It starts with the main character having a vision of a terrible disaster. In this instance, it’s high school senior Wendy Christensen (Winstead, Grindhouse) who foresees a roller coaster malfunctioning and claiming the lives of several classmates. It’s a terrifying vision with screaming teens hanging on for dear life and flying to their deaths as it goes out of control, derails and crashes due to a strange set of events. When Wendy comes to, she demands to be let off the ride and a few others follow suit, some more willingly than others. Sure enough, the damn thing crashes and yet another high school mourns the deaths of several of their own.
Tony Todd doesn’t reprise his role as the creepy mortician who knows an awful lot about how the whole Death thing works. Instead, one of the other survivors, semi-douche jock Kevin (Merriman, The Ring Two), reads about the Flight 180 disaster and its aftermath on-line and deduces all the pertinent info- i.e. the survivors die in the order they should have died in. Wendy took photos at the carnival and discovers they reveal how each person will die if you know what signs to look for. She and Kevin try to warn the others, usually to no avail. In fact, their efforts backfire and result in an unhinged classmate, Goth-dude Ian (Lemche, eXistenZ), coming after Wendy who he blames for his girlfriend’s violent demise.
Once again, it’s the death scenes that define Final Destination 3. Don’t go looking for plot or character development, brilliant screenwriting or anything deep. You’ll find none of it here. What you will get are cool, VERY gory death scenes. In this installment, two airheaded chicks get cooked in tanning beds. A guy gets the back of his head sliced off by an engine fan at a drive-through burger joint. A jock’s head is crushed by weights. There’s a death by nail gun. A girl gets impaled by a flagpole. Somebody gets crushed by a cherry picker (SPLAT!!!). PLUS, Wendy has another gruesome vision at the end, this time of a subway crash in New York. That one is fairly messy. Of course, the director wants to keep viewers guessing as to how the characters will meet their demise so he throws in a lot of red herrings like runaway horses, fireworks, a spilled drink, a giant stuffed bear, forklifts and a boom box too close to a puddle of liquid. These items may or may not contribute to a character’s demise.
Although acting really isn’t one of this series’ strong suits, I have to say that Winstead is one of my favorite Scream Queens, a title she’s since semi-relinquished with roles in higher quality films like Smashed, The Spectacular Now and Kill the Messenger. Of course, she was also in last year’s creepy 10 Cloverfield Lane. Winstead’s horror credits also include Black Christmas (the 2006 remake), Death Proof (from Grindhouse) and The Thing (the 2011 prequel/reboot). She’s quite good in Final Destination 3. As for the rest of the cast, their performances range from passable to bad. But, as you know, bad acting is one of the hallmarks of this (or any Dead Teenager/Mad Slasher) series. The opening sequence at the carnival is well done. There’s something inherently creepy about carnivals, especially in horror movies. It figures that the doomed roller coaster is called “The Devil’s Flight”. Final Destination 3 is a fun teen horror flick. Try not to think about the normal standards to which one usually holds a movie. Just watch it for the bloody spectacle. It works for me.
