Movie Review: Final Destination 5

In many thriller movies I’ve watched in the past, the gruesome displays and graphical descriptions of death scenes would normally be edited and just leave the viewers imagining how the gory scenes would look like. The movie, Final Destination 5, will surely spare viewers the effort of visualization because the horrid scenes in the film will bring the viewing experience much closer and beyond one’s imagination.

I never had the chance to watch in full the last four FD installments. I only got to see some snapshots of their re-runs in cable channels. But somehow, I figured out the story of these films because they use the same plot formulas in the last four installments – gory death scenes. One thing that surprises me though is that many people still line up at the cinemas to expose themselves to the stressful stimulation and, yet, still find the film very entertaining.

When we were invited to watch the FD5 premier showing the other night, my wife, who is my constant movie companion, chickened out and declined to watch outright. Admittedly, after seeing the preview several times, I was also having second thoughts. It’s a good thing I was able to tag along one of my teenage sons to watch it. Unlike the past FDs this one moves to a higher level of gruesomeness because the film is now in 3D! How masochistic can audiences get! :) So yes, this movie is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Before you continue reading, be warned that there are spoilers to follow …

Most of the actors in the film were quite new to me. However, I commend them for their acting skills on how they portrayed their roles as someone having a horrid painful death that certainly added to the agony of everyone watching. As to the story, the FD5 is quite different from the recent installments where death came about in more obvious supernatural ways like electric cords moving by themselves. In FD5, it was more like coincidental circumstances which made the story more natural and, unfortunately, closer to reality.

Among the gruesome death scenes, there were two types I liked the most. One was the pervert inside the spa where he fell from a massage table while acupuncture pins were stuck all over his body. At the moment where he seemed about to escape that initial torture, a one-hundred pound jade Buddha fell from a shelf and crushed his head to finish him off. Then there was the gymnast in the unparallel bar exercise where her death came from a chain of unfortunate events. In the end, her finale came when a bolt in one of the bars she’s on broke loose giving her dismount the worst landing ever and dismembering her in three pieces with the bones and the spine sticking out of her body.

Other twists in the movie were the small clues that may have not been too obvious for many but somehow revealed that FD5 is actually a prequel of the last four. Initially, it was noticeable that the cars were a little bit outdated; the gift certificate that was stolen from the office desk of the deceased colleague expires in 2001; the date in the plane ticket of the last two characters of the eight survivors who apparently “escaped” death was May 2000; the same year where the story of Final Destination started eleven years ago.

Near the ending of the movie, the last two characters to escape death boarded a plane bound to Paris to start a new life together only to find out that the flight they were on was the one in the first FD movie. So that concluded the fate of the last two characters and allowed death to come full circle.