Susan Granger’s review of “The Final Destination” (Warner Bros.)
The basic concept of this horror franchise is intriguing: What if cheating death cursed you with premonitions of other people’s fatalities?
Now in its fourth installment, this gruesome Grim Reaper tale has the added fillip of 3-D, making impalement, for example, seem to thrust directly into the audience.
The formulaic story revolves around Nick (Bobby Campo) who experiences precognition at a NASCAR race track, presumably saving himself and those randomly seated around him from a gorefest. But Death is persistent, so those who were supposed to die at the speedway are stalked until they do – in a myriad of ways – and not in any particular preferential order.
“I feel something’s in the room with me,” Nick notes. To be specific, it’s Death.
Screenwriter Eric Bress and director David R. Ellis, who previously collaborated on “Final Destination 2” before Ellis helmed “Snakes on a Plane,” have a dandy, ready-made villain, as Death is presented as an abstract, ethereal being, sometimes announcing its presence through breezes. Since impending Death is also invisible and inventive, its victims’ means of disposal are only limited by the filmmakers’ convoluted imaginations: “What do we have to do to kill these characters off?”
How’s this? A drunk, white racist sets himself on fire while placing a burning cross on a black man’s front lawn while his car radio blares “Why Can’t We Be Friends.” Like that? Well, there’s more carnage, including decapitations, mutilations, eviscerations and those grisly, inevitable 3-D-enhanced impalements. The rogue ceiling fan, slippery hair oil and the tiny ember floating up from the fire seemed to be particularly creative.
Acting? Don’t be absurd. Expect only the flimsiest, bland two-dimensional performances from fresh-faced twentysomethings Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano and Haley Webb, along with Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella and Justin Welborn. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Final Destination” is a frantic, flinching, in-your-face 3. The novelty for this supernatural screamfest is the 3-D.
