Harefooted Halloween: The Final Destination

What I Liked: The fun is back with director of part 2 David R. Ellis returning.  Immediately the tone shifts back to a borderline tongue-in-cheek approach.  The coffee shop the characters frequent is called Death by Caffeine, the movie they go to see is called Love Lays Dying, they attend a NASCAR type race for the explicit reason of hoping to see a car crash, etc.  Some of the deaths are the most gruesome yet (getting your bowels sucked out by a public pool pump) but because of the long cartoonish buildup and all the fake outs and humorous attitude they don’t come off as stomach-churning.  When the tension is finally relieved and the person’s remains are splattered everywhere you do go “ahh!” but you also chuckle.  This is an extremely hard needle to thread and Ellis has been able to do it twice now.

One thing Ellis has improved on since his last outing is the characters are more likeable.  They’re still not interesting whatsoever but this time only a couple are total douchebags.  And holy shit, this installment includes the most nuanced person in the entire series.  One survivor is a middle-aged security guard (Mykelti Williamson (Heat)) who we learn is a recovering alcoholic.  He killed his wife and kid in a car accident because he was drunk and has had to live with that for a while.  When he discovers he’s going to die soon he says he’s at peace with it and is ready to go.  His torment will finally be over.  The guy even contemplates having one last drink before checking out.  For a picture that’s generally on the lighthearted side this somber aspect should clash with everything else around it but I’m surprised at how well it plays.  It makes me wish they explored more avenues like this in the other films.

What I Didn’t Like: Unfortunately there’s quite a bit of questionable CGI with most or all of the deaths employing it.  Our lead also has premonitions before each death that are these ten second complete CGI sequences offering clues to the demises in a mashup of items that will be involved like scissors or a snake or something.  Aside from not looking very good I think this tips the hand a little too much.  The previous films do a better job of vaguely hinting at what will happen.

This was made during a 3D revival period and boy do they lean into that angle.  A ton of crap is inexplicably thrown in your face and that hasn’t aged too well.  To be honest this isn’t really a negative for me.  I’ve mentioned before that I find it kinda charming when you watch a movie that was meant to be seen in 3D way after the fact.  Even though you’re not getting the full experience the way it was originally intended it takes on a new life as an interesting artifact of a bygone era.

Overall Impressions: What a difference a director makes huh?  Ok maybe that’s being uncharitable to part 3.  But for me the cut-to-the-chase attitude of this one is where it’s at.  All the stuff in between the deathtraps is breezed through to move shit along so we can get to the next “accident”.  Similar to part 2 this shouldn’t work, however, in this case it’s welcomed.  All the setups are essentially horrifying bloody live action cartoons.  Ellis knows we want the explosions and guides us through with just enough investment in the characters to get us to the finish line satisfied.

Oh and by the way, despite the title this was not THE Final Destination.  They did more.