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Those Final Destination films

Started by up_the_hampipe, May 21, 2018, 12:11:50 AM

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up_the_hampipe

They have a place in my heart, at least the first three. For those who don't know, the films generally feature a group of characters who narrowly dodged a gruesome death after one of them has a premonition of it occurring, thus saving them from the incident. Death, which is apparently a vengeful entity, then decides to seek them all out and kill them one by one in a variety of freak accidents. This makes for some elaborate, ridiculous, gruesome and pretty hilarious death sequences.

This scene from the second one is a particular favourite ("I'll just put it on quiet mode") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEiQze0PaTM

College douche bro Evan pays the price for throwing away spaghetti https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KsehF1WYVI

Erin gets nailed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjt8iqSHPhU

Any fond memories?

bgmnts

The first one is really fun. Everything else is dogshit.

St_Eddie

FUN FACT: The original film started out as an episode of The X-Files, before it was made into its own thing.

Mister Six

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on May 21, 2018, 12:11:50 AM
College douche bro Evan pays the price for throwing away spaghetti https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KsehF1WYVI

That one has long been my favourite. The first and third films didn't do a lot for me (I never saw the rest) but I love Final Destination 2.

DukeDeMondo

My partner and I watched most of the Final Destination films over the weekend, there, as it happens. There's a received wisdom tossed about in certain circles - I maybe tossed it about myself at one time or another - that says that the Final Destination series is maybe the most consistently good of any of the big name horror franchises of the past 30-odd years, and that even the weaker of the later entries managed to retain a fair bit of the wit and invention of the first two (the only two that I had previously seen, it turned out). We wanted to find out if that is indeed the case or it isn't, or if it's just a load of old fucking horseshit that people of a certain sort of bent put out of themselves sometimes.

A load of old fucking horseshit, is it what it turned out to be. We still haven't watched the last one, which apparently marks something of a return to form, but both 3 and 4 are absolutely fucking minging. 3 is marginally more tolerable than 4, but both are fucking atrocious. Lazy as fuck and insulting and offensive, and with some of the worst CGI that I have ever seen.

The first two are great, though. I never realised before how much of a debt they owe to the Omen films, and to Damien: Omen II in particular, but they do owe them a debt, and a sizeable one at that.

So anyway I reckon it's:

1 is fantastic.
2 is good craic.
3 is garbage.
4 is worse.

It remains to be seen whether 5 is any sort of improvement, or if it too is a pile of shits.

SavageHedgehog

Love them, especially the last two which are among the most fun times I've had in a cinema. They don't scare me, to me they have a similar appeal to vintage Road Runner/Tom & Jerry cartoons.

Gregory Torso

I love the way the deaths, especially the big set-ups at the beginning (such as the massive log truck highway accident), are telegraphed, often with multiple red herrings, it's like a really hardcore episode of Casualty where you're seeing all of these potential horrific accidents built up and trying to guess what's going to happen.
Having said that, I agree that 3 and 4 are shite, even with the entertaining deaths (although it's been a good few years since I saw any of them). 5 is good though.
I remember finding the first one really funny, as well. I think the series is regarded so well is that it's quite a novel concept, and one with pretty much limitless potential. The quality of the films rests on the imagination and depiction of whatever Rube Goldberg slaughter puzzle has been put together.

Gregory Torso

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on May 21, 2018, 12:11:50 AM
This makes for some elaborate, ridiculous, gruesome and pretty hilarious death sequences.

I can't remember which one it is now, but one that really made me laugh was a locker-room full of sweaty bros all working out and shouting "fuck the [whatever their rival team is called]!" and punching a big stuffed bear and then one guy gets on a weight machine all pumped up and angry, and it somehow breaks and completely bursts his skull like a grape.

Noodle Lizard

They're not what I'd call good films by any means, and if you've seen one of them then you really don't miss much by just watching the death scenes from the others on YouTube, but they have their moments.  By the third or fourth one they'd learned what people wanted out of the series, so any sort of storyline was more or less tokenistic - usually an excuse to build up unlikeable characters before giving you their inevitable comeuppance.

This death from 5 I thought was really good in a sort of self-aware way, setting up a number of possible disasters, only for the actual death to be caused by something rather mundane.  The result is properly grim as well:   https://youtu.be/h7qAiHiDwYA

AsparagusTrevor

I've always had a soft spot for these films. The second is my favourite since it has some of the best deaths and a broad tongue-in-cheek attitude to the obvious ridiculousness of the whole thing. The explosion/barb-wire death is a definite series high-point. 3 is meh and 4 is pants, part 5 is surprisingly mean-spirited and nasty.

Number 4, although the worst of the series, was one of the funniest cinema experiences I ever remember having. 3D was still a bit of a novelty then and the film relished in chucking stuff at the screen to take advantage of this. Watching the entire audience trying to physically dodge a CGI screwdriver will stick with me forever. If a new FD film came out I'm sure it's be a perfect match for 4DX and the like.

idunnosomename

Sorry what the fuck is happening in the first clip. Why does no one react to anything? Why does no one do anything? (Press the brakes, get out of the car, scream when someone dies horribly) It's like a dream.

The second one is similarly stupid and about as tense as a Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'em episode. And if Death is intervening to kill him, why is the important thing that kills him the spaghetti he threw out the window himself?

Look I know it's just shite but all this really annoys me

Dannyhood91

I don't think I've thought about these films in years. I reminder really enjoying 1 and 2 but never getting round to 3 and 4. Wasn't one of them set on a rollercoaster or am I having false memories?

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: Dannyhood91 on May 21, 2018, 11:01:24 AM
I don't think I've thought about these films in years. I reminder really enjoying 1 and 2 but never getting round to 3 and 4. Wasn't one of them set on a rollercoaster or am I having false memories?

Aye, the third one.

machotrouts

I think what I love most about the Final Destination films is the plausible deniability of "Death" as a slasher villain. Death has no real manifestation beyond a few strokes of bad luck. Most of the deaths in these films, however absurd and elaborate, could just happen for no paranormal reason at all. Each of these films could actually just be a sequence of extraordinary coincidences.

Final Destination 3 is clearly the best one. It successfully balances black comedy and genuine tension in a way I think all the others struggle with, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a brilliant protagonist, and the photographs foretelling people's deaths is a fun and creative conceit compared to your common-or-garden [ZOOM INTO EYE] [OMINOUS CGI FLIES AROUND] [ZOOM OUT] nonsense. Again: plausible deniability. Is that just a photo with an unflattering exposure, or a portent of your immolation in a tanning bed? We just don't know and couldn't possibly guess.

The worst is Final Destination 4, which is actually called The Final Destination, short-termist marketing hubris clearly undermined by there ultimately being a Final Destination 5. If ANY film series should be doing a better job of adapting their present actions in consideration for what will happen in the future...

Anyway, like all 3D films, Final Destination The was lost on me, because I pretty much can't see 3D. Maybe I've got some eye disease, I don't know. As probably the only person ever to bother watching it in 2D, let me assure you that it looks like absolute dogshit.

2, The, and 5 all have a Big CG Action Blockbuster sheen that distances me from them. I don't know why 2 always gets a pass on this – it was directed by the guy who did Snakes on a Plane, and indeed The, and it shows. Anyway he's dead now. Much like the characters in his Final Destination films... makes you think...

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: AsparagusTrevor on May 21, 2018, 09:55:51 AM
Number 4, although the worst of the series, was one of the funniest cinema experiences I ever remember having. 3D was still a bit of a novelty then and the film relished in chucking stuff at the screen to take advantage of this. Watching the entire audience trying to physically dodge a CGI screwdriver will stick with me forever. If a new FD film came out I'm sure it's be a perfect match for 4DX and the like.
Yep. 4 was a bit ploppy, but it remains the only legitimate use of 3D I've seen at the cinema. People might call it gimmicky, but I say it's far more gimmicky to release a film in 3D and not lob stuff at the audience.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on May 21, 2018, 11:53:03 AM
Quote from: AsparagusTrevor on May 21, 2018, 09:55:51 AMNumber 4, although the worst of the series, was one of the funniest cinema experiences I ever remember having. 3D was still a bit of a novelty then and the film relished in chucking stuff at the screen to take advantage of this. Watching the entire audience trying to physically dodge a CGI screwdriver will stick with me forever. If a new FD film came out I'm sure it's be a perfect match for 4DX and the like.
Yep. 4 was a bit ploppy, but it remains the only legitimate use of 3D I've seen at the cinema. People might call it gimmicky, but I say it's far more gimmicky to release a film in 3D and not lob stuff at the audience.
This and Jackass 3D were the two for me, basically some mates dicking around with expensive cameras, happy for things such as dildos and faeces to fly at the screen (it probably helped that we brought a few alcoholic beverages with us). Annoyingly, neither films got 3D blu-ray releases.

St_Eddie

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on May 21, 2018, 03:24:17 AM
A load of old fucking horseshit, is it what it turned out to be. We still haven't watched the last one, which apparently marks something of a return to form, but both 3 and 4 are absolutely fucking minging. 3 is marginally more tolerable than 4, but both are fucking atrocious. Lazy as fuck and insulting and offensive, and with some of the worst CGI that I have ever seen.

Yeah, anyone who says that the Final Destination series is consistently good is talking absolute bollocks, plain and simple.  I remember renting one of the sequels and watching it with my girlfriend at the time.  It got to a bit with two topless women getting burned to death in tanning beds.  It was so bad that we turned the movie off and took it back to Blockbusters, without bothering to finish it.  Awful movie.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on May 21, 2018, 08:55:04 AM
This death from 5 I thought was really good in a sort of self-aware way, setting up a number of possible disasters, only for the actual death to be caused by something rather mundane.  The result is properly grim as well:   https://youtu.be/h7qAiHiDwYA

Ha! Jesus Christ!

mothman

I think I saw the first one. After that, no clue. Thing was though I never bought into the premise. People escape certain death all the time, and don't subsequently die in often implausible freak accidents. Is it meant to be somehting about them having a premonition about the initial accident? Same thing applies, many people have had premonitions and haven't died later, apart from old age, usually, of course.

colacentral

Quote from: St_Eddie on May 21, 2018, 02:56:40 AM
FUN FACT: The original film started out as an episode of The X-Files, before it was made into its own thing.

I used to think that too, but I heard / read what actually happened was that it was written as a slasher movie spec script, with the grim reaper as an actual Jason / Freddy Krueger type character killing people with a scythe. Morgan & Wong had already left the X-Files and were looking for projects to direct; they read that shite script and completely rewrote it.

I did always think that it started out as an X-Files spec as when you watch it with that in mind you can see how closely it adheres to that formula: the plane explosion would have been the prologue, followed by the FBI questioning the "psychic." Then the rug-pull twist is that it's not an episode about a psychic but about death. But from what I've heard elsewhere I think it's just a case of Morgan & Wong being so used to structuring stories that way.

I could be wrong though, I've heard both versions. I'd like to have seen it as an X-Files episode as the story is perfect for it.

St_Eddie

The writers themselves, are the ones who said that it started out as a script for The X-Files, on the DVD commentary.

Thomas

The sequel (2011) that - spoiler - turns out to be a prequel to the very first installment (2000) quite cleverly misdirects the audience by featuring technology, vehicles, styles, and every single other conceivable marker of setting that place it firmly in the year 2011.

greenman

Quote from: colacentral on May 21, 2018, 06:39:12 PM
I used to think that too, but I heard / read what actually happened was that it was written as a slasher movie spec script, with the grim reaper as an actual Jason / Freddy Krueger type character killing people with a scythe. Morgan & Wong had already left the X-Files and were looking for projects to direct; they read that shite script and completely rewrote it.

I did always think that it started out as an X-Files spec as when you watch it with that in mind you can see how closely it adheres to that formula: the plane explosion would have been the prologue, followed by the FBI questioning the "psychic." Then the rug-pull twist is that it's not an episode about a psychic but about death. But from what I've heard elsewhere I think it's just a case of Morgan & Wong being so used to structuring stories that way.

I could be wrong though, I've heard both versions. I'd like to have seen it as an X-Files episode as the story is perfect for it.

The X-files actually had a very similar(but considerably more interesting IMHO) story the year before in Tithonus, the one with the photographer seeking out people about to die.

machotrouts

Quote from: Thomas on May 21, 2018, 06:54:44 PM
The sequel (2011) that - spoiler - turns out to be a prequel to the very first installment (2000) quite cleverly misdirects the audience by featuring technology, vehicles, styles, and every single other conceivable marker of setting that place it firmly in the year 2011.

I can't speak for any of that because all I remembered by the end of the film was the bit near the start where one of the characters referenced Lisa Loeb. "Ahh... that's why one of the characters referenced Lisa Loeb", I thought. So I think you'll find it stood up to my rigorous scrutiny

colacentral

Quote from: St_Eddie on May 21, 2018, 06:44:53 PM
The writers themselves, are the ones who said that it started out as a script for The X-Files, on the DVD commentary.

Ah right, did they? I thought I heard them say the opposite in some featurette. Been years since I heard that though - I just remember finding it surprising that I'd been mistaken all that time.

madhair60

ehhhhh, hope i don't die in a weird way

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: madhair60 on May 21, 2018, 09:59:20 PM
ehhhhh, hope i don't die in a weird way

You're an asphixiwank waiting to happen.

Kane Jones

Which one is it where the guy sticks his hand down the waste disposal unit but ends up getting eye-fucked by a ladder? That one was mint.

St_Eddie

I like that they cast Tony Todd as death because Tony Todd, innit.

Quote from: Kane Jones on May 21, 2018, 11:00:06 PM
Which one is it where the guy sticks his hand down the waste disposal unit but ends up getting eye-fucked by a ladder? That one was mint.

Ah yes, that was a good 'un.

Mini

I've seen the first one and the 3D one. Found the first boring because it's kind of serious but stupid, whereas I quite enjoyed the 3D one at the cinema cos it knows it's mindless splattery fun. "Oh no my shoelace is caught in the escalator and I'm being dragged into its deadly infernal mechanism!"