Back in the late-90's, Early '00s, Horror was in a weird place with a lot of the mainstream stuff existing in a sort of horror-comedy mold of the genre changing Scream, with films that could be scary but also didn't take themselves too seriously. They were fun, but it started to get a little old. Then along came a unique little entry in the genre like a breath of fresh air, Final Destination. With a unique premise the film actually takes seriously (the same can't be said from the inevitable sequels) and a strong cast made this a memorable scary flick.
Alex Browning (played by Devon Sawa) is traveling to Paris with some of his classmates on a high school trip. He starts to have an uneasy feeling about the trip and once he's on the plane has a full-blown vision of the plane exploding during take-off. Freaking out, he demands everyone get off the plane. The flight attendants try to calm him down but in his ensuing hysterics, they decide to remove him from the plane, with several students caught in the process, Carter (played by Kerr Smith), Terry (played by Amanda Detmer) and Billy Hitchcock (played by Sean William Scott). Worried about Alex, his best friend Tod (played by Chad Donnella) also exits the plane along with classmate Clear Rivers (played by Ali Larter), who was convinced by Alex's warning. Also getting off the plane is one of the teachers, Valerie Lewton (played by Kristen Cloke). As Valerie tries to sort out what to do and the kids fight over being kicked off the plane, the plane actually does explode during take off, killing everyone on board. The survivors, spared by Alex's warning, try to find a way to piece their lives back together while working through some serious survivors guilt. But, when the surviving passengers begin to die one by one in freak accidents it becomes clear that they weren't meant to survive and Death is coming back around to clean up that oversight. The remaining survivors come together to try and figure out if there is a way to cheat death a second time.
Final Destination began life as a spec script for an episode of The X-Files, but wound being developed as a feature film instead, bringing on the writing partners James Wong and Glen Morgan to help develop the film, with James Wong directing as well. What works great about the film is that there is no defined personification of death, but rather exists within the film as an unseen entity moving certain pieces into position, almost Rube Goldberg-esque traps that the doomed characters fall into. The fact that it is innocent everyday elements that ultimately do in the characters when manipulated in deadly ways is part of what makes it unsettling, especially an early one where a character is strangled by a clothesline that is almost too realistic. This makes a welcome change from what could have been a guy in a large, black cloak offing teenagers and made the film a little more unique. Still, for everything the film does well, they do tend to lay it on real thick at the beginning of the film with repeatedly trying to make everything leading up to the plane disaster feel ominous and not all of it works. Thankfully, after the opening scenes the film does settle down a bit with that aspect of it. I also feel that a lot of the characters exist more as archetypes, such as Carter as the angry jock or Billy as the goof ball. Only Alex and Clear get any sort of real development. Although naming most of the characters after famous horror directors was a nice touch.
The acting in the film is decent, with Devon Sawa carrying the film as lead character Alex. He does a good job in the role of an ordinary boy in some very extraordinary situations, trying to figure out what is going on and keep it together. Ali Larter makes the most of her character, Clear, who gets closer to Alex as the film goes on and they make a good pair. I loved the strength she gave to her character, someone who has seen tragedy before in her life but pulled herself up and kept moving forward. Kristen Cloke as Valerie Lewton, the surviving teacher, was also an impressive turn as someone who started out the film as a sassy and strong woman, but after the crash just completely melts down and has trouble dealing with what happened. Cloke does a great job at conveying her character's inner anguish at what happened. Tony Todd makes a memorable appearance as a local mortician the kids visit who gives them some insight into the nature of death.
This film would go on to kick off a series of four sequels of varying quality, as well as a series of tie in comics and novels that I just recently discovered existed. Still, for me the first film is the best of the lot with a genuine sense of eeriness and more serious tone made it more effective for me than the ones that followed. It's one that I've always enjoyed and found to be an effective and memorable scary movie, one that's ripe for revisiting.
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