Final Destination (2000)

I'm not sure what I expect when I watch movies like this. It doesn't seem right to say, "I expect to see people killed in graphic and cool ways," but I suppose that's part of it. If a woman steps one inch out into the road and gets slammed by a bus going 75 miles an hour, that's one thing. But if another character gets their head sawed off right below the eyeballs, that's something else... The movie is somewhat intriguing because the "Jason/Freddy" villain isn't human... it's just Death (not even Death personified... not even the Grim Reaper).

This is a movie I've seen before, but the first time, I wasn't paying attention to the "classic horror names" some of the characters had -- there's the obvious, like Billy Hickcock (Seann William Scott), but then there's also the "deeper cuts," like Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke), aka "Val Lewton."

Even the minor throwaway characters sometimes had cool names, although you might never hear them said out loud and only see them when you're reading through the credits -- like Bludworth (Tony Todd). By the way, who was Bludworth? I guess he was a guy who just works in the morgue or whatever, but he appears out of the shadows, speaks some spooky death philosophy shit to the kids, and then we never see him again.

For that matter, we never learn much about Alex (Devon Sawa). Why does he have the dream/vision about the plane crash? How is he able to determine that he "broke the rules of the universe," and that Death was coming for him and the other survivors -- even though Death seemingly was okay waiting weeks (or longer) to complete the fate of the characters who were supposed to die at an assigned time?

Death, you're so funny. Just sit and bid your time for another 50 or 60 years. All of these characters are eventually going to die. You don't even have to use your spooky bathroom water or Speed Buses or sawblade neon signs.

There are six movies in this franchise. I'm not sure why anyone would need to watch more than this one, but I've got the DVD collection, so I will watch them. Alex and Clear (Ali Larter) live through the first one. I expect them to be back for round two... but assuming they get killed off, what would be the point of continuing the series? And am I right to suspect that it's all down, down, downhill (ratings wise) after this one?

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

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