Final Destination 5
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| FD 5 |
My favorite scene in Final Destination 5 doesn’t necessarily
feature a gruesome, imaginatively staged death, but it factors exponentially in
how frightening “death’s design” can be. Unlike a human mastermind such as Jigsaw
and his protégés in how they design death traps that require their “specimens” to act on
potential escape methods, FD series doesn’t technically allow such rescue of
themselves. Sure it’s possible that one can “replace their fate with someone
else handy” but most of the time this isn’t in the cards. The scene I loved was
the hero’s walking through a kitchen in the back of a restaurant as he prepares
to cook. All the “tools of trade” are seen as weapons of mass destruction. The
presentation of these cooking tools would indicate that they are harbingers of
doom. I was tickled at how macabre they were established.
FD is a popular series almost exclusively because of how
death executes victims. Typically (and FD 5 is no different), the victims are
all right off the cover of Pretty People magazines and due to their lack of
Major Star recognition often are plundered from television where they make the
rounds before the call up to a movie that will exploit their good looks. They
make perfect fodder for whatever death does to them. It really all comes down
to how inventive and grotesque the death sequences are. We are provided the
compounding score that illustrates to us the possibilities of what death has in
store for victims. Screws loosening, water puddling, a fan jittering
uncontrollably, fires flaming up from candles after they’re tipped over,
invisible wind directed to the spots needed to jumpstart something really bad
ahead: death’s design is purported to us with sound and eventual fury. An
unfortunate victim falls on acupuncture needles, becomes trapped in a therapy
room where massage isn’t necessarily applied by Asian babes thanks to a fire
setting off, and has his head splatted by a smiling Buddha statue (!). There’s
typically quite an uncomfortable death sequence (like the showstopping tanning
bed sequence in FD 3) in the series and that would be the laser eye sequence in
this film. Sure an eyeball falls out and is run over after the victim flies out
a window from several stories to her death. Flying debris stab faces and a hook
used in construction impales a victim; this was during an employee’s
altercation with his boss (one of the survivors of death’s initial attempt to
kill him who happens to escape again when his construction worker is “pulled in
the way”). One of the cast shows a disturbing desperation after he realizes
that a person “marked by death” can escape death’s return by “finding a
substitute”. He will target someone else, but when a murder happens in front of
this film’s hero and heroine (boyfriend/girlfriend), this executioner will need
to remove any witnesses. The film provides that exciting climax where death isn’t
the only killer out to claim victims…this scene also shows how death itself
might get involved (a gun falls on a stove eye and begins to heat). There’s
even a clever tie-in to the first film which brings death full circle. Though,
I didn’t buy that the film took place in 2000…just saying.
Horror buffs, we get Tony Todd as a coroner with an
understanding of how “death works”. It’s his mere presence that is needed. He
can show up (in the right movie, with the right director) and not say a word
and Todd is utilized especially well. What is sad, to me anyway, is how poorly
used Todd has been in a lot of films for which he’s appeared over the last
twenty years. Candyman (and its sequel) are pure examples of how magnificent he
can be (he’s also good in The Crow), but so often he’s stuck in the likes of
Wishmaster (a film with its fans, me not one of them) and The Graves where he’s
embarrassed. Often he’s been a cameo guy like Lance Henriksen, but here in FD
5, I think he is presented as a type of symbolism for death’s follow up. He’s
the guy that is around once death has called its next victim.
Fans of this series know what to expect and are looking for
creative kill scenes where characters are destroyed innovatively. There’s an
entire sequence dedicated to killing a gymnast. We see it all play out, believing
the intended victim might step on a nail on a balance beam or perhaps fall to
the dangerous fan, only to die in a whole different way that involved parallel
bars. The special effects for the aftermath after the body is mangled and
twisted are ghoulish and unforgettable. This is what patrons paid to see for
five films…death doing what it does best and that is through elaborate
destruction. I could tell you of the characters' ambitions, their concerns about careers and life ahead since they are young and feel undeserved of death's pursuit, but ultimately if they don't die somehow, the viewer (s) would be disappointed. This is kind of disturbing in itself...that we are little concerned about who these people are but more interested in how they'll die.
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