All the fun of the fair
WHILE STANDING in line at a funfair ride, who hasn’t wondered, if only for a moment, just how safe the contraption is? If that’s you, then don’t watch Final Destination 3.
After the success of the first instalment, Final Destination, in 2000, director James Wong returns to the helm in 2006, only to prove that this horror franchise really has nowhere left to go. Death plays catch-up, once more, when Wendy (Winstead) has a vision of dying with her schoolmates in a rollercoaster crash.
Wendy, a control-freak, has a premonition that the rollercoaster she and her friends are about to ride, will crash. Along with a few of her friends, Wendy gets off, and is forced to stand back helplessly, as her tragic vision proves accurate, and the friends that did not get off, perish in an impressively staged, adrenaline-pumping crash sequence.
However, the action rapidly descends into a series of absurd accidents. Just as in the first two films, the grim reaper won’t be outdone, and catches up with the survivors one by one, claiming their lives in the order they would have died in the crash. Of course, Wendy is last in line.
As the survivors die, Kevin (Merriman), tells Wendy about how death won’t be outdone, showing her an online article about Flight 180 (the aeroplane crash in the original film). She then makes a connection between the order in which her friends are dying, and photos she’d taken of them at the fair. Every picture, apparently, holds clues to the means of their death.
The pattern of the films is predictable, but the thrills are found in the death scenes. When it comes to finding extremely gruesome ways to get rid of its cast members, the filmmakers have truly outdone themselves.
The visual effects, particularly the elaborate roller-coaster sequence, are quite effective, and there is a light, almost innocent spirit to this picture. Even though none of it is meant to be taken seriously, this film is certainly not for children.
Aside from a gratuitous reference to September 11, the movie is never offensive, and although the script doesn’t even attempt to present a semblance of realism, it’s hard to imagine the target audience will mind.
RATING * * *
