Forget the Scream series already....

Rating: Null/10 (11 September 2001)

Maybe that's a tad bit harsh, (they were all good) but it seems to me that every horror flick that has surfaced since then has been labled a Scream clone or at least been compared to it. While in some cases, they are clones (some are very generic) some are very good (most usually direct-to-video titles) but with Final Destination, I was completely blown away. This one went down as a classic, in my book, and Ive seen it close to ten times in the last year. It's a very fresh and inventive take on horror and a welcome change from the whole "slasher with a motive" formula, which is tried and true, but also tired and true. Although, I love slasher flicks with a passion, and I can never get sick of 'em, this doesn't really count. Let me explain (just a bit) on what seperates this film from the rest of the pack and why someone who usually doesn't enjoy slasher flicks might find something to like here.
First off, I'm really glad to see a horror flick that takes itself seriously and doesn't committ horror film-suicide by cracking in-jokes and making fun of itself. In some cases that works really well, but it's growing very tiresome lately (Urban Legends 2, anyone?) and I'm glad they left it alone here. The film focuses on our deepest, darkest fear (death) and it certainly doesn't make light of it.
*Spoilers* (minor) A group of high school kids are about to take a trip to France. Once boarding the plain, Alex (Devon Sawa) has a dream of the plain crashing on take-off. He totally goes ballistic, getting himself, five other students, and a teacher booted off the plain. The plain takes off and sure enough, it explodes. So what we have here is seven people who just cheated death and (you guessed it) death is none too happy about it, (even Death doesn't like being duped)so he goes about taking the last seven down (in slasher fashion) one by one and it's up to (guess who?) Alex to try and save the day. (Or something like that.)
It's made clear from the get-go that death doesn't like to screw around. He means business. Another cool thing is that you can't see death (it's not just some guy in a cloak). You can feel the preasence. It's also nice that this isn't the "whodunnit?" formula. We know damn well who it is and he is virtually unstoppable. So we have seven people here, death lurking around the corner and Alex at the center of it all doing his best to stop it. What follows is some of the most inventive and ellaborate, most well thought out death sequences I have ever seen, period. I won't go into any detail here but I can tell you this much; I was scared s#!tless.

The cast is pretty good here. Devon Sawa (Idle Hands) is awesome here. He does his job extremely well, giving a very layered, textured, heart felt performance. He's gonna make it huge pretty soon and he deserves it. Kerr Smith (Carter) does a better job here than he did in the more recent (The Forsaken). His character is totally unlikeable and I was really looking forward to his demise. He's the rich jock-boy with an attitude that we all went to high school. He's always angry and impossible to reason with. Kristen Cloke was really good as Miss Newton. She plays a teacher who seems to have lived a very sad life. She plays the part beutifully and looks beautiful.
This movie is very well done and those concerned that the horror genre may be dying, need not fear. As long as films like this are being made, it'll be around for a long time. I hear that there's a sequel in the works but I'm not too sure that it needed a sequel.