That rare thing: A horror film that does its job

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2001)

I have spent my life trying to find a film that truly scares me and leaves an imprint on my mind. Back in the 1980s, when I was a teenager, "The Evil Dead" was said to be the one. It made me jump a lot, but didn't really scare me.
I've seen a lot of the so-called "Video Nasties" banned under the Video Recordings Act of 1984, including the most notorious ones. "Last House...", "I Spit..." and the supposed nastiest of all, "Cannibal Holocaust", are all perhaps disturbing in a way but still not really scary. With the BBFC seeming ever more keen to cut gore and shock from any UK video release, I gave up my quest for a long while. I remained to be scared.
"Blair Witch" and "Sixth Sense" recently left an imprint when I recently decided to re-embark on my quest, but "Final Destination" is the closest I've come yet to my personal holy grail.
The film didn't really scare me but it certainly served to shock. I'm not sure if it's the BBFC's new, more relaxed code at work but I was surprised at some of the graphic scenes. Pleasantly surprised that is that they don't see fit to dictate what we can and can't see to us so much and have stopped trying to nanny us. Some of the scenes in "Final Destination" were easily as strong, if not stronger than some scenes from the old "Video Nasties", and this in a film with a "15" certificate. I can't wait to see some "18" releases under the new regime.
The overall impression that I got from this film was one of originality. The story was intelligent, the unpleasant scenes realistic, in that they concerned fates that could befall any of us. Hollywood has tried to scare us before with the "slasher" genre, which doesn't work for me, especially when a lot of the more "colourful" action is off-camera, supposedly to scare us more by letting our imagination do the work. No, that's a cop out. What I want is full-on, sudden, shocking gore of the kind spattered around "Final Destination", coupled with a storyline that doesn't require too much suspension of disbelief and an intelligent plot.
If "Final Destination" is a bandwagon, I hope other film-makers jump on it, not to try to copy it, but to realise that there is an intelligent audience out here, hungry for a fright and waiting to be scared.

There's the guantlet, now pick it up. Scare us, please!