Very thought-provoking, if you don't just look at it

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2001)

I won't say anything about the content of Final Destination, for there are enough comments that do. I just want to make out why there's much more behind this then a standard horror movie.
Final Destination is not just another teen scream movie about a raving madman with a knife, mainly for the fact that there is no raving madman with a knife, but also because you actually have to think about it.
First of all, and in contrary to other slayer movies, it makes the viewer think a lot about death, especially one's own. When you watch a movie with a masked guy running around killing people for no reason, you can't really imagine this thing happening to you. But in Final Destination, there're just some sorts of "accidents" and it's Death itself who does the killing. Whether you imagine Death as a thinking being or merely as a... well, an event that happens doesn't matter. Fact is that everyone finally must die, and it could happen nearly anytime. That's not a very pleasant thought, so we don't often think about this, but while watching Final Destination with an open mind, you can't help getting thoughts coming to you about your own death. I admit that the "accidents" in the movie get more and more constructed and unrealistic (that's for the thrill of the movie, and it works very well), but in principle, some sort of less complicated but nevertheless lethal accidents could happen anytime to oneself. An average horror movie just frightens you, it doesn't leave you with disturbing thoughts for a long time. That's the one special point.
The other point is this idea of "cheating death". Alex, the main character, develops this thought about Death's plan to kill them, and to destroy this plan by rescuing his friends from dangerous situations. So, Death (or Destiny or whatever) plans your death, but you can escape from this fate. But in the end, Alex's girlfriend Clear makes a statement that could turn this whole belief around: Perhaps the plan was that everything should happen just like it did, and Alex never cheated Death. That would mean all the nearly-accidents he prevented weren't meant to be deadly, but to be just what they were. In real life, there are often situations when one thinks: "That could have happened another way if I only had..." or "Glad that I did this, otherwise..." But is there really this "otherwise"? Or is there no other way everything could have happened? In other words: Is your life destined? Can you change anything that will happen in the future? For the fact that everyone must die, even if you could "cheat Death", you couldn't do this forever. So, is there a point at all about asking whether you can "cheat Death"?
If you just spend a little time not only watching the movie but thinking about all this, you can get to some very interesting and very disturbing thoughts about destiny, determinism, fate and "What would have been if...".
Therefore, if you have already spent some time thinking about these themes, this movie will give you more to think about, and if you don't have, it will too.