Final Destination - a conceptually winning horror movie that delivers fear from hopelessness

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2020)

Hopelessness, the state of giving up in believing anything will happen in accordance to one's expectation, is an essential emotion that must be elicited in the genre of horror movies. Despite its importance, many horror movies fail to deliver this fundamental element effectively because it is often limited to only a few scenes or characters. On the other hand, horror movies that can sustain the feeling of hopelessness from the beginning to the end among all characters in a convincible manner will stand out the most, instilling the minds of many audience permanently. Among all, Final Destination is an outstanding example. Final destination, both the title and the grand metaphor used to deliver the essence of the movie, is a referral to the last stage of our lives - death. While death has haunted us since the moment that we are conscious of our own existence, Final destination takes a step further and draw our fears not only from death itself, but from the hopelessness that stems from the absence of a second life and the inevitability nature of death.
The absence of a second life
If final destination is the grand metaphor for death itself, then the movie implies that there is nothing beyond death as it is the final stage of our lives. Indeed, the existence of a second life is questioned in the movie, as Alex looks up into the sky and asks "Are they up there? Somehow...is 180 still in flight? Somewhere... are they still safe?". This suggests that Alex tends to believe that a second life does exist where deceased individuals can acquire a second chance and reverse the decisions that they have made from their former lives. Interestingly, Clear agrees with Alex as she says, "It exists, that place...A place where me and my dad and my mom... are still together....and have no idea about this second life, here." While the sentiments that they have expressed are laudable, the absence of any involvement from the deceased characters harshly demonstrates that the so-called "second life" only exists in their imagination, or more importantly, only in the audience's mind, thus drowning the audience in hopelessness.
The inevitability nature of death
Although the absence of a second life is seemingly depressing, the possibility of escaping from death instantly illuminates the morbid situation. Similar to the audience, the survivors in the movie summon every ounce of their courage in an attempt to escape their own death and control their fates. However, they have failed, and along with their failure, is the delivery of the message that death itself is inevitable, thereby extinguishing the last ray of hope in both the characters' and audience's mind.
While death has haunted humanity since the beginning of time, Final Destination successfully magnifies this fear conceptually by emphasizing its inevitability and eradicating the possibility of a second life. This pushes us into an abyss of hopelessness, where we now terrifyingly question, what if an afterlife does not exist? What if death is indeed our final destination?