The previous four Final Destination movies are reviewed here if anyone wants to compare opinions before reading my review of Final Destination 5.
It’s tough being one of the later instalments in a movie franchise, having to welcome newcomers and keep faithful fans happy. It’s even tougher when you’re following a poor instalment that has already turned people against the continuation of the franchise. Which is why things rarely improve. Even when they do improve it tends to be a little too late to get everyone back on board. That’s what seemed to happen when the excellent Saw VI came along after the dire Saw V and it explains the lukewarm reception to this excellent entry in the Final Destination series (coming after the worst one of the lot, The Final Destination).
Everyone knows just what to expect by now but that doesn’t make it any less fun if done well and this is done superbly. We start off with a bunch of workers heading away for a training exercise. As they sit in the coach, waiting for the traffic to move ahead of them on the suspension bridge they’re crossing, one young man (Sam, played by Nicholas D’Agosto) has a terrible premonition. Ironic, considering that he works for a company called Presage (see what they did there? Heck, it made me smirk). He tells everyone about it and gets off the bus. Eight people, including Sam, end up off the bus when the disaster that he saw in his mind actually happens. Eight lives are saved. For now. Faithful viewers will know that death has a design and that anyone upsetting that design is just delaying the inevitable, unless they can change things enough to force death into making a new design.
The opening disaster sequence here may be the very best of the entire series, it’s packed with great special effects and some very nasty, gory moments. Thankfully, all of the death scenes that follow are just as entertaining, if on a much smaller scale. Many sequences here are on a par with the first two movies in their blend of the entertaining and macabre, the pacing of tease, tease and tease followed by a real gut punch when death finally claims his latest victim.
The acting is also on a par with the first movie. D’Agosto may not be the best actor in the world but he’s far from unwatchable. Emma Bell (known to genre fans for her roles in the likes of Frozen and The Walking Dead) plays Molly and is also just fine.
Miles Fisher is Peter Friedkin, a character who begins to unravel as the situation worsens but starts to think dark thoughts in an effort to save his own life. Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline Macinnes Wood, P.J. Byrne, Arlen Escarpeta and David Koechner (yes, THAT David Koechner) are all good in their respective roles with Byrne and Koechner providing moments of humour in between the death scenes. And Tony Todd returns to offer oblique advice.
Eric Heisserer provides a decent screenplay and Steven Quale directs with a great feel for the material. Fans will be pleased to see references to the other movies scattered throughout and may also be pleasantly surprised to find that this somehow feels fresh even while it hits set marks en route through those audience-baiting, convoluted death scenes.
Final Destination 5 is so enjoyable and entertaining that it puts me in a dilemma. The ending ties things up brilliantly (fans should LOVE it) and yet, if future instalments could be as good as this one, I’d love to see more.
DIRECTOR: STEVEN QUALE
STARS: NICHOLAS D’AGOSTO, EMMA BELL, MILES FISHER, ELLEN WROE, DAVID KOECHNER, ARLEN ESCARPETA, P.J. BYRNE, TONY TODD, JACQUELINE MACINNES WOOD
RUNTIME: 92 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: USA
Film Rating: 
