Spooky Season 2022: Final Destination 3 Review

What happens when a studio makes two financially successful and extremely popular horror films that get a decent enough response from critics and audiences? Of course, they make another one and officially have a trilogy on their hands. Final Destination 3 follows almost the exact same storyline and formula as the first two films only with a different setting and characters. This time around, the lead is Wendy Christensen (Winstead) who has a premonition that her and her friends will all die tragically in a horrific roller coaster accident. She then attempts to stop the ride and her along with a few others are kicked off the ride and watch as the accident happens in the exact same way as Wendy’s premonition played out. Shortly after, the survivors begin dying one by one and Wendy is forced to figure out what’s going on and if there’s anything she can do to stop these tragedies from happening.

When the Final Destination franchise is being discussed, the one that seems to come up the least in any conversation both positive or negative is Final Destination 3 and it’s hard to understand why. This sees James Wong returning to the franchise after helming the first film and delivering exactly what one would hope and expect to see. This one plays it fairly straightforward and unlike most of the other sequels, it doesn’t try to introduce any new rules or lore to make matters more confusing. This film doesn’t earn any points for originality or shaking up the formula but then again, it doesn’t need to and because of that, it makes for a solid entry that fits well with the rest of the franchise.

This is arguably the goriest installment in the franchise and is the last one utilizing practical effects and gore before the CGI-heavy latter installments. This film is brutal, and the deaths are all extremely nasty and unforgiving to every single character. Like the rest of the films, they set up so many red herrings in the sequences leading up to the actual deaths and while it’s easier to predict which form their deaths will come this time around, it doesn’t make it any less effective or shocking to watch when it happens. It’s nice to see the filmmakers didn’t lose any of their creative spark regarding the deaths and still had more than enough good ideas for them. The rollercoaster opening is definitely scaled back compared to some of the other openings but it’s still a strong way to start the film and isn’t any less violent.

Unlike a lot of these films where the acting ranges from a few solid performances to the rest being mostly weak, this one is actually pretty well-acted in general and contains without a doubt the best performance of the entire franchise from Winstead. Even though this was released at the start of her career, she is simply too good of an actor for this type of material and acts circles around every other performer in this film and franchise. Winstead is fantastic and it’s a shame she was never brought back for any of the future installments. The rest of the ensemble all do fine enough with what their given and Ryan Merriman makes for a good co-lead as Kevin Fischer due to the unusual relationship he has with Christensen.

Let’s not pretend this is some sort of forgotten classic or hidden gem because it’s almost exactly the same as the others and suffers from most of the same issues including weak characters and some occasionally hammy dialogue. The film doesn’t reinvent the franchise or introduce anything remotely new for audiences who have grown tired of the formula already but for those who enjoy the simple nature of these films or only watch them for the deaths, will be more than satisfied with this installment. None of these films have ever quite reached greatness but Final Destination 3 is one of the more solid and enjoyable entries in the franchise with a great twist ending.

still courtesy of New Line Cinema

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/