Final Destination 5
Final Destination 5 (2011)
★★ / ★★★★
A group of co-workers were on their way to a retreat that would supposedly help them become a better team. But when Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto) was somehow able to see the future involving the collapse of the suspension bridge their bus was on as well as the deaths of his colleagues, he grabbed his girlfriend, Molly (Emma Bell), got off the vehicle in a panic, and a walked away from the impending disaster. Gymnast Candice (Ellen Wroe), lubricious Isaac (P.J. Byrne), myopic Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), patient Nathan (Arien Escarpeta), whistleblower Dennis (David Koechner), and mercurial Peter (Miles Fisher) followed paranoid Sam to safety. Sure enough, the survivors, dubbed “Lucky 8″ by the news, started to die in the order in which they were supposed to on that bridge. Written by Eric Heisserer and Jeffrey Reddick, “Final Destination 5″ was like its other sequels with one scintillating detail. Bludworth (Tony Todd), a recurring character in the series as a mysterious coroner, informed Sam and his friends on how to quench Death’s thirst. With this knowledge in mind, we got to observe, at least in the latter half of the film, how the characters turned against each other, as well as possibly forcing strangers into the mix, because they wanted to live. Yet even when we were presented with a solution, the execution wasn’t strong enough. This could be partly attributed to a weakly established protagonist with a motivation as shallow as a dog’s. After each death scene, the picture relegated to the hackneyed romance between Sam and Molly. During the first scene, the Molly broke up with Sam. Naturally, the latter was very confused because, at least from his point of view, everything seemed to be going well. Later, we came to discover that she felt she needed to break the relationship for Sam. It turned out that her ex-boyfriend was offered an internship as a chef in Paris, but he wouldn’t accept it if Molly was to remain in America. The romance was not only a sophomoric attempt to get us to care, such scenes slowed down the picture’s momentum immensely. They were good at pouting and giving each other puppy dog eyes but none of these qualities contributed to the horror and the suspense. Why must there always be a couple fighting for their love in just about every other horror movie? If it’s not necessary, it’s an easy way to fill up the minutes with junk. What I wanted to see were more scenes that built up to one character inevitably meeting his or her grizzly demise. There was a dark sense of humor in the deaths. I especially liked the massage parlor with the acupuncture needles and the LASIK surgery scenes. They got under my skin, in a good way, because I have a fear of allowing someone else, like a masseuse or an eye surgeon, to be in charge of my body. Range was also present. Some deaths were quick and painless (only appearing to be painful with all that blood on the floor) while some were slow and almost unimaginable. Directed by Steven Quale, “Final Destination 5″ was forebodingly formulaic but the deaths contained enough imagination. If the romance was completely excised in place of the main character actually doing something relevant to stay alive, it would have been more exciting.
Frozen
Frozen (2010)
★★★ / ★★★★
Three college students (Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers, Emma Bell) decided to go snowboarding in the mountains. They didn’t have enough money so the girl had to flirt with the conductor of the chairlift (Ed Wackerman) in order for them to gain admittance. During the trip, there was a lot of growing tension between Lynch and his best friend’s girlfriend because Lynch felt like the trip should have been more about bonding with Dan instead of teaching Parker how to snowboard. Eventually, their luck turned against them when the trio found themselves stuck in chairlift while on their way up the mountain for a final run. I enjoyed “Frozen,” mostly in parts, because it was able to take something as simple as sitting on a chairlift and making it a horrifying experience. It played upon what most people are afraid of: heights, freezing to death, and being eaten alive. As grim as their situation was, I was glad that it had unintentional laughs and some uncomfortable chuckles, such as when Parker couldn’t help but scratch the frostbite on her face, in order to break some of the tension. With situational horror pictures like this, it’s too easy to get caught up in being one-note because the filmmakers, especially independent projects, want their work to be taken seriously. There were some gross-out moments like when Parker woke up, found her hand stuck on the safety rail, and had to peel it away slowly. It was messy, bloody and worthy of every flinch it got from me. However, I wished the characters were smarter. One of them decided to jump off the chairlift early on. Naturally, we knew it wasn’t going to work because it was too early in the movie for the solution to be handed to us. Regardless, I kept asking why the character felt the need to jump when there were other options they could have tried prior. There was one solution I came up with which was not used in the film (but it did come close). If one of the three had been a Physics student, they probably would have thought about unscrewing the chairlift from its support and used it to break their fall. There was a chance they could still get hurt, but it beats foolishly jumping off and breaking one’s bones. Nevertheless, I admired the film’s simplicity. There was no serial killer so it felt believable. It was a battle between man and nature. I felt that with each passing minute, the characters’ desperation became that much more intense. There were some questionable logic (like none of the three was ever thirsty) but those could easily be overlooked by most audiences. Maybe on their next trip (assuming there is a next one), Dan, Lynch and Parker could put their destination on their Facebook status. That way, if they didn’t show up for class, people who cared about them would know where to look.
