In the horror-film pantheon, the Final Destination franchise occupies a niche all its own. It isn’t built around a signature villain, like other long-running sagas, but instead relies upon an abstraction to mete out its carnage. It operates according to a simple notion – that when it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go – and adheres to a strict formula, laid down in the series’ inaugural installment, 2000’s Final Destination: Several attractive teenagers are scheduled to participate in some group activity together, but decide to skip it when one of their number has a vision in which they all perish in a grisly catastrophe if they don’t. Sure enough, the premonition turns out to be true, and the fresh-faced kids, having safely averted disaster, are relieved and grateful to have “cheated” death. But death – at least Final Destination’s intangible incarnation of death – doesn’t cotton to being cheated, and shortly thereafter sets about balancing fate’s ledger, one soul at a time.
That the formula has changed little over the course of four films, or that its ultimate outcome is usually ascertainable within a few minutes of the opening credits, matters little to devotees of the franchise. Because with every Destination, the appeal is the journey – or, to be more precise, the elaborate kill scenes that comprise that journey. Some aim for shock (a swimmer’s insides are siphoned out of his body by a pool filter), others for irony (a superficial Barbie-type is singed by a malfunctioning tanning bed); all are intricately constructed and exceptionally gruesome.
The Scene of the Crime
Such macabre ingenuity requires an astonishing degree of craftsmanship and technical proficiency to render it properly on the big screen, as I witnessed first-hand last November when I set foot upon the sprawling Vancouver soundstage where Final Destination 5 was being shot. Its centerpiece was a massive hydraulic gimbal, holding aloft, several stories high, a life-sized, 60-foot replica of a portion of Vancouver’s Lions Gate bridge. Scurrying about were dozens of crewmembers, busily readying the next set-up of what would eventually constitute the film’s inciting incident: a cataclysmic bridge collapse that sends cars and various other debris careening wildly in different directions. (Incidentally, the same gimbal was used to stage the airplane disaster in the first Final Destination.)
One might expect the crew on a film like Final Destination 5 to be collection of dour Edgar Allan Poe types, seeing as how they toil daily in death and destruction. But to a man (and woman) they were almost shockingly good-natured – and by good-natured, I don’t mean the amiable stoicism and gallows humor one finds in, say, a mortician or grave-digger; I’m talking about graciousness and enthusiasm of near-Mormon proportions. I half-expected to be handed a pamphlet and asked to take a personality test. Instead I watched as they prepared a shot in which a man is doused with boiling tar.
Familiar Faces and New Blood
Overseeing all of the scurrying – and doing a fair bit of it himself – was the wry, uber-voluble Craig Perry, producer of all five Final Destination films. “We have a couple of interesting things we’ve added to the mix here,” Perry said of the latest installment, “but I think more than anything, the scope of the opening sequence is going to really take people by surprise. We’ve sort of likened it that we’ve been able to capture what is like a $150 million scope of a movie on a far, far less scale of a budget.” Exactly how “far, far less” isn’t exactly clear – specifics weren’t provided – but the budget is probably something north of that of the previous chapter, 2009’s The Final Destination, which hovered in the $40 million range. (For what it’s worth, IMDB pegs the number at $47 million.)
Perry added that the latest installment will make some tweaks to its traditional formula. He hesitated, however, to label it a reboot: “I’m not going to give away any of the things that we’ve come up with but there are some things that I think will reinvigorate what is a 10-year-old franchise in a way that will keep the fans happy but I think it will also allow us to tell more and more stories in this environment.”
[Click here for more excerpts from our interview with Craig Perry.]
Helming Final Destination 5 is franchise newcomer Steven Quale, whose sole directing credits to date are a TV movie (2002’s Superfire) and a nature documentary (2005’s Aliens of the Deep, which he co-directed). But what Quale lacks in experience he makes up for in expertise in an area seen as vitally important to the film’s box office prospects: 3D. (Much of the success of the 2009 film, the first of the series released in 3D, was credited to the format upgrade.) As second-unit director on Avatar, Quale played a vital role in helping James Cameron develop the cutting-edge 3D technology used on that film. “I think out of all the people that were up for this movie or potential directors, I was one of the most qualified in the 3D aspect,” Quale said. “I feel like we’ve totally succeeded in that direction. You sort of forget about the 3D once you watch it, and then you get smacked right in the face with this amazing death or something and then it’s like, ‘Wow, that was cool!” and then you keep on going. It’s a rollercoaster ride and we’re definitely delivering."
[Click here for more excerpts from our interview with Steven Quale.]
The Victims
The story, such as it is (the Final Destination films are not known for dense narratives), centers on several attractive young employees of a paper company who are slated to attend a corporate retreat together, only to find their plans altered by a bridge collapse that they narrowly avoid, thanks to a timely bout of precognition on the part of Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto). The cast represents something of a departure from previous Final Destination films, in that it skews older and more comedic. Its most recognizable representation of the latter is David Koechner, supporting member of the Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Office ensembles, to name a few. Koechner, who plays Dennis, the paper company boss, hints that it may not be the most likable role he’s played. “Dennis has a commandeering style of management,” he revealed. “My guess is he’s probably on his third marriage. That gives you a hint as to who he might be.”
[Click here for more excerpts from our interview with David Koechner.]
He is surrounded by a smattering of 20- and 30-somethings who, for the first time in the franchise’s history, will actually be playing 20- and 30-somethings and not suspiciously mature teenagers. “I think part of the reason for that was that Craig was really conscious that he has a fan base that grew up with this,” said D’Agosto, who stars in the film alongside Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, and P.J. Byrne. “I think he wanted to bring in characters that those fanbase members could relate to as well as the younger generation.”
[Click here for excerpts from our interview with Miles Fisher and P.J. Byrne.]
Many of the actors were eager to assert that Final Destination 5 places special emphasis on character development – which, if true, would also constitute a franchise first. Their statements could be attributed to actorly wishful thinking, or perhaps a brief bout of amnesia in which they suddenly forgot they're making a Final Destination film. Regardless, it begs the question: How much do you really want to know about the people whose entrails you’ll soon see scattered about the screen?
The Gore
And if the words of Toby Lindala, who handled most of the makeup and practical effects on Final Destination 5, are to be believed, the entrails will be plentiful. “It’s definitely juicy,” Lindala told us. “We started out thinking that it was going to be kind of dialed back a bit, but I’m happy to report that yeah, the guts are flyin’.” He isn’t the only one excited about the film’s abundance of viscera. Just about everyone working on the set, cast and crew alike, shared his sentiments. They know all too well the reason for the franchise's enduring appeal. “They are so delightful – delicious, I would say,” said Koechner of the film’s death scenes. “Anytime there’s a death, everyone is impressed and proud.”
[Click here for more excerpts from our interview with Toby Lindala.]
Final Destination 5 opens everywhere August 12, 2011.