Final Destination
Death stalks Devon Sawa in Glen Morgan and James Wong's first great feature film.

Alex (Devon Sawa) aboard Flight 180

A group of high-school students board a plane scheduled for Paris, France. Seated in the back row, Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) suddenly becomes overwhelmed by a horrifying premonition. All around him, he sees death -- as the aircraft lurches, as luggage falls from overhead compartments, as the sides of the plane give way to space thousands of feet above the ground. Alex wakes up and demands to leave the plane. Screaming at his bewildered classmates, he insists they will only die if they stay there. They don't believe him, and he and several other students -- one (Kerr Smith) who fights him, another (Ali Larter) who accepts his words -- and a teacher deboard. Inside the airport, they watch Flight 180 take off. It immediately explodes, killing all passengers. Alex was right. They had cheated death, and now death is coming for them, one by one.

Terry (Amanda Detmer) and Carter (Kerr Smith) manage to escape death, but for how long?

This is the premise of Final Destination, a very creepy and highly effective thriller from genre television greats Glen Morgan and James Wong. It's a movie dominated by dread -- the question is never whether someone will die, or even who that someone is, but when. And while this formula -- ensemble a large cast, slaughter them until you know who the stars are -- is a standby in teen horror films, Final Destination takes the genre in darker, subtler, and refreshingly non-self-referential directions. Don't be mislead by the film's teen cast; the sensibility is decidedly adult, bearing a greater likeness to recent non-slasher fare such as Stir of Echoes or The Sixth Sense than any Dimension-Miramax offerings. The characters are well-drawn and intriguing, the acting is terrific, and while there are moments of levity throughout, Final Destination largely plays it straight, and to the film's advantage. That is, of course, until its exceptionally, shockingly lame ending.

Clear (Ali Larter)

I'm going try to avoid harping on the ending for two reasons -- the first is that, overall, Final Destination is a terrific flick, and you should see it, and the second is that I'm still in complete denial that New Line would take such a cheesy way out in demanding a reshoot. (The original apparently failed to please test audiences; it will be available on DVD.) One of the greatest attributes to the film is its consistency in character and tone; the ending takes everything so painstakingly established throughout the movie and completely disregards it for lowest common denominator shock value. For exhibiting the pathetic reliance of films on unreliable marketing techniques instead of artistic integrity, Final Destination must be seen to be believed. This is a movie that absolutely begs for changes in the studio system.

Alex (Devon Sawa) sees death's design.

Of course, the crappiness of the ending is only heightened by the fine quality of the movie as a whole. Minus three or so minutes, Morgan and Wong's transition to feature films is a resoundingly successful one. Themes familiar to fans of their television work are evident throughout -- the inventive use of seemingly innocuous music, the strong female leads, the offbeat wit. Wong's direction is excellent, conveying the feeling of death in even the most unassuming forms.

In fact, the subtlety of Wong's approach -- which makes water streaming across a floor seem far more deadly than, say, a hooded figure with a knife -- makes the level of violence in the movie rather surprising. This is a hell of a gory flick, and at times unnecessarily so, if only in the sense that it offsets the movie's pensive, low-key sensibility. Still, however, this is a minor complaint (and New Line, the ending of the film is a major one) and Final Destination remains a movie worth seeing for its performances, writing and (for the majority of time, anyway) refreshingly thoughtful take on age-old subject matter.

DROOL FACTOR: Despite the fact that he is for me a younger man (okay, six days younger, but still), Devon Sawa is nonetheless intriguing, probably because his actual acting ability runs contrary to Teen Beat-sired expectations. And although a rare disease known as dawsonsus creekus has blinded me to his appeal, 11th Hour staffers who got to meet Kerr Smith in person assure me he's immensely droolworthy.

GROSS-OUT FACTOR: Tons. Decapitation, strangulation, electrocution, slipping on water and having a butcher knife fall into the center of your chest (what, no handy term for that?) and much more. You name it, Final Destination likely has it, in full disgusting glory.

STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Ali Larter's character of Clear is an interesting, unconventional chick (rumored to be even more so in the film's original ending), but just the very presence of the great Kristen Cloke is coolness enough for this film.

-- Sarah Kendzior

Final Destination releases nationwide on March 17.

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