Final Destination 3 backdrop
Final Destination 3 poster

FINAL DESTINATION 3

2006 • US HMDB
February 9, 2006

High school senior Wendy's premonition of a deadly rollercoaster ride saves her life and a lucky few, but not from death itself — which seeks out those who escaped their fate.

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Crew

Production: Craig Perry (Producer)Warren Zide (Producer)Matt Moore (Executive Producer)Richard Brener (Executive Producer)Toby Emmerich (Executive Producer)
Screenplay: James Wong (Screenplay)Glen Morgan (Screenplay)
Music: Shirley Walker (Original Music Composer)
Cinematography: Robert McLachlan (Director of Photography)

REVIEWS (1)

Roberto Giacomelli •
Near the diploma conferment, the students of McKinney High School go to the amusement park to celebrate the event. The main attraction is represented by "Devil's Flight", a monumental complex of roller coasters. While a group of guys are about to take their place in the carriages of the devil's flight, Wendy has a premonition in which she witnesses their death due to a malfunction of the tracks. The girl is about to get off the carriage and warns the other passengers as well: some of them follow her, others believe she just wants to attract attention to herself. But the disaster occurs and the guys who escaped death will die one by one from "accidents" atrocious. It was the year 2000 and the passengers of flight 180 bound for Paris, who escaped the tragic accident announced by one of them, found death, or rather, Death found them, a few days later. Year 2003: the story repeats itself and the survivors of the road accident on the State Highway 23, near exit 180, remain killed by strange and deadly coincidences. Three years after the last appointment with Death, the creators of the first film try again and put into action the same narrative structure as the previous episodes, with the variant of the initial accident that this time takes place in an amusement park (but it would be more correct to talk about two accidents!) and the technique that the protagonists use to prevent the deaths. Naturally, as in the previous films, you have to know how to catch the signs to escape death, but this time it will be simple photographs that suggest to the protagonists the horrible deaths that will touch the survivors. The spectacular initial accident unfortunately does not hold up (for spectacularity and ferocity) to the one staged in the second film of the saga, but it still defends itself very well, especially thanks to the originality of the situation. "Final destination 3" is a simple commercial operation stemming from the excellent results of the previous chapters, so the creators of the film, aware of this and of the fact that the first film alone was enough to adequately explain the story, have thrown themselves headlong into the choreography and the originality of the deaths, managing to distract the viewer from a poor and repetitive plot. Indeed, it is here the limit of "Final destination 3": a story not at all original, which does nothing but retrace in broad outline that of the two previous films without obvious innovations (the producers will have thought: why change a winning format!). However, in this case a total flatness of the characters and an overly hasty development of the plot are also noted, surely more engaged in the staging of the deadly accidents than in the psychological delineation of the protagonists. But let's not lie to ourselves: which viewer chooses to go see the third chapter of "Final destination" with the intention of watching an original story and a character development? Rather, one hopes to watch a gruesome slaughter based on improbable accidents at the expense of stupid and unpleasant characters; and that happens punctually. The accidents staged in "Final destination 3" are simply brilliant, they manage to exaggerate the situation to the unbelievable to conclude, often and willingly, with very bloody deaths. The direction has returned to the hands of James Wong, already engaged behind the camera of the first episode; while the screenplay is the work of Glen Morgan (director of "Willard") and Wong himself. Among the interpreters, only unknown faces and young actors can be seen, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, in the role of the protagonist, and Ryan Merriman. In conclusion, "Final destination 3" is a simple and essential splatterstick horror, not very original but extremely entertaining. Recommended especially to those looking for ninety minutes of absolute entertainment. Curiosity. The actor Tony Todd, known to the horror audience for having portrayed the character of "Candyman" and Ben in the remake of "Night of the Living Dead", had become a regular presence also in the "Final destination" saga, in the role of a mysterious man who gives advice and information about Death. But in this third chapter, since the action moves to another city, it was preferred not to include his character. However, to create continuity with the saga and to make fans happy, the actor appears anyway, lending his voice to the giant devil who lures customers into the "Devil's flight".
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COMMUNITY REVIEWS (5)

John Chard

John Chard

7 /10

Roller Toaster.

Final Destination the series moves into its third instalment without really changing the formula that was working for it. Here the opening disaster involves a Roller Coaster crash that is brought via a premonition to Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). As in the previous two films, the visionary and some friends get spooked and get off the coaster to find it actually does crash and a bunch of horrific deaths befall all those on board. Sure enough the survivors start being killed off in equally gruesome ways, it becomes apparent that the old grim reaper is out to claim the deaths that were denied him.

The opening section of FD3 is superb, the credits roll to a back drop of various carnival/fairground attractions that offer up foreboding terror, all backed by an eerie rumbling musical score. Then the crash itself is excellently stage, so much so that anyone frightened of Roller Coasters can point to this as a reason why! Then we revert to type, the youthful cast get bumped off in more ingenious ways, with more gore and lashings of dark humour pumped up this time (the use of Love Roller Coaster by The Ohio Players is genius). The narrative drive this time involves photographs, which is a nice touch and overcomes the triteness of some dialogue exchanges.

It's a safe entry in the series, and it boasts in Winstead the best young lead actress of the whole franchise. As with all horror films - franchises, some will love it and some will hate it, but ultimately it really does exactly what the previous two films did. So if a fan of those then this does a good job as well. The 2 disc DVD comes with a delightful choose their fate option, which with a bit of playing around gives you a slightly different version of the film. While it is recommended you turn up your home cinema systems for the Roller Coaster segments. 7/10

Dark Jedi

4 /10

In short, not a very exciting movie. It was not at all as good as the previous ones. Not that this was very surprising of course since the general consensus on the web seems to be that 1 & 2 are quite good, 3 & 4 not so much while the 5th is supposed to be back in shape.

Unfortunately, in this 3rd installment it seems that the producer took some shortcuts and produced the all to common teenage splatter movie. That is, do not bother about spending time on a decent script nor any acting capabilities to talk about. Replace all that with some wiggling boobs and behinds to appeal to the not too intelligent part of the teenage movie going audience, kill of a few of the bearers of said boobs and behinds at regular intervals in an increasingly goory and spectacular way and you’re done.

I kind of like the goory and violent bit, it’s supposed to be a horror movie after all, but I would prefer that it was strung together in something that at least can be said to be semi-intelligent way. Well, you cannot have a film collection if you do not have all the films in a series can you? So I cannot say that I regret buying the set but I do not think this one will go up on the films to re-watch list any time soon.

Wuchak

Wuchak

5 /10

Decent, but now formulaic entry in this 'Dead Teenager' series

The first "Final Destination" movie in 2000 was a rather innovative 'Dead Teenager Movie' in that the killer was Death itself, as an invisible spirit. A group of people, mostly teens, escape a great tragedy due to a premonition of one of them and the rest of the movie involves the Grim Reaper systematically slaying the kids who cheated Death in various creative ways, usually an unlikely chain of events. The opening tragedy in the first film was a plane crash, in the second it's a horrible highway pile-up while in this third entry it's a rollercoaster mishap.

All of the movies in the five-film franchise tell the same basic story with different characters and minor nuances; all of them are of the same high quality of technical filmmaking. Whether you prefer one or another depends on your preference for cast members and the death sequences (and the locations). Other than these factors they're all basically the same.

Released in 2006, "Final Destination 3" has a quality doe-eyed heroine or 'final girl' in Mary Elizabeth Winstead. There are some other worthy female cast members, like Alexz Johnson, Chelan Simmons, Crystal Lowe and Amanda Crew. These five ladies represent perhaps the best assortment of women in the series yet.

While it’s true that you know exactly how this film plays out if you've seen the first two installments, or any of them, there are some highlights beyond the female cast. For instance, the rollercoaster accident is thrilling and rings true in light of real-life mishaps at amusement parks. There’s also a horrifying tanning booth death sequence, which was done better in “Urban Legends: Bloody Mary” from the previous year (2005). Another death scene occurs at a warehouse where two of the protagonists work. I also liked how an extended sequence outside the teens’ school takes place in the rain, which shows attention to detail (or making the best of a rainy day during shooting, whatever).

For me, what makes these movies kinda dull is the fact that it's impossible to cheat Death. Sure, you can escape it here or there, but Death's been in business for millennia and expertly knows what he's doing. As such, everyone's gonna die except maybe the 'final girl,' who will most probably die in the sequel.

In case you’re interested, there's an interesting 20-minute documentary about "Dead Teenager Movies" on the 'extras' disk with Roger Ebert being a highlight.

The film runs 93 minutes and was shot in the Vancouver area, as were all the Final Destination flicks, except the fourth one.

GRADE: C+/B-

Andre Gonzales

Andre Gonzales

8 /10

This has the best intro to a movie I have ever seen. I'm sure we all have thought about a disaster on a roller coaster at some point in our lives. When we are about to get on a roller coaster. It's a messed up thing to see but it's awesome to see it in this movie.

r96sk

r96sk

6 /10

<em>'Final Destination 3'</em> is another dud from this franchise, even if it isn't anything that I'd consider truly terrible - just real forgettable. The plot is boring, the repetitiveness is starting to ring as true as expected. They aren't trying to add any freshness, just respinning the same wheel.

The cast are OK, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the better lead compared to this entry's predecessor. Those onscreen aren't strong enough to make up for the movie's many other shortcomings, though. At least the effects and deaths are still solid, certainly the best element of these follow-ups.

I can't say I'm expecting much from the final two sequels, here's hoping they tried to add new intrigue - something that has been missing since the gist of the plot was revealed in the original.

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