Alex Browning is going to France with his high school French class and feels uneasy about the flight. He's already uncomfortable with the concept, but he keeps seeing ominous and darkly ironic things involving plane crashes or the number of his plane everywhere. Safely boarded, he dreams that the plane explodes just after taking off. His ensuing freakout pushes a latecomer, Billy, off the plane plus Alex's best friend Tod, Carter the combative jock, Terry the jock's girlfriend, Valerie one of the French teachers, and Clear the loner. The plane explodes just after takeoff as foretold and everyone blames Alex. After the shock sets in, the survivors keep dying as if death is claiming those who escaped.
Final Destination holds up as a decent film despite the dated aesthetics. The characters aren't really much more than caricatures and the acting isn't very good. However, the kills are unique and small details make the movie more immersive. In this type of film where the novelty is in the kills, the characters just need to be there. Devon Sawa is particularly unlikeable here as the frantic Alex who seems like he's trying to get blamed for the survivor's deaths with his poor decisions. The initial plane crash made me scared to fly and has many different parts to it from chairs detaching and flying through the air to the final explosion. Most of the ensuing deaths are Rube Goldberg machines of doom that slowly build to the inevitable death. I thought the kill would go one way and then it would veer off in another direction. Tod's death had an extra detail in the burst eye blood vessels. I had never seen that before in a movie and it's a detail often overlooked. Valerie's death was a bit over the top and had moments that exceeded logic, but it was damn fun to watch. Valerie's and Billy's were sudden and shocking to give some variety in the deaths and the pacing.
This film has a running thread of humor through the whole thing despite the teenage drama and bloody deaths. I think that's why it's held up. It doesn't take itself too seriously and wasn't afraid to be cheesy. Even the ominous mood throughout the film was so over the top that it became funny. Tony Todd has another iconic role as the delightfully menacing mortician who lays out the rules for them. By the end of the movie, it goes off the rails a little bit. The scene with the live wires looked terrible and ridiculous. The simple concept and unique kills along with its over the top cheesiness make this film a fun watch.
My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins
* House on Haunted Hill (2000)
Stephen Price changes the guest list for his hateful wife Evelyn's birthday party, which is set in a former insane asylum built into a cliff. A group of five strangers arrives along with the caretaker and he offers them a million dollars each if they can survive the night along with guns to make it interesting. Each of them is desperate for the money, so they stay, sealed into the house until morning. They have no idea what the vengeful spirits have in store for them.
House on Haunted Hill is another dated movie with over the top acting and a lot of people don't like it. It's a guilty pleasure for me and despite its flaws, it has unique elements. Geoffrey Rush hams up Stephen with his best Vincent Price and provides most of the humor throughout the film. His dynamic with Famke Janssen as his wife Evelyn is excellent as they trade vicious barbs and blows with nonchalance, as if every couple deeply hates each other. This and the basic concept are the only things this film shares with the original film. The only other decent performance is Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Vannacutt, mostly seen as a silent, threatening ghost. His story of experiemtentation on his patients is much more interesting and creepy than the plot in the present. The cold open is a memorable, gory scene when the patients finally rise up as he's vivisecting another. The rest of the cast, even those who are the "heroes," fall flat.
The scares in the film are well done even if they don't relate to each other. Digging through a giant vat of blood for a friend only to see them across the room proves effective. The zoetrope scene with Stephen trapped in a dizzying room and forced to endure a hallucinogenic trip through the asylums' history is particuarly memorable. That scene had one of the best practical effects with a woman whose entire face is taken up by a toothy mouth. Another particularly eerie one is the security guard's entired face being scooped out, leaving only the top of his skull and his lower jaw. Like Final Destination, the unique kills are more interesting over the paper thin characters. The details inside the house create an eerie atmosphere, contrasting the modern and dilapidated parts. The modern rooms are gorgeous with stained glass and fancy furniture. The rest of it has disturbing sculptures and dead human specimens in addition to the old asylum equipment.
The very ending disappoints with a terrible CGI monstrosity and the death of all the interesting characters. While the ghost doesn't hold up, it is a unique creation that has eerie elements. The post-credits scene shows Stephen and Evelyn's fate, which I don't think was deserved even on Evelyn's part. So much of this film is interesting that it obscures the terrible parts like the house somehow changing the guest list or Taye Digg's line at the end with the worst delivery ever or Chris Kattan's SNL style of acting. This film has a special place in my heart because of the main couple, the haunting imagery, and fun scares and kills. House on Haunted Hill is pure fun. Take the good with the bad and go along with the ride.
My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins
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