FINAL DESTINATION (2000)

Of all the teen ‘Scream’ like clones that came out of that era, one of the more prominent and successful ones, at least enough to get its own franchise of several flicks, was FINAL DESTINATION. Calling this just a ‘Scream’ clone wouldn’t do it justice though. This was not your typical slasher and we didn’t even get an actual physical entity chasing down hapless victims. When a bunch of high schoolers were supposed to take a flight for a class trip, one of them has a premonition that the plane will explode so people leave via a fight that breaks out as well as listening to what he said. We all know what happens next, the plane does explode and then each of the survivors fall victim later on to an unseen force that purports to fix this ‘cheating’ of death. It’s a clever twist on the genre that takes a Ghostface/Michael Myers-like figure out of the equation and instead adds a philosophical and spiritual twist. We get a cast of assorted personalities, up-and-comers, and just enough subtlety to make it work. Also, a cameo by the Candyman himself never hurts. Check out the first entry in a long franchise to see how it all began.

SLASH SCENE: Tony Todd

SLASH SCORE: 4/5