It’s appropriate that a doomed roller coaster serves as the narrative leaping-off point in Final Destination 3, for the third installment of the teen-skewing (and teen-skewering) horror series about gory fate and unseen Death and all that squirmingly unnerving stuff is itself an exercise in cathartic goosing, in many of the best senses of the phrase.
On the eve of her high school graduation, Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) joins her fellow seniors for a night of celebration at a local amusement park. In line for a roller coaster, a premonition of the death of she and some friends causes her to freak out, and in the ensuing fracas, classmate Kevin (Ryan Merriman, below left) disembarks with Wendy, along with football jock Lewis (Texas Battle), sardonic Ian (Kris Lemche, quite good), goth chick Erin (Alexz Johnson), camera-toting lothario Frankie (Sam Easton) and others. These kids soon discover, though, that fate’s reach is hard to escape, and a series of grisly deaths follows., and <B>anyone criticizing, collectively or individually, the plausibility of the parade of fatalities on display in the film is really missing the point</B>. Readily accomplishing all of its goals of titillation, theatrical jolt and teased-up, even (slightly) subverted expectation, the film plays even better on the small screen a second time around.<BR><BR>Distributor New Line has been among a handful of innovators in the DVD format, first introducing branching technology via its “Infinifilm” series. They continue that trend here with their double-disc release of <I>Final Destination 3</I>, which comes in an Amray case with a snap-in tray for its second disc, and additionally features a cardboard slipcover. The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, preserving the aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition, and includes an English language 5.1 Dolby digital EX surround sound track as well as English language DTS-ES 6.1 discrete sound and stereo surround sound tracks.<BR><BR><B>The big selling point of the DVD is an interactive viewing option that bills itself as allowing you to variously select or influence characters’ fates</B>, a la the old “Choose Your Own Adventure” line of books. While this is a bit disingenuous (you typically choose heads or tails rather than plotting some new, radical course of action for a character), it provides for some moments of fun, but also many more of frustration. Certain options lead to aborted endings, which then provide amusing character post-mortems (e.g., “Wendy embraces her psychic abilities, now goes by the name Ming, and gives readings to celebrities and entertainers, in addition to assisting various police investigations”) before, in theory, allowing you to reverse your choice and double back to the film.<BR><BR><B>On multiple occasions, however, I had the disc seize up and freeze after such choices, requiring it to be stopped and re-started, at which point it would recycle to just before the choice.</B> I’m as of yet unsure as to whether this is a minor single-disc glitch or symptomatic of a broader problem, but I did also have problems watching the movie in its normal theatrical cut, as it twice jumped directly past the tanning-bed death sequence while listening to Wong and Morgan’s audio-commentary track with cinematographer Robert McLachlan. So make of all that what you will.<BR><BR>Regardless, the further supplemental extras are nice. First off, the aforementioned commentary track is a quite good one, with the filmmakers charting the 63-day, Vancouver-based production in fine anecdotal fashion. Among the highlights they touch upon are the difficulties they faced in locating a suitable roller coaster for production, and the art department’s, ahem, <B>jocular inclusion of giant Styrofoam genitalia on a 40-foot devil</B> that towers over said structure. The second disc also includes a bountiful amount of extras, kick-started by <B>a mini-documentary look at what critic Roger Ebert calls the “dead teenager” subgenre of horror movies</B>. While this allows New Line to flog, in savvy fashion, its considerable back catalogue of such fare, this original 25-minute piece is no shine job, including as it does interviews with Ebert, Wong and many more academic sources.<BR><BR>Next up is <EM>Kill Shot</EM>, a feature-length making-of documentary. While to some, <I>Final Destination 3</I> might seem unable to sustain that type and duration of exploration, this exhaustive and unflinchingly honest look at the movie from inception through execution is almost as fun a ride as the feature it chronicles. <B>Particularly interesting and amusing is the bit on the studio’s hesitancy in casting Easton, whom they thought looked to old to play a high schooler; he recounts his trip to the audition, and the shame he felt in being told by his agent that he had a receding hairline</B>. Good bits on the practical, hands-on and gory effects in the movie also hold sway, from stuntwoman Leslie McMichael’s fire work to the special concoction (banana, red food coloring and chopped up white silicone) used to simulate splattered brain matter. Rounding things out is a six-minute original animated movie which examines the sort of survivors’ coincidences that inform the <I>Final Destination</I> movies, as well as the theatrical trailer, three television spots and 25 more minutes of stylized EPK footage. <B>B+ (Movie) A- (Disc, apart from the glitches)</B></p>
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