Final Destination 3 (2006) – Review

29th October 2024

Final Destination 3 (2006) – Review

Three years after the second film, Death has decided to tap into something that I love, and visit a theme park!

After Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead – Scott Pilgrim vs The World) has a premonition that the rollercoaster she’s on will derail, she discovers that the clues to Death’s designs are in photographs that she’s taken.

Despite the three-year gap, ‘Final Destination 3’ quickly became a fan favourite and, after a rewatch, it’s clear to see why it did so.

Like the previous two entries, the film opens with the initial set up to the premonition and, this time, it’s at a theme park. While the vehicle pile-up in the previous entry did well in creating generational trauma, the rollercoaster derailment is the scariest one for me. The reasoning can be perfectly summed up with a quote at the beginning: ‘the real fear, with these rides, is the fear of having no control’. This quote also applies to the premonition in the first film but, due to the speed of rollercoasters, the potential possibility of this happening is all the more frightening. Plus, the excitement mixed in with a sense of nervousness before disembarking is very relatable, with the latter being an all-too familiar feeling with Wendy.

But her sense of fear is, unfortunately, correct with a derailment becoming a very real experience for the characters. The cinematography does an amazing job at highlighting that danger: steady shots are shown at the start of the coaster’s journey but, as the derailment begins, the shots get more and more unsteady to the point of becoming disorientating. It’s a small detail, but an extremely effective way of showing how the situation has gone from fun to chaotic and terrifying in such a short amount of time.

‘Final Destination 3’, of course, gets even more terrifying when the survivors start to get a visit from the Grim Reaper afterwards. And the kills are both the best and most visually horrific ones so far! With practical effects still being used, the kills once again have a sense of realism, but they all have a ‘domino effect’ method, where various steps are taken to execute the final kill for each character. An example of this is with the first death where Wendy and Kevin are stuck at a drive-thru queue due to a car behind them, and a truck to the side, then a driverless van rolls down the hill towards them then they have to get out of their car to avoid the accident.

This is how all the kill sequences are laid out, but it works in making the scenes tense, purely because it’s unclear when the character will meet their demise or if they’ll escape. With the kills comes the idea of Death’s design once again. While it’s simply Wendy figuring out who was on the rollercoaster, the way in which she finds out who’s next is through the photographs that she took on that day. This is a unique way of discovering each victim as it not only makes the viewers guess what the death will be, but it also forces Wendy and Kevin to properly look at the foreground and background of each photo that she took.

Not only does Death have a new design, but the DVD release has one too, dubbed ‘Choose Their Fate’. This was a choose-your-own-adventure style feature where the film would play out as normal. However, at certain scenes, the film would pause and ask the viewer to make a decision on what a character should do, out of two options. This meant that multiple outcomes of certain scenes were filmed to allow for this, and was the first time the ‘Final Destination’ crew collaborated closely with the team involved in creating and releasing the DVD. It’s evident that, from the start of production, this feature was always planned and it’s a very unique feature that other films hadn’t utilized before. This is also a fun feature that, depending on the choices that are picked, will show new endings and even some new scenes. It’s an aspect that makes the third film stand out more and considering the concept of the entire franchise, makes sense for it to be included.

‘Final Destination 3’ takes an approach similar to the previous entry where the characters grow and (try) to adapt to the situation as the film progresses, and the lead casting is great. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is fantastic as the unfortunate character cursed with the premonition. By the third instalment, the ‘Final Destination’ series recognizes that the main character must be a sympathetic one, otherwise the question will arise as to why its target audience should care for them at all. And Wendy is a sympathetic character as her fears are immediately placed in the forefront to then have them confirmed, to then have her desperately try and save everyone.

Like in the previous instalments, she’s not alone as she’s accompanied by Kevin (Ryan Merriman – The Ring 2, Taken Mini-Series), someone who starts out as a nobody in Wendy’s eyes to then becoming a great support character, as they both realize they’re in the same predicament. And their unlikely, and unintentional, friendship is believable; Merriman and Winstead work fantastically together. Even the supporting cast have their characters a little more fleshed out compared to the previous two films. The beginning gives viewers an idea of what each person is like, instead of just focusing on them when it’s their time to meet the Grim Reaper. Even though they are characters to be thrown to the slaughter, ‘Final Destination 3’ recognizes that they shouldn’t just be that and should have more of a personality (whether it’s a friendly one or not!).

‘Final Destination 3’ is a fan favourite for a reason: the death scenes are the most visually horrific ones so far in the franchise, and the cast are fantastic. Plus, it’s fast, but very well paced and finds another unique and interesting way to execute Death’s design. While it’s strange for the third instalment to be a strong entry, that is the case here, and it’s one of the best entries in the ‘Final Destination’ franchise.

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