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The oxymoronic Final Destination 3 proved this horror franchise "has nowhere left to go". If you drop the 'oxy' it's just plain moronic, but there are still enough blood-lusty teens who'll pay to see other kids getting cheerfully hacked to pieces in implausible ways. The good news for star Mary Elizabeth Winstead is that this led to a plum role in Quentin Tarantino's 'Grind House' flick Death Proof.
The Never-Ending Story
The centrepiece of this two-disc edition DVD is an interactive option that allows you to choose the fate of each character as you watch the film. In reality, though, there isn't much variation on what director James Wong has already decided for these hapless victims - so you can watch Crystal Lowe and Chelan Simmons getting roasted on their tanning-beds at a slightly different temperature, but the effect is pretty much the same. Elsewhere you can choose whether a motorist gets decapitated or gets away with a slight headache.
In behind-the-scenes documentary Kill Shot, Simmons explains that she had some reservations about baring her breasts for the tanning bed scene. Eventually though, Wong convinced her that it was essential to convey the feeling that her character is, "totally, like, vulnerable". The director himself heartily insists that, "It's not a gratuitous thing." Like, yeah, totally... On the upside, Kill Shot also features a detailed look at the filming of the roller coaster sequence (which took days and endless trips around the track to complete) and other effects shots that utilised miniatures, pyrotechnics, and CGI.
A novel but rather spurious addition to the disc is It's All Around You, an animated short that rattles off a lot of statistics and anecdotal evidence about the freaky ways in which people have died or cheated death. We're also told that if an infinite number of monkeys were sat at an infinite number of typewriters that they would eventually tap out the complete works of Shakespeare. Perhaps this was the method producers used to develop the ridiculous script for this film...
The Planned Accidents featurette is just as specious in its claims. While discussing the new and more ridiculous methods he employed to kill off his characters, Wong reckons it's quite conceivable that a person should die in any of these ways. So, think about that next time you're laying on a tanning bed...
Severance Package
Incorporating cutting-edge effects is just one of the avenues Wong explored to breathe new life into the franchise, but the Dead Teenager Movie featurette looks back at a more innocent time for slasher flicks. Ironically, as experts including Chicago Times critic Roger Ebert reflect on classic horror movies like A Nightmare On Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you realise just how poor this film is.
Co-writer/producer Glen Morgan offers some clues as to the slapdash nature of the story in a lethargic crew commentary. He recalls bumping into fellow producer Bob Shaye at a party after their low-budget horror Willard tanked at the box office; "My marketing people say nobody went to see Willard because there's no roller coaster," Shaye is purported to have said. "A roller coaster - that's what people want to see." After that we can only assume they shipped in the typing monkeys.
One very dull extended scene (where Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman deliver a lot of expositional dialogue) rounds off the extras package. It's unusually generous with behind-the-scenes footage and technical titbits, but this DVD remains strictly for the ghouls.
EXTRA FEATURES
