The "Final Destination" trilogy is one of the best horror film series ever.

In my conscious effort to update more often and try and win back some of my audience (which I don't think I ever really had) I've decided to write about this film series because I watched "Final Destination 3" tonight and decided it really deserves a mention here.

In case you've never heard of these films, I'll describe the plot of the first one because that is the only one that is necessary. "Final Destination" is a film about a group of high school students going on a school trip to Paris. Upon arriving at the airport, one student begins experiencing major anxiety about the flight meanwhile everyone else continues chattering excitedly unknowing of what is going on. Once the students board the plane, hi's anxiety kicks it into high gear when suddenly he has a premonition of technical problems with the plane causing it to explode and thereby causing everyone on board to die. The student begins shouting and causing a scene causing some students to leave voluntarily, and others to be forced off involuntarily. Shortly after the plane takes off, the group of students and their teacher left in the airport watch the plane they were just on explode and everyone die. The group of remaining students consist of the standard, exaggerated, stereotypical caricatures of high school students such as the jock, the outcast, and the popular girl. Soon the members of this group begin dying in mysterious accidents that through a series of totally contrived occurrences. The student that had the premonition begins investigating what is happening, and in a ridiculous encounter with a local undertaker, learns that death has a plan for each person, and by getting off the plane, the student interrupted death's plan. Therefore, in order to make things right, death must kill these students that survived. The film then follows the group as they try and cheat death a second time.

The plot is absolutely a cheesy, plain horror movie plot. What makes these movies special, however, is the thought that is put into the deaths of the people. Each death gives you "clues" as to how it will happen, such as a simple shot of something being spilled onto the floor or perhaps a frayed wire waiting to spark. This allows the viewer of the film to put together exactly how the death will play out in their head, and allows them to prepare for what they are about to see. When the death actually occurs, this is one of the few films that displays exactly what you had pictured in your head because of the beautiful way in which it has previously setup the death. Sometimes, however, the deaths are prolonged and fool the viewer into predicting something that will not happen. For example, one of the first deaths in the original "Final Destination" starts with one student in the bathroom shaving. The viewer sees the force that symbolizes Death in the film creep in through the window and cause the toilet to start overflowing silently allowing for water to begin covering the floor. The water begins to creep over to the student's feet while he is shaving and the music begins to crescendo. Obviously, the viewer begins to prepare for the student to slip on the water and somehow slit his own throat with the razor. This is not, however, what occurs and in order to prevent any other spoilers I'll let you view the film and see what plays out.

In these films, it is basically a series of sudden, shocking deaths separated by moments of standard horror dialogue and contrived meetings with people. One example of this is that in the first film the student that had the premonition randomly meets the undertaker at the local morgue and pretty much has it spelled out for him exactly what is going on. These films require absolutely no thought except for the deaths, as the characters in the films constantly inform other students that survived the tragedies with what is transpiring in the film.

The real value of these films is, as I said, in the deaths. The deaths are almost always incredibly swift, and incredibly gory. The build ups to the deaths are quite long so as to provide some semblence of suspense, however, the actual events that kill the people are swift and bloody. Did I also mention hilarious? The film does not take itself seriously at all, it knows that it is a cheesy teen horror movie. The excessive setups as well as the intricate and totally random circumstances surrounding each death are thought up with utmost care to ensure the viewer is able to delight in each death's blood-soaked wonderment. Now let me clarify, this is not the type of film for for someone that finds someone getting stabbed film cringe worthy, this is the type of comedy that occurs from viewing over-the-top gore such as in the "Evil Dead" trilogy. The laughs evoked from each death come from, as I call it, the "Holy shit!" value, which is, as I said before, the fact that they are able to provide you with a visual that often exceeds the expectation you had created in your head. It has earned this name as literally, and often, while watching these films alone or with others, the first thing out of my mouth after I view one of the deaths is "Holy shit!" and then I proceed to laugh at the pure carnage I have just witnessed.

Now, what is truly, and what I think one of the best ideas ever for a film series, is that each of the films is totally formulaic and nearly identical. The characters in each film are totally interchangeable and the dialogue is absolutely unimportant. The only character I am able to remember fromt he series at the moment is Wendy from "Final Destination 3" and the only reason for this is because the actress that plays the role is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, that's right, Gwen from "Sky High." I also remember this because I think she's cute. There, I said it. Anywy, the only things that really needs to have some time put into them is the deaths. There is no deep moral lesson here, there are no major tragedies, there is no major exposition, there is no beautiful love story, there are no philosophical undertones, there are no ingenious film styles, it's simply the viewer watching freak accidents, it is a film that epitomizes the saying of "Shit happens."

The original "Final Destination" surrounds a group of high school students that get off a plane and try to figure out death's plan while they are killed off one by one. "Final Destination 2" surrounds a group of high school students and a couple other people that managed to avoid a major traffic accident that are killed off one by one and this time no undertaker is required as they can just look up newspaper articles about the incident in the original "Final Destination" which is referred to through out the films as the "Flight 180 incident." This is because Flight 180 was the flight in the original film which the students left. "Final Destination 3" surrounds a group of high school students that avoid a major roller-coaster catastrophe and are killed off one by one and, once again, don't need an undertaker as they have the newspaper article from the first film. The first film attempts slightly to pass itself off as a true suspense/horror/mystery film at times, but there are definite glimpses (such as the bus incident) where you see the true intention of the filmmakers. The second film requires slightly less exposition as it quickly sums up the concept of "death's plan" as outlined in the first film. The third film the exposition is almost non-existent as there is just a mention of "death's plan" and then people trying to prevent death.

Overall, this trilogy is one of the most enjoyable horror series out there, both for its comedic value and exorbitant amount of gore. I can only hope they won't end it in a trilogy and these filmmakers will continue using the brilliant formula they have devised to provide me with many, many more hours of enjoyment.