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By devon, on July 19th, 2010
The Final Destination (2009)
by Devon Gilbert
I definitely don’t love the Final Destination series, but I still find them enjoyable. They really were never about story and character, though you might be able to argue that the first one had some of both. Instead they featured really cool death scenes (the opening car crash scene in Final Destination 2 being my personal favorite) at a pretty good pace. Based on that criteria, I thought that The Final Destination was very entertaining, though technically it might be the worst of the series. I find it tough to tell because two of the movie’s best assets, 3-D home viewing and its incredibly short runtime (I believe the end credits start before the 80min mark), have really nothing to do with talent.
The plot of this movie is pretty much exactly the same as the other three in the series. This time the initiating incident is a car race, and the person with a premonition is Nick O’Bannon (played by unknown Bobby Campo.) As anyone familiar with the series knows, Nick has a long premonition in which he sees many people die (including himself, his girl, and his friends) due to a mammoth car crash and the instability of the stadium. Of course, Nick gets his crew out just in time to escape the predicated disaster. So as usually, Death picks them off one by one in the order they died in Nick’s premonition.
For me it goes without saying that the characters are insignificant. I would have been shocked if they were well drawn, and given the content of the movie, I would have been disappointed if they were. I liked that The Final Destination gets right down to the point. The movie moves from death scene to death scene with very little filler in-between. The death scenes themselves are entertaining but certainly not groundbreaking. There is much more of a reliance on “paranormal activity” in this entry, which didn’t really bother as much as it will some people. On average the deaths weren’t the most creative in the series, but they were clever enough to pass the time. I also wouldn’t describe this movie as violent and/or gory, but it earns its R rating. Overall, this movie chose quantity of deaths over quality of deaths, which makes for faster pacing but also means nothing memorable happens.
The 3-D element of the movie is really what makes the movie good despite its flaws. Since it’s so rare to be able to watch a 3-D horror movie at home, I think The Final Destination benefits from being one of those few. I guess the 3-D element makes the deaths creative. For instance, some deaths are shown in “X-Ray” vision, an effect that was cool in 3-D but would probably look cheap in 2D. And make no mistake, the makers of The Final Destination milk the 3D for all it’s worth. It is clearly a gimmick in this movie, with planks getting upturned and metal shrapnel shooting forward, as opposed to Avatar which has none of the traditional 3D gimmicks. But even as a gimmick, it works (at least until there are tons of 3D movies you can watch at home, which would make The Final Destination’s best asset seem old.)
As a solid good movie, The Final Destination fails. As the forth entry in a decent horror series, The Final Destination is okay. As a 3D horror movie, The Final Destination is good solid fun.
The Final Destination: B
By devon, on July 19th, 2010
The Hills Run Red (2009)
As far as straight to DVD horror movies go, you could do much worse than The Hills Run Red, directed by Dave Parker. The movie doesn’t exactly defy stereotype, especially when it’s centered on a masked killer, but it feels original enough. Not to mention there’s something very intriguing about the idea of finding an old lost film so scary and disturbing it has the power to drive people mad.
The plot of this film follows college student Tyler, played by Tad Hilgenbrink, who is obsessed with finding an old movie like the one described above. His quest is especially difficult because the director has been MIA for years, much like the cast. The movie he is looking for is called The Hill Run Red, about a vicious killer named Babyface. Close to the beginning of the movie we see that Tyler has an old movie trailer for The Hills Run Red, and the contents looks much like an old Friday the 13th movie. Just a guy gruesomely killing people in the woods. However as the plot thickens, this movie sort of gains from that cliché, in that it gives you the idea that any old movie from your childhood could have been more realistic than you think.
I think the movie could have gone farther with that idea, instead of going down the deranged “Texas chainsaw” family route. However, the movie is original and fast moving enough to be well worth the 80 minute running time. The cast is adequate and raises no complaints. In the gore department, the film is average with a couple scenes that stand out as gruesome. There are also some creepy moments, which to me is amazing having long ago become immune to mask wearing killers in the woods. I also very much liked the “before the credits” final scene of the movie. Even the last scene during the credits is pretty good and scary, though again, not quite original.
I would recommend this horror film to pretty much anyone interested in the genre. For people used to hard-core horror, it may be tame but its original touches should make it worth you’re while. For people into tamer horror films, shame on you (just kidding), this might be a step up in gore and intensity but it’s far below the Saw and Hostel type films. This is almost a perfect example of what a B horror movie should be.
The Hills Run Red: B
By devon, on July 8th, 2010
Legion (2010)
I wonder why so many biblical horror movies turn out so boring? Movies like The Omen (the remake, though I won’t even go near the old one because I know that’ll be boring), Stigmata, and definitely The Reaping. It seems like the Bible, with all its huge fantastical happenings and the struggle between right and wrong, would make excellent horror movie fodder. Of course, some times it does, like with The Exorcist. And religious themes make it into horror all the time (for example, crosses killing vampires), but I’m talking about movies directly centered on religious mythology.
I bring this up because the movie Legion, by first time director Scott Stewart, had lots of possibilities but falls short. The plot centers on the fallen Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) trying to protect a pregnant woman Charlie (Adrianne Palicki) in a grungy diner located in the middle of the New Mexico desert. He is protecting her because God’s lost faith in humanity and has basically decided to destroy the human race. Of course, Charlie’s baby will bring salvation to mankind even though I never really found out why. The diner is filled with normal horror movie characters. For instance a black gangster (Tyrese Gibson) who we learn has, surprise, never actually shot someone, a rich white family, and a father (Dennis Quaid) who has issues with his son (Lucas Black.) The stereotypical characters didn’t bother me though, the lack of creativity did.
With the exception of a crazy old lady that climbs on the ceiling and a creepy looking ice cream man (both ruined by commercials), God’s plan to annihilate humans is by sending zombies after them. Freakin’ zombies. I like zombie movies, and am looking forward to Resident Evil 4, but they are getting a little old. Especially in a movie like this, which shouldn’t even have zombies to begin with. So I would say the majority of this movie is a barely mediocre, tame zombie flick. True, Michael’s enemy the Archangel Gabriel (Kevin Durand) shows up ready to kill, but it results in some okay fight scenes leading to the end of the film. The plot is really too silly, implausible, and stale to overcome mediocre scares and fight scenes.
The cast is good for a horror movie of this caliber, which it should be considering most of the cast has plenty of experience. The story could have used a lot of work, especially in the creativity department. There really aren’t any scary parts and the action scenes are just okay. If you go into this movie with very low expectations, you might enjoy it as a better than average TV movie. Legion is far from the worst the horror genre has to offer, but it offers little reason to watch it.
Devon says: C-
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