While the original Final Destination offered a fairly clever twist on the stalker genre (with Death itself as the supernatural killer), the sequels have all been carbon copies of the original in almost every sense of the term. The sole difference relates to how the characters die in each installment, basically.
Final Destination 5 looks to do likewise, but it also appears to feature more ingeniously-devised ways to slaughter people than some of its predecessors have. The second trailer for the film confirms that, but also begs the question: Can it be legitimately scary - or will it just be gory?
Sam Lawton (Nicholas D'Agosto) is the person in Final Destination 5 who has a premonition about a terrible accident, and manages to save several bystanders when his vision comes true. That deadly set piece takes the form of a suspension bridge that inexplicably collapses, killing all but a handful of people that heeded Sam's warning.
Per usual, Death doesn't take kindly to that, and begins hunting down each of its would-be victims by causing (or attempting to cause) them to die in seemingly freak accidents. However, series staple Mr. Bludworth (Tony Todd) warns Sam and his fellow survivors that while there is a way for them to avoid a gruesome premature end, it comes at a high price.
For more, check out the second Final Destination trailer (via Metacafe) below:
Most of the deadly setups introduced in the first Final Destination 5 trailer still look just as squirm-inducing this second time around, which is good news for horror fans who're just looking to see lesser-known young actors and actresses get knocked off in creatively nasty ways. Like many a horror franchise, though, this series ran out of gas a couple movies back and isn't really capable of creating tension or genuinely terrifying thrills anymore. All it can really offer now is icky kills - and to be fair, it should have a decent collection of those.
Final Destination 5 was directed by Steven Quale, who has worked in a variety of technical positions (second unit director, editor, visual effects supervisor) on James Cameron films like Avatar, Titanic, and even The Abyss. A technically-profient director is all this sort of film really requires to keep horror fans happy anyway, since its entertainment value has very little to do with the quality of acting or script work by Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street). Take that for what it's worth.
On the 3D side of things: There's nothing really gimmicky about the 3D elements on display in any of the Final Destination 5 footage unveiled so far, but nothing that really stands out, either. If you're already planning on seeing this one in theaters, you probably won't lose much of anything by going to a 2D screening instead.
Final Destination 5 arrives in theaters on August 12th, 2011.
Source: Metacafe