A Bridge Too Far?

Cine Review: FINAL DESTINATION 5
15 – 92mins – 2011
Written by: Eric Heisserer
Based on characters created by: Jeffrey Reddick
Directed by: Steven Quale
Starring: Nicolas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, David Koechner, P.J. Byrne, Courtney B. Vance, Tony Todd
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[MINOR SPOILERS] “Death doesn’t like to be cheated,” cautions enigmatic coroner William Bludworth (Todd) to another batch of (un)fortunate coffin-dodging “survivors” in this follow-up to what was purportedly The Final Destination (and still kinda is... but I'll say no more). Graciously, the producers didn’t stick with this film’s atrocious working title 5nal Destination (Five-nal?! Really?), but I still had to question whether the death-cheating splatter-series really needed a fourth sequel?

After all, the Grim Reaper may very well not like to be cheated, but neither do cinema-goers; especially not when they are paying nearly ten quid a ticket for a 3D performance such as this. With the previous three Final films so stubbornly refusing to deviate from the original’s “you can’t cheat fate” formula, it sometimes felt like you were watching the same film ad infinitum. Would director Steven Quale's - the second unit director on James Cameron's Avatar, no less - effort have the guts to innovate like no sequel had done before?

Well it's certainly got bucket-loads of guts (quite literally), but for a chunk of its running time, Final Destination 5 does retain a crushing sense of déjà vu, albeit on a more monumental scale. A group of co-workers board a bus for a company retreat, only for Sam Lawton (D’Agosto) to have a morbid premonition of the under-construction suspension bridge they are driving over collapsing and taking everyone along with it. Persuading six co-workers and his smarmy boss (Anchorman’s Koechner) to alight the vehicle, the group get to safety just in time to see the disaster actually take place. Phew – right? But how long can the survivors stay alive now they have interrupted Death’s grand plan?

The opening suspension bridge collapse is ambitious and truly epic in scale, with a superb utilisation of the third dimension to really make the grotesque catastrophe jump off the screen and impale you through the cornea. It's gimmicky, true, but this is what 3D was made for. I am, however, ever so slightly concerned by a sadistic streak which the sensational deaths brought out in me, as I found myself laughing at the most twisted and brutal deaths – and there certainly were plenty on show! Throughout the film, writer Eric Heisserer employs numerous bluffs, double bluffs and red herrings to ramp up the tension as the future corpses unwittingly meet their maker in the most inventive and unpredictable ways.

The Candyman's all-too-brief return was a nice touch (Todd was last seen in FD2 and last heard in a voiceover in FD3), while his suggestion that to dodge Death’s diabolical design the coffin fodder could kill somebody else to replace the blood debt was an overdue, but welcome, attempt to resuscitate the exhausted concept – one which depressed and obsessed employee Peter (Fisher) goes to extreme lengths to implement. But Death doesn't take kindly to being fucked around... Finally, the epilogue’s climatic twist in the tale tied the series together well, even if a gymnastic banner did get me mighty suspicious early on.


In a CR@B Shell: Y'all know the score by now, and Final Destination 5 certainly doesn't disappoint, once again offering gore-gluttons plenty of blood for their buck in a number of sickeningly spectacular scenarios which demand muchio suspension of your disbelief for fright's sake. Belated shake-ups of the formula are welcome, but whether this truly is the final Final Destination is anyone's guess.
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Wail of the Weeping Woman

DVD Review: DAMNED BY DAWN
15 – 81mins – 2010
Story by: Brett Anstey, Russell Friedrich, Rob Townshend
Screenplay by: Brett Anstey
Directed by: Brett Anstey
Starring: Renee Willner, Bridget Neval, Dawn Klingberg, Taryn Eva, Danny Alder, Mark Taylor, Peter Stratford
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Every week you'll witness a smattering of schlocky new genre releases dotted around the lower echelons of supermarket's DVD charts. Be they cheap cash-in sequels (such as the recent Mirrors 2) or small independent passion projects (such as the “After Dark Originals” series), few are worth shelling out your hard earned pennies for. There's a reason they didn't get a wide release, after all. Every now and then, however, one such cinema-evading spooker piques my novelty-susceptible interest – and 2010's Damned by Dawn, from intriguingly-monikered Australian's “The Amazing Krypto Bros”, certainly did that.

Admittedly, I was initially drawn to what I thought was a fanged vampire on the UK's whitewashed cover (see bottom pic), but a read through of the synopsis did little to dampen my interest; a soul-collecting Banshee with a scream to raise the dead sounded refreshingly original. And original Damned by Dawn undoubtedly is – even if my admiration was blotched by mild disappointment by the roll of the end credits.

As the life seeps evermore noticeably from her bed-ridden grandmother (Klingberg), twenty-something Claire O'Neill (Willner) returns to her father's (Stratford) run-down farmhouse for the first time in 18 months – with her boyfriend Paul (Alder) in tow. As Nana starts talking of a woman who will come to claim her soul when she passes, a spooked out Claire dismisses the creepy chatter as little more than illogical ravings – until the family are awoken by piercing shrieks in the middle of the night and their home is under threat from the recently risen dead; under the command of a wailing woman in white...

The screen continually cloaked in a dense fog, and the narrative unfolding entirely on the grounds of the eerie and isolated rural house, the filmmakers certainly cannot be accused of not summoning up a remarkably appropriate atmosphere. The Banshee – a blood-stained, ghost-faced, rag-wearing spirit – is a genuinely creepy creation. Alas, it soon becomes clear that her arsenal of abilities is strickly limited to floating and shrieking (the majority of which she does off screen) – making her no more fearsome than the ghouls she awakens.

On the subject of the ghouls – unearthed, supernaturally animated corpses – you have to admire the FX department for their budget-restricted effort, but, in truth, flying skeletons are not scary, and some of the atmosphere attributed to the Banshee is irredeemably eradicated by these ludicrous foes. Nonetheless, I will conceed to being impressed by the sequence in which Claire and her father speed away from the house in a car as countless airborne ghouls fly at the panic-stricken escapees.

Attempts to justify and add depth to the horrific events by tying the modern day phenomena to the O'Neill's family history by way of a black and white photograph, an heirloom urn and diary extracts from generations past are well meaning but ultimately fall short of lucid. As do the poorly-executed endeavours to grant the human characters with rounded personalities (the father's quickly forgotten kookiness; Claire's scarcely unmentioned secret). Ultimately, the film's greatest elements are the most gory (a gut-spewing, unrelenting zombie attack in the kitchen), and although the make-up is slapped on a little thick in parts, Damned by Dawn is an admirably gutsy independent chiller.


In a CR@B Shell: Small in scale but big in ambition, Brett Anstey's Damned by Dawn may forsake some of its unearthly ambiance with unintentionally gigglesome adversaries, but make no mistake – there is a gallant and damned spirited concept at the core of this low budget offering.
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