Final Destination 3: When Death Comes Knocking

Thousands of people do it every day, arrive at their final destination following Death's design. "Final Destination 3" again shows what happens when you interfere with that design; Death comes for you to complete his work.

Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her senior year classmates are celebrating their impending graduation at an amusement park derived of nightmares. When they board the roller coaster that Wendy has been hesitant to ride, she has a premonition of imminent doom. In a fit of hysterics, she is removed from the ride, along with several other students. Immediately following her removal she witnesses her prophesy of disaster come to pass.

Now, having escaped from Death, Wendy morns the loss of her friends but still feels the strong sense of dread she had felt before. It seems that some force is stalking her and giving her clues about fatalities in the making, the horrific deaths of the students that escaped from the roller coaster catastrophe.

Tying back to the first two movies, Wendy is given information from fellow survivor Kevin (Ryan Merriman) about other reported occurrences where people escaped death only to fall prey soon after. Specific references are given to flight 180 where class of students were on a trip to France. A student panicked about a premonition of doom and several classmates were deplaned. Flight 180 exploded on takeoff. Each of the students that deplaned expired shortly after, many under mysterious circumstances. Wendy's realizes that this is coming to pass as her friends start dying in the order they would have perished on the coaster ride.

Preceding each incident, Wendy is given a warning that Death is coming to collect. Deciding not to give in, she and Kevin begin a crusade to survive. They attempt to warn the next victim and to intervene in Death's design in the hopes that they will save lives and hopefully change their own fate.

Once you recover from this movie, and stop panicking about your own probable demise, you see it for what it is, a festival of splatter and gore. Walking in you know basically what to expect… a lot of people are going to die. What you are in anticipation of is how, why and can they be saved. The scenes are shocking, graphic and many times, although anticipated and well foreshadowed, surprising.

Why do we watch these kinds of films? As humans, we are fascinated by love and death in all of its forms. Death specifically intrigues us because it is a known and inevitable consequence of life. We all will face it and it is so… final; to tie it all together very nicely. We all curious to know what to expect and think we will gain some something from examining the mythos surrounding death.

Although the story is a derivation of the first two films, it has not lost its charm. Our antagonist, Death, is again on the hunt and a new set of victims are attempting to escape. Though this seems simple, how we get to each climactic point is not.

The film was worth the experience in the theatre. The benefits are not only for the effects, specifically the roller coaster ride, but also for getting lost in the group ebb and flow of the emotional roller coaster. Besides, it's fun to have your friend squirm in their seat next to you. OK, yes; I squirmed too.