Memo to horror film-makers: if you’re building a franchise, never, ever use the word ‘final’ in the title. You’ll only make yourselves look like fools. To wit: Friday The 13th – The Final Chapter, which turned out to be anything but (Jason Voorhees appeared in seven more movies after that, not counting the upcoming remake). Or how about Freddy’s Dead – The Final Nightmare? OK, so there was only one more Nightmare On Elm Street after that, but still… misnomer city.
And then there’s the Final Destination series, which definitively proved to be anything but final when the first sequel went into production. That was directed by David R. Ellis, who went on to make guilty B movie pleasures Cellular and – yes, dammit! – Snakes On A Plane, and today Ellis signed on to direct Final Destination 4.
Little is known about this instalment of the New Line franchise, but we’re guessing that it will involve a bunch of teenagers escaping a freakish and well-choreographed accident, and then being picked off one by one by a vengeful Death, using a series of freakish and well-choreographed accidents as his weapon of choice.
Oh, and it will be shot in 3D, so that freakish, well-choreographed mayhem will be coming atcha, like Cleopatra.
Empire’s actually glad to see Ellis returning to the FD franchise. Final Destination 2 may be the best of the series – it certainly has the most inventive deaths (the airbag gag is still a killer), and the opening freeway pile-up was a mini-masterpiece of freakish and well-choreographed mayhem. It also had its tongue wedged firmly into its cheek throughout, with more red herrings than an Agatha Christie convention.
And after the witless abomination that was Final Destination 3, with its cardboard characters and unimaginative death sequences, the series needs a boost if it’s going to survive. (Mind you, FD creators Glen Morgan and James Wong were responsible for part three, so maybe it’s never wise to come back...)
As ever, more news as we get it – unless we’re offed horribly in a freakish and well-choreographed accident.