Final Destination 5 ’s opening disaster sequence screened exclusively today at the San Diego Comic-Con.
The footage aired in a purpose-built portable cinema that only served to crank up the claustrophobic feeling of escalating horror.
Final Destination has become a horror franchise synonymous with elaborate, cataclysmic scenes of utter devastation, and this new Final Destination pulls no punches.
Set on a suspension bridge, the film's opening scene unfolds as building work on the structure causes hairline fractures to rip the road apart and send vehicles plummeting into the water below.
Our main protagonists Nicholas D’Agosto and Emma Bell (along with their doomed friends) attempt to escape the carnage, dodging various pitfalls as the bridge cracks and falls apart.
Others aren’t so lucky in their death-dodging, ending up variously skewered (one girl is spiked onto the mast of a passing boat in a genius moment of brilliant 3D), boiled (by spilled oil) and speared by metal poles.
The film was shot in 3D (no post-conversion here), and this scene takes full advantage of the medium – the sequence really is eye-popping (literally in some grisly cases), and is definitely one of the better examples of 3D done right.
It’s easily the best disaster scene the franchise has cooked up since the second movie’s highway pile-up, and certainly bodes well for the rest of the film.
Final Destination 5 opens 26 August.
