Final Destination 5 (2011) – WTF Happened to This Horror Movie?

The episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Final Destination 5 was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Tyler Nichols, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

The Final Destination series is in the midst of a near 13 year break. But thankfully that should be ending next year with the sixth entry in the series. But there was another time when the franchise seemed as good as dead. After The Final Destination came out, it seemed like that was the end of any cheating of death. But thankfully Eric Heisserer came along with an script that would blow audiences away. So we’re getting into all the gymnastics mishaps, terrible bridge construction, and massages with a not so happy ending, as we look at WTF Happened To Final Destination 5 (watch it HERE).

After the fourth entry in the series, Warner Bros (having bought New Line Cinema in 2008) considered Final Destination to be donezo. At least, they did for all of one year. Because the head of New Line Alan Horn announced in 2010 that they were developing a film from one of the writers of the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, Eric Heisserer. I’m sure you’re thinking “Wait, how did he manage to book that job after making what is easily one of the worst remakes of all time?” Well his script was killer and sometimes that’s all it takes. And I don’t want to get into spoilers just yet so we’ll save the details of that for a little later.

Steve Quale was one of James Cameron’s Second Unit Directors on both Titanic and Avatar, so he was able to snag the directing gig. Not wanting to go for a typical naming approach, New Line Cinema announced that the film would be named 5nal Destination which may just be the worst name in existence. Thankfully, they reversed their decision after some intense backlash.

Casting of the film happened very quickly, with Miles Fisher being the first announced cast member. You may remember him from the American Psycho parody music video which is an absolute banger. For the lead, Nicholas D’Agosto landed the part of Sam Lawton. Having just been one of Jason’s victims in the Friday the 13th reboot, Arlen Escarpeta won a role. The cast was filled out with David Koechner, Emma Bell, Jacqueline MacInnes-Wood, Ellen Wroe and PJ Byrne. Now that’s one Canadian cast. Thankfully, after not appearing in the fourth entry, Tony Todd returned as William Bludworth, morgue tech who knows a lot more than he’s letting on. And the franchise got a bit of prestige with Courtney B Vance taking on the role of FBI Agent Jim Block.

They also continue the trend of naming characters after various horror movie filmmakers. Candice Hooper is named after Tobe Hooper, Olivia Castle is named after William Castle, then Peter Friedkin is named for the late, great William Friedkin. The names are a little more subtle than carpenter or craven

Unlike the prior entry which had filmed in New Orleans, Final Destination 5 was filmed in its usual haunting grounds of Vancouver, Canada. The opening bridge collapse was filmed both on a set but also on the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. No relation to Lionsgate. This was still in the midst of the 3D movie trend, so this would also be filmed in that format. But this would also end up being the first Final Destination released on IMAX.

Taking the opening credits from the prior sequel, where we see the x-rayed versions of various deaths in the franchise, they’ve kept a similar look but grounded it a bit. Shot in camera, we get various objects flying through glass at the screen and it makes for some very cool visuals. And YouTube is getting more and more stingy with the violence, you know even thought it’s very clearly fake, so I can’t show you damn near anything here.

The suspension bridge features a ton of visual FX and provides some really great tension building. It’s interesting to see just how many elements in this sequence were CGI, because there are some that you may not expect. It’s also the longest opening accident of the series. And shoutout to Emma Bell, who had to scream her heart out during the scene, even when she’s not a main feature in it:

Maybe it’s just because my stepmom is a gymnastics coach, so I’ve been around the sport for a long time, but nothing gets to me more than the gymnastics death. This girl has been set up as an absolute sweetheart, and they do a wonderful job of teasing all of the different things that could easily kill her. This scene is a great example of Quale’s great eye.

Many of the deaths in the film are based on real incidents. Isaac’s death was based on someone who was getting acupuncture, fell off the table, and one of the needles punctured their heart. Obviously, they go a bit further in the movie, but it’s a moment everyone can wince at. We just won’t touch on the rather… racist dialogue during the massage. “Do you come with subtitles” But this scene almost ended much differently, with the original intention that Isaac gets engulfed in flames after standing in a puddle of alcohol. Olivia’s scene was also altered slightly. While just one of her eyes is burned in the film, a deleted scene shows both of her eyes getting burnt up.

One visual trick they used repeatedly was filming the real life human in one shot, with a dummy filled with all sorts of blood and gore in another take. They would combine the two shots and get some ooey gooey results.

There are also some fun moments, like Olivia knocking a picture off of her desk that was taken at the Devil’s Flight rollercoaster from part 3. Then there’s Roy standing next to this Race Car, which just so happens to be the car that caused the crash in The Final Destination. We’ve also got the log truck from Final Destination 2 making an appearance. Heck, even the restaurant that Sam works at is the same one seen at the end of the first film.

And spoilers for this decade plus old film, but the aspect that really stuns is when its revealed that the events we’ve seen actually take place before the infamous Flight 180. This is a prequel. But it’s unfortunate for our two leads because the entire audience knows what’s going to be happening to them in no time flat. But it’s a great way to show that Death never stops and even the first film, wasn’t the beginning of this kind of thing happening. And it’s also wonderful to see the Flight 180 crash from a different angle.

And it’s great that we don’t just have characters looking up these past incidents and immediately knowing what’s happening. While it cuts down on exposition in the other films, it would have been very tired to do it yet again, so the change seems to work.

One of the absolute best elements of Final Destination 5 is its mythology on how to defeat death. In past films we’ve seen that new life can help but, for the most part, death comes to these folks no matter what they do. But this film introduces the concept of murdering someone else to take your place. It gives us what the Final Destination series has always been lacking: a human villain. Sure, they use Ian McKinley in a similar role in the third one, but he mostly taunts versus actually trying to kill someone. Here, Peter is an absolute maniac, having lost his girlfriend and obsessing over death coming for them. He sees Sam and Molly’s relationship and doesn’t understand why they’re deserving of happiness over himself. It’s easy to see where Peter is coming from, even if he takes some rather excessive means to do so.

And I also love that the movie doesn’t even confirm that this technique works, as everyone in the movie ends up dead, even those who seemingly took anothers life.

Brian Tyler returned to score the film and while Shirley Walker’s style is certainly missed, Tyler manages to bring a great deal of tension and suspense. The franchise continues its usage of on-the-nose music in suspenseful moments. “Dust In The Wind” plays during the bridge sequence.

Final Destination 5 released in the United States on August 12th, 2011 and brought in $18.4 Million on its opening weekend. The movie would ends its worldwide run at $157.6 Million. But with just $42 Million of that being earned domestically, this was officially the lowest grossing of the franchise. But it was well liked, earning a B+ Audience CinemaScore, with the critical consensus being that: “It’s still only for the gore-thirsty faithful, but Final Destination 5 represents a surprising return to form for the franchise.”

For the movie’s promotion, Miles Fisher released a music video called “New Romance” which featured the cast of FD5 recreating Saved By The Bell… only with a twist. It’s a fun video and I highly recommend checking it out. Another bit of promotion ended up causing a stir for the studio, with the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK banning the original poster as it “was likely to cause fear and undue distress in children.” Excuse me what? Warner Bros countered but ASA stood their ground. What say you, is this poster too traumatizing for children to see?

Unfortunately, despite a positive response and an impressive international box office, we’re still waiting on a sixth installment. Tony Todd had even been hopeful of them filming 6 and 7 back to back but as the years went on, this plan disappeared. In 2019, Saw sequel writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan were hired to write a re-imagining. Yet again, that never happened. But with Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts boarding as a producer, and directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein on board, it finally appears to be on the fast track. Let’s just hope they continue to go hard with the violence but expanding upon the mythology in an interesting way. I guess only time will tell.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!