Teen Horror Film Deconstruction

Final Destination 3


00:00-2:09


The final destination film series are iconic in the genre of teen horror with a total of 5 films being made.All films are based around the idea of a group of teenagers who avoid fatal horror when one member of their group foresees the oncoming danger. The only thing is in the end they all die in the order they would have in the accident that never happened.

Final destination 3 focuses around the idea of a group of teens who board a roller coaster , yet get off when Wendy the main protagonist has a premonition of the ride crashing.
The film begins with an establishing shot of a large ferris wheel which quickly fades into a closeup shot of a flashing sign reading "the corkscrew" this style of quickly fading into different scenes is featured all the way through the opening.This montage of seemingly harmless fairground scenes creates a sense of suspense as the constant changing keeps viewers unknowing of what is coming next.

A shot featured at 00:07-00:10 is a slow panning long shot showing a large  roller coaster , the use of panning on this particular shot shows that this roller coaster has a certain significance in the storyline of the film.Throughout the first 20 seconds of the clip titles fade in and out slowly with use of a fairground like font but dark colours are used to create an eery feel to the text being displayed.This style of title continues through the whole opening scene but at 00:17-00:23 the title of the film is displayed.This section begins with zoom shot of a fairground mechanical fortune teller , as it fades into a closeup shot of the hand of the machine moving over tarot cards the title "Final Destination 3" comes up in a classic circus style text with the use of red yellow and black colours , all of which are known to be danger or warning colours.

Following the titles a slow motion up shot of a ferris wheel horse is shown with a use of a horse's neighing sound used as a short overlay over the use of non diegetic instrumental music. The music creates a scary feel to the whole opening clip as it is unnerving to listen too , the use of specific sound overlays which work in conjunction with what is being displayed such as screams also show the horror themes of the film well which gives off obvious links that this is not just a normal teen film.

A cut which resembles a glitch to the shot is then used to switch to a long shot of the ferris wheel going round slowly , but this quickly changes as a reflection of the wheel starts going at a much faster speed while the main shot stays in slow motion. This gives the clip a disjointed look , it makes it seem scary and out of the ordinary which will make the audience expectant of the impending horror.

The use of shots of the mechanical fortune teller shows a link to the story line of the film , by using different angled shots of this machine at different points of the opening it hints to the theme of the film throughout the opening making it entirely relevant to the film. Another interesting point is the use of pictures and signs which show meaning towards the film , these are shown at a slower speed so the audience can see them properly and features images such as the devil and signs with phrases such as "do you believe in fortunes?". The images shown are of a questioning and unpleasant nature and so show that this film will be focused around scary unpleasant themes of death and fear.

At 00:53 the style of the opening changes slightly as a coin is inserted into a pinball machine seemingly by itself , as if an invisible character has started a game of pinball , which is known to be a game of chance. As the shot pans to the right side of the screen it fades into the inside of the pinball machine , showing a short shot of the inner workings of the machine moving a ball along.

This clip is interjected once again with the montage like clips of the fairground , but now they have the prominent feature of being in slow motion and then speeding up significantly with even more use of screams in the background sounds.This is done in order to build to a crescendo at the end of the opening as the constant speed change of the clips makes for a creepy jolting style to clip as well as the increased amount of screams making it seem as if something very bad is going to happen.

Switching back to the pinball clip a downward spiral of the ball could relate to the upcoming situation of the film which gets worse and worse ie: goes in a downward spiral. As even more clips of rides and scary fairground posters are shown the clip comes to a meaningful end as the pinball is shown inside the machine moving around , the colours are dark and grungy and the knocking sound of the ball on the sides creates a jumpy feeling. As the pinball is shown missing a hole entitled "Fate" by a small margin it then continues to spiral around a whole which is marked with "Death"as it drops into the hole the shot drops into darkness and the opening is finished.

The drama of this final shot shows that the upcoming movie is going to keep you on your feet and result in many deaths as the hints within the opening have lead the audience to expect the worst.