FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Wendy has always been a paranoid person. Her fear gets taken to a new level while the senior class is having their graduation party at a local amusement park. Never one to enjoy roller coasters, Wendy freaks out after having a vision of the cars derailing killing everyone who rides its fast twists and turns. Eventually she causes so much fuss that the ride operators take her and the rest of the people in her section off the car. The group then watches the rest of their classmates as the coaster does exactly what Wendy had envisioned. All still on board die. Those that got off live to see another day, but how many more do they have?

The third installment in the series begins its return to form. With original writers Glen Morgan and James Wong (also the director of this and the first) back in control, a lot of the fun is back. The plot still seems like a convenient stretch but not nearly as convoluted here as in number two. I think it has something to do with how the pictures taken at the fair foreshadow how the people will die, and the characters know this. Despite this, they can’t really prevent anything from happening, because they are too dumb to make any further connections, even though the audience recognizes them immediately. Oh, they also realize that they’re going to die in a particular order, without the help of a convenient news report to help them. I also didn’t like how apprehensive Wendy was before she even had the vision. Normal, mundane events were greeted by her worried hesitance. A cup fell off the table….RUN! The foreshadowing was a bit too strong.

While I’m glad they brought back an element of novelty in the deaths, it is also starting to wear off a little. By now, you should know to expect wacky, unexpected deaths. The filmmakers go the extra mile here to make them surprising, even sometimes using nearly Rube Goldberg-ian devices. The scenes are much gorier, but actually aren’t as satisfying. Don’t get me wrong, there are a couple that will really get the crowd riled up. But by and large, they are less impressive than the first, which is the true standard at which to hold this movie. I want the bar to be raised and not just in the amount of blood.

By and large, the movie stays true to the atmosphere and attitude that we’re used to. That means once again the movie will provide audiences with a great alternative to your typical, uninteresting, un-frightening horror flick and all those sub-par remakes hitting the scene. It is a lot of fun, from the wonderfully shot opening credits sequence to the much appreciated ending, but doesn’t really know how to handle the overall concept in a reasonable way.

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