Welcome to our new regular section in which members of the HeyUGuys family discuss a variety of topics concerning all things cinema.

We’ll pick a topic inspired by what’s happening in the world of film and invite our writers to voice their opinions, an invitation we extend to you. If you want to submit your own answer, or respond to an answer from one of our writers, then please do so.

This month sees the return of Kate Beckinsale as the gun-toting vampire warrior Selene in Underworld: Awakening. It’s a series which has managed to last for almost a decade now, despite a middling critical and audience response for each film (the domestic gross for previous instalment Underworld: Rise of the Lycans was the lowest out of the trilogy), yet that battle between those two warring tribes is back once more (it’s perhaps no surprise that the addition of 3D had been factored in this time around).

With this in mind, we asked our writers if there were any franchises out there which have more than outstayed their welcome, or alternatively, were there any films yet to be greenlighted for a sequel which could benefit from a continuation in the story.

Kelly Alyse

As much as they are ridiculous, predictable and far-fetched, I still find the Final Destination series very entertaining. The audience watching the films aren’t expecting ground-breaking performances, or storyline that will baffle them for hours after they leave the cinema – they are looking for something light-hearted, silly and fun. The film’s writers do a great job coming up with the different scenarios the teens can get themselves into, and each one comes packed with a gruesomely awesome punch.

One I believe should be put to rest is the Saw franchise. The first film was brilliantly thought out and truly intense to watch, but the films have slowly declined into a world of sadistic torture that’s pretty unbearable. Coming up with scenes that rip a person’s chest open or pull eyeballs out just isn’t entertaining.

I realise you could say the same about someone being burnt to death in a sun bed, but the difference between the two franchises is the fact that Final Destination is made to be laughed at. Saw is made to terrify and cause trauma. I know which one I’d rather watch…

Ones I’d watch time and time again are the Transformers, Paranormal Activity, X-Men and Iron Man franchises, even though I do class these films as guilty pleasures.

Tracy Ladd

Please, no more Transformers! I really hope this franchise has reached the end but with rumours about a 4th twirling about, I don’t think it’s dead yet. As cheesy and over-the-top as i

t was, I adored the first one. I just rewatched it recently and it still holds up pretty well. I did a complete 180 on the second one and had nothing but loathing for it. I went to see the third one to see if it was any better. While it was better than the second, it doesn’t compare to the first. Transformers needs to be put out to pasture.

Speak ill if you must, but I really dug The A-Team. Sure, it planted its foot firmly beyond the borders of ridiculous, but I didn’t care. I loved the action and thought the cast did a great job working off each other. I liked how the movie ended and wished that they continued on with at least a second one just to see where it went. Sadly, that won’t happen.

As much as I adored Pierce Brosnan in the Bond role in Goldeneye, his others were severely lacking and just seemed to get worse. Then Daniel Craig took over and Bond got dirty. The fact that the series went gritty is what drew me back in and even though Quantum of Solace wasn’t quite what Casino Royale was I’m still glad that this franchise is still kicking.

Kenji Lloyd

If I could pick one film to get a sequel it would be Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla, hands down. The original is one of my all-time favourites, starring the likes of Gerard Butler, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Jeremy Piven, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, and of course, Toby Kebbell as the brilliant rocknrolla himself. At the end of the film, Ritchie threw in a genius nod announcing he’d be returning with a sequel, but sadly, it is yet to materialise.

After RocknRolla he directed Sherlock Holmes, (which exploded for him and Warner Bros.) and followed that with last year’s awesome Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and the third film has already been announced, which is great news. But as a lover of RocknRolla, I’m really hoping that Johnny, Archy, and the Wild Bunch will be back in The Real RocknRolla after that, because I can’t wait for Ritchie and his cast and crew to return to that world. Ritchie’s said he’s written a script, and that Joel Silver will pay for him to do it, so it’s just a matter of figuring out when. Whenever that is, it’s going to be amazing.

Adam Lowes

In all honesty, I think Bond should have been retired many years ago. No matter how many do-overs and reinvigorations, it’s a series which always follows that same ridged narrative path, with little in the way of surprises or any interesting deviations. As solid an actor as Pierce Brosnan was in the part, I wasn’t a fan of any of the films from the series he appeared in, and each successive adventure seemed to promise much, but in reality, the series grew increasingly preposterous and tiring.

The makers managed to bring something interesting to the table for Casino Royale (it’s obvious ole’ Jason Bourne was somewhat of an influence), but ‘Quantum’ was a serious step backwards, and returned the franchise to that simplistic structure which Craig’s first outing deliberately tried to avoid. Even the idea of Bond extricating himself from the secret service and making it a personal vendetta was the basis for Licence to Kill nearly twenty years previous, highlighting the lack of originality after a promising return for the character.

No doubt Sam Mendes will be hoping to bring something fresh and exciting to the world of 007 once more, but even with the heavyweight cast he’s assembled (the addition of Javier Bardem alone is a very exciting prospect) he has his work cut out.

Click below for Indiana Jones, more Pooh and an intriguing idea concerning Inception…

The latest stop on the route to the Final Destination is here and if you get your kicks from pretty people featuring in over the top death scenes and playing a thankless game of Hide and Seek with Death himself then you’ll be in for a treat with the fifth in the series.

My review of the film (out on DVD and Blu-ray on Boxing Day) is right here and it’s safe to say that if you’re a fan of the series then you’ll love what’s on offer here.

The clip we have for you today is taken from the Special Features on the disc and concerns a plot twist which does cast the previous four films in a new light, suffice to say that //Spoiler Warning// if you’ve not seen the film please don’t watch this//Spoiler Warning Over//

Phew.

Also the clip has moments in it which make it a touch NSFW. Use brains and caution if necessary.

Proving the mendacious nature of the previous film’s title (or does it?) we gather around the latest ode to over the top death and dismemberment with Final Destination 5 to enjoy the silliest and goriest installment yet. There’s nothing here to shock and surprise, so closely does it follows its forebears, with the usual pretty young things escaping the clutches of death by scarpering from a phenomenally unlikely fatal accident, delivered with glee from the filmmakers to the delight(?) of the audience, who know exactly what’s going to happen.

I have no problem with a film following a formula, and this particular Final Destination does at least try to throw something new into the mix, and if the film is well made with a hint of wit then I’ll play along, however Final Destination 5 falls into the trap of most of the sequels to the original by making this all about death scene after death scene; playing with the audience’s’ expectations is far enough, and par for the course, but every situation becomes about waiting for the gruesome to occur. We don’t care about the story or the characters, it may as well be a nasty YouTube playlist of cinema’s most outrageous death scenes.

The opening scene is impressive and well handled by Steven Quale and he brings a certain solidity to some of the later scenes but there’s nothing that anyone can inject into the film to make it worthwhile. The actors are playing caricatures bound for an early grave in as many pieces as possible, the writers have worked out how to concoct the most dangerous situations and draw out the gory anticipation to breaking point and so it plays on and on.

Bottom line is if you enjoy watching people die in outlandish ways then you’ll love this, and now that we’ve five films in there’s very little to differentiate this from the last four films, and plastering every death from the series in quick succession over the credits is a sure-fire way to underlining the fact that everything between the fatalities is pointless.

**~~~ (2/5)

Extras

The accompanying documentary is the usual celebration of the splatterfest with an array of talking heads enjoying the even more outrageous deaths they put together for the film, and when they come to the twist, which effectively re-writes the whole series, there’s a lot of back-slapping and talk of how this was integral to the whole film. In truth it’s far less about the twist than they make out though it’s worth a watch to see the production team talk about the effects, the scene on the bridge for example, and this is the subject of the special feature that I did enjoy.

There is a breakdown of the film’s opening scene on the bridge which involves no voiceover, no explanation, no complicated discussion of the problems and pitfalls of shooting such a scene. Instead we have the entire scene cut together without any finished effects and green screens everywhere and in a small picture in a corner the completed scene plays along in synchronicity. This is a great way to watch the scene and take in the massive scale of the work which goes into the process. Not deal breaker stuff, but good to have if you’re a fan.

***~~ (3/5)

***SPOILER WARNING – This post contains spoilers for Final Destination 5, including a discussion of the end of the film. For a spoiler free review of the film, head over here***

At the heart of the Final Destination film series is a pretty dopey high concept, that death doesn’t like to be “cheated”. They rest on a set up in which a group of people manage to survive an elaborate disaster through the actions of one member, who has a premonition. Then the survivors begin to die in a series of highly unlikely accidents. These are accidents, no-one is seen to be controlling the events, no Jason with a machete, just a series of unfortunate coincidences that lead to the death of one of the characters.

We as the audience are not supposed to see these as accidents of course but the work of a vague concept of a murderous character, ‘Death’. He’s the one that doesn’t like to be cheated. None of that, of course, really makes any sense or follows any sort of logical thinking but perhaps one of the franchise’s greatest strengths is that it sells this concept quite successfully and when we see the water trickling across the floor we believe it’s purposefully doing it, although this is often overdone in a lot of scenes throughout the franchise. The ‘rules’ of the franchise, regarding the need for the chosen people to die and die in order, are excepted by many and it was with great surprise that upon reading reactions to the latest film and its supposed rule changes that I found that people actually believe in there being actual tangible rules to the films.

This latest film seems, on one level at least, reiterates something that has surely been the case throughout the entire franchise – there is only one ‘rule’, everyone that dies in the premonition will ultimately die and on their way to their ultimate demise they think they can somehow change this. But they can’t.

The most amusing part of this latest instalment and its retconning of the film series is that for ten years now (or thereabouts), William Bludworth (Tony Todd) has been convincing these hapless idiots that there’s a way to save themselves from death, if only they somehow gamed the system. What a malicious and baffling character he is, turning up to convince strangers that they can avoid death when they obviously can’t.

There’s also an amusing parallel one could draw with the basic nature of life and the innate thanatophobia that we all have, to greater and lesser degrees, and in many ways the Final Destination films, most probably accidentally, make some pretty profound comments about the human relationship with death. The one ‘rule’ mentioned above is true of life in general, one thing we can be sure of is that we’re all going to die and there’s no escape, no matter how much you try and cheat and strive to get away from it.

But you’re just here for the gruesome deaths, right? You better be because this is what Final Destination 5 is really all about, a celebration of this wonderfully macabre love, the desire to see people die in increasingly elaborate and gory ways. This is a box that Final Destination manages to tick quite satisfyingly with a number of toe-curling scenes in which tension is built until the release of a crescendo of carnage. Director Steven Quale has some fun along the way with a couple of instances in which the audience is treated to shots that suggest what is going to kill the particular victim, only for something far worse too befall them. This bait and switch is most pronounced in a scene, the film’s strongest by a mile, in which a gymnast walks along a bar on which there rests a screw ready to jab right in her foot. The tense sequence is played for as long as Quale can possibly get away with and the gruesome accident he ends on is so absurd that it supplies an entirely apt moment for a cathartic release of laughter.

These death sequences have defined the franchise since its inception and in the absence of a masked slasher, for instance, a dopey idea about fate provides the killer that stalks the cast. In many horror franchises the killer has become the star but the Final Destination films have seemed to skip over the period in which we want the killer’s prey to escape, instead seemingly relying on the audience willing the characters towards their deaths. In Final Destination 5 this is also relatively easy and lacking in moral weight, with a cast of characters that barely manage to even hint at a sense of believability, let alone likeablilty.

There are two types of characters in Final Destination 5, the misanthropic ones and the bland ones. If one of the first group dies then we don’t care because they are so unlikeable and if one of the latter group dies we don’t care because they barely register. One significant problem with this approach though is that the central couple in the film, Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto) and Molly (Emma Bell), are so impossibly bland that at times the relationship between items of furniture in the background carries more emotional weight.

Bell, the jury’s out on D’Agosto, is actually a pretty decent (or pretty and decent) actress, as Joe Lynch’s gripping Frozen proved last year but here she has so little to do. Her narrative purpose appears to rest on her constantly looking like she’s about to cry in the first half of the film, presumably to suggest that the two not dying should somehow matter to the audience, and then hint at an extra level of peril in later scenes by looking a bit scared.

The film is nowhere near as mean-spirited towards its characters as the third film though, which had a script that seemed to be written with the intention of making you hate every character. There are some similar hatefully written characters in Final Destination 5 though, the deeply unpleasant Isaac (P.J. Byrne) for instance, and their inclusion probably has more to do with an attempt to avoid making the audience feel too bad for laughing at their deaths than anything else.

There is an attempt at a character centred narrative drive to the film in the conflict between Molly and Sam, the two split up and get back together, and Sam’s desire to move to Paris. There’s a problem with this storyline though. Less than halfway into the film not only did I know that they weren’t going to make it to Paris but I knew that they were going to leave for Paris only for their plane to explode shortly after leaving the airport. Did I have a premonition in the cinema that led to this amazing prediction. No, simply being observant led to this conclusion, a conclusion that robbed the rest of the film of a lot of narrative tension or drama. Reasonably early in the film Isaac finds a gift voucher for a massage parlour and thanks to an ‘unnecessary’ close-up of the voucher and its 2001 expiry date, the year in which Final Destination 5 was set was now very clear. My mind immediately raced to the conclusion that this was probably therefore a prequel to the first film and the fact that the group of survivors in the first film almost died on a plane bound for Paris left me in little doubt as to where this film was headed.

I’ve never believed that spoilers ruin a film but when the filmmakers explicitly confirm a possible twist already hinted at, by the clothes, the mobiles and the cultural references, then it leaves you treading water somewhat, unless the film manages to remain interesting and engaging. Somewhat engaging and entertaining as the rest of the film is, something is lost a little in the reveal.

This predictability regarding the ending is oddly fitting for the Final Destination franchise though, a film series that has always hung on a simple premise that concerns the ultimate end of the principal characters. The outcome might be inevitable and one that you no longer really care about, if you ever did, but with enough entertaining grand guignol along the way few will likely leave the film without being somewhat entertained. Final Destination 5 might be predictable and exceptionally lightweight but there is a lot of fun along the way and as the montage that plays over the credits suggests, this film is giving fans of the franchise what they really want, entertaining and cathartic scenes of people dying in ludicrous ways.

Final Destination 5 is in UK cinemas now.

Final Destination 5 is yet another in a series of films known to be somewhat predictable. Lead star sees foreboding vision of the gruesome death of the ensemble cast and helps them escape. Death gets pissed and the kids die in completely unrealistic ways. End of movie.

So while I knew what to expect when seeing the film, nothing could prepare me for the wildly outlandish (and hilarious!) behaviour of stars PJ Byrne, Arlen Escarpeta & Courtney B. Vance. As soon as I stepped into the press room I knew I was in for a crazy interview. I honestly don’t know how I was even able to get any questions across since all three of them were so rambunctious. Even still, it was a great interview and the guys even decided to serenade me at the end of our time together. Check out this great clip and find out PJ Byrne’s thoughts on Vanilla Ice Cream?

You can catch all our Final Destination 5 coverage here.

Final Destination 5 is the latest in a series of successful horror films surrounding the mystical power of death.

This time around the cast is spared from an unfortunate bridge accident and once again each of the surviving kids are killed off one by one. Hey U Guys was fortunate enough to sit down with a few of the stars of the film to talk about their elaborate death scenes and their interest in the franchise.

Check out this exclusive interview with stars Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, Miles Fisher and Ellen Wroe.

Final Destination 5 is exactly the roller coaster ride you expect it to be (no pun intended towards the third entry in the series.) This time around Sam (Nick D’Agosto) saves his girlfriend (Emma Bell) and his friends from an untimely death on a collapsing bridge. As with the previous installments, death does not like to be cheated so one by one each of the survivors are killed in the traditional Final Destination fashion.

It’s the Rube Goldberg test of DEATH.

Final Destination, like many of it’s horror film brethren have a list of requirements for every entry: Death, destruction and enough loose screws to wonder if anyone even owns a screwdriver. FD has set itself apart by not having a tangible antagonist like Jason or Freddy, merely “Death” who haunts the kids and ultimately claims them in regular everyday places. While the set pieces are wildly outlandish and improbable, every one of them builds enough tension and suspense to make the gory pay off satisfying.

While I have never seen any of the other four entries, I must say that this film was surprisingly enjoyable. The premise is simple enough for newcomers like me to jump on board without having to think too much about it. I was on the edge of my seat for nearly every twist and turn of the overly theatrical deaths so you get what you pay for. The whole PURPOSE of a film like this is to have fun as you watch each elaborate and creative death scene. I can assure you that nearly every character in the film does not die the way you think they do from what is shown in the ads. Kudos to the marketing department for not spoiling the movie.

Heart and great storytelling have never been the pillars on which this franchise was built, but somewhere in there screenwriter Eric Heisserer was able to sneak in a just little bit of a conflict to make it interesting. In previous installments of Final Destination it was inevitable that all the kids die. So, how do you keep the audience interested at movie five? Simple: the kids can survive if they kill someone else. This moral conflict is central to the third act of the film and for once actually puts a face to something of a villain.

3D was meant for films like this

While the jury is still out on the ultimate fate of the cinematic novelty that is 3D, Director Steven Quale really makes great use of it in this film. As terrifying as the death scenes were, it made all the difference when someone got impaled and I felt like the pole was popping right off the screen. The addition of 3D and the use of 3D cameras truly pushes this film up to 11. The opening credits even set you up for what’s in store where different forms of death; knives/fire/water LITERALLY fly at you and break thru the “glass” of the screen. It’s a bit on the cheesy side of things, but the movie has a level of self awareness that just makes it fun.

Without spoiling the ending there is one final twist that will give fans of the series something to talk about. It also makes the audience wonder where Warner/New Line can take the franchise next as they have said that if this one is successful, even more are on the way. All I know is that this non-Horror fan was genuinely engaged in the events of the film and every single death was a painful one. While they may be following the same formula, they execute the required elements quite well and do their best to keep it dark and away from the cheese.

***~~ (3/5)

Here’s a nice little featurette / trailer from Warner Bros. showing clips from the past 4 Final Destination movies show Death doing his best to kill us! The movie is released August 26th and you can see our review of the movie next week. We also got to attend the US junket so will have interviews with all the main cast from the movie so keep your eyes peeled on all things HeyUGuys!

Final Destination 5 stars Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Tony Todd, Courtney B. Vance, P.J. Byrne, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes-Wood and is directed by Steven Quale.

Synopsis: In “Final Destination 5,” Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of coworkers from a terrifying suspension bridge collapse. But this group of unsuspecting souls was never supposed to survive, and, in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group frantically tries to discover a way to escape Death’s sinister agenda.

Source: Digital Spy

More death-defying teens are lining up for Final Desination’s fifth chapter and we’ve got five clips from the film for you today.

We spoke to some of the cast and that interview will be up on the site closer to the release date of the 26th of August and having read the embargoed review there’s something a little different on offer with this outing of the long running (and running out quickly out of stream) series – you’ll have to check back to read exactly what this new rule is but it does change things significantly.

It’s a 3D affair once again and this series shows no signs of slowing down. Here are the clips,

If you’re standing on a bridge that is coming apart at the seams then chances are that not the sharpest tool in the face, and thus it seems a little unlikely that you and your friends are able to pull one over on Death.

But hey – what do I know? Here’s the fourth sequel to Final Destination which will no doubt stick leech-like to the formula of the other films – a premonition of an accident leads a group of pretty teens to escape Death’s grip just in time for us to enjoy it happening to everyone else before Death comes to claim the saved souls in gruesome and ridiculously random ways.

This film has a bridge in it.

Eyes down for a poster, which if you click it will become big and slightly scarier,

This came from IMPA and Russia it appears.

You know the drill by now. A bunch of people with a high PYT quota survive a horrific accident due to a premonition by one of the group, however Death isn’t exactly chuffed at this turn of events and so decides to pick each one off one by one in stupid and gruesome ways.

Not exactly the highest of concepts, but at least the first film, and parts of the second, were decent horror films, whereas the rest of the unsightly mob are turgid lessons in sluggard suspense – just waiting for each one to die and being teased to the point of mentally expectorating whenever a sharp object comes into view. Final Destination? Don’t bet on it.

Here’s your trailer,

Yesterday I posted the first trailer for the fifth instalment in the Final Destination franchise and now Apple have released the trailer in HD and shown us the first poster for the movie.

Final Destination 5 stars Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Tony Todd, Courtney B. Vance, P.J. Byrne, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes-Wood and is directed by Steven Quale.

Synopsis: In “Final Destination 5,” Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of coworkers from a terrifying suspension bridge collapse. But this group of unsuspecting souls was never supposed to survive, and, in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group frantically tries to discover a way to escape Death’s sinister agenda.

It’s scheduled for release in the UK 26th August and in the US 12th August.

Here it is people, the fifth movie in the Final Destination franchise. Interestingly, the previous movie was called The Final Destination but obviously people flocked to the cinema in droves to see it therefore bring us the fifth!!

Final Destination 5 stars Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Arlen Escarpeta, Tony Todd, David Koechner and is directed by Steven Quale.

In this fifth instalment, Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of coworkers from a terrifying suspension bridge collapse. But this group of unsuspecting souls was never supposed to survive, and, in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group frantically tries to discover a way to escape Death’s sinister agenda.

Check out the trailer below.

Joining the ranks of horror franchises that won’t die, Final Destination is not only back for a fifth instalment, but it would appear that plans are already afoot for not just one, but two follow-ups.

Dread Central has been chatting to Candyman and FD veteran Tony Todd, about his involvement in number 5 (currently in post-production) and he let slip on plans beyond that feature:

“The producer told me as we were leaving Vancouver that if it opens at Number 1, they’re going to shoot the next two simultaneously.”

So there you have it. The destination to this long-running series (the first was released in 2000!) looks to be anything but final. I wonder if this little reveal will encourage the makers of Saw to begin devising another set of traps and torture scenarios?

Free from having to keep resurrecting a villain in desperate and contrived ways, (hello Jigsaw, Michael, Freddy and Jason) the formula for the Final Destination films suggest that an almost infinite amount of stories could be mined from the premise. For the next film, Death is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of co-workers from a terrifying suspension bridge collapse.

At this rate, don’t be surprised if your teenage kinds are still paying a visit to the multiplexes of the future to see what gory fate is in store for those deceivers of doom.

Final Destination 5 has started the casting process according to Deadline; Miles Fisher will join the New Line Cinema based franchise, the latest installment of which will be directed by Steven Quale.

If you happened to have been one of the few who saw 2008′s Superhero Movie (really?), you may know Fisher as one Tom Cruise. For everyone else, the impersonator was probably last encountered on either TV’s Gossip Girl or Mad Men, his other credits including the short film Pinkberry: The Movie.

While it is obviously ill-advised to trend-spot when only a single actor has been cast, this does nevertheless suggest that writer Eric Heisserer might be going for a more mature group of survivors. This would be more in keeping with Final Destination 2, easily the franchises best offering, and solve many of the key problems with the last, but not indeed final, installment.

I do have a soft spot for the series, and hopefully Quale will take number 5 in a slightly different direction. The one dimensional characters and lacklustre 3D will hopefully be replaced with believable relationships and a furthering of the mythology so tantalisingly glimpsed in the first three Final Destination films. For now though, we can only await further casting news and the August 26, 2011 release date.

This is possibly the worst movie title of all time and must have taken a room full of sugar enraged text speaking children all of 1 minute to come up with. Bloody Disgusting.com have brought us the news that the newly christened fifth film in the series will be called 5NAL DESTINATION, it’s no joke and 4 some reason New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures all 4ght it was a gr8 idea 2 follow the trend in using a digit in their film titles.

Not only will it ruin my alphabetised sequencing for my film collection but it also just doesn’t read or sound right, “FIVENAL DESTINATION”. Bloody Disgusting also got confirmation of the gore candy opening death sequence, which is always where the most effort is put into the scripts for the series, and it apparently evolves around a suspension bridge collapsing, which will hopefully be the Golden Gate Bridge.

I like the sound of it and being one who has a mild phobia that bridges will collapse whilst I’m on them, this is right up my line of scares. Final Destination Part 5: The Bridge of Death is due to be released on August 2011 and will be written by Eric Heisserer (The Thing, A Nightmare on Elm Street remakes) and directed into 3D by Steven Quale who has worked along side James Cameron for many years and was the 2nd unit director on Avatar so hopefully if will be a true 3D experience and not post production ugliness.

The first Final Destination film was a real surprise, and I remember leaving the cinema with my friends and looking around for falling pylons and out of control shopping trolleys loading with pick-axes and sharp gardening tools hurtling towards us – the drive home from the cinema was spent in a state of heightened anxiety; we were watching every plane in the sky.

The second film had one of the most intense car crash scenes and while the inventiveness of the death sequences waned slightly the premise of cheating Death, only to have Death come looking for you, was a good one. The third film started well but devolved into a messy, irony-free gore fest with little to recommend another trip down evisceration lane.

And the fourth film, made possible by the thrust of 3D, added very little despite the return of Final Destination 2′s writer and director and it seemed that all was done. Not so.

ComingSoon have the news this morning that the franchise will keep on running, perhaps buoyed by the success, financial if not critical, of horror series like Saw, as Warner Bros’ Alan Horn told the ShoWest assembled that another film was in the works.

No other news, not even a title reveal of ‘The Finaller Destination’ or some such nonsense, but I will always have a tiny soft spot for this series, and hope they’ll rekindle the fun and nastiness of the original, now ten years old.

Blood: The Last Vampire fights its way to Blu-ray and DVD November 2. The movie is a slick and stylised English adaptation of the hugely popular cult hit anime series of the same name. The movie is full of blood and gore, so in celebration of this release, we have compiled a short list of some of the bloodiest films to date. Chances are, if you loved these films and relished the blood, then you will love Blood: The Last Vampire. The name speaks for itself!

Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)

It is clear to see that Blood: The Last Vampire sticks true to its gory genre. In many of the scenes, Saya is surrounded by a group of demons. The creativity of their deaths is the winning factor here, for example in one scene she decapitates a demon by throwing a metal grate at it, and slices another in half to create an upward blood fountain, always escaping the blood spurts after killing someone. Ultimate gore!

The Shining (1980)

In The Shining Wendy sees blood rushing out of elevator doors which sloshes down the hallway. What puts this scene onto our list is the sheer amount of blood on display! It is a sea of blood. It flows like a river and encapsulates the viewer. It’s pretty shocking for a film of its time, and a timeless classic to this day. Not to mention the rest of the films climatic expertise and creepiness.

Blade (1998)

Perhaps one of the most creative uses of blood is seen in Blade. Picture the scene ““ clubbers dancing away at a night club, when blood starts spraying out of the fire sprinklers all over the patrons below. To your typical clubber, it’s pretty sick. However, naturally there are some vampires in the club, who are thrown into ecstasy, and start to gyrate with each other under the slick red rain. Enter Blade, who proceeds to kill the instantly identifiable vampires by shooting and stabbing them. Lots and lots of blood, in a contemporary setting, what more could a horror fan want?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

In A Nightmare on Elm Street we witness an unbelievable amount of blood in a very familiar place- one’s bed. Dragged into the middle of his bed by the infamous Freddy, Glenn is literally sucked into the underworld. Following his being dragged down into the depths, copious amounts of blood then spray aggressively onto the ceiling. The Blood shoots out of it like a geyser, or a high powered pressure washer. It’s all pretty surreal and strangely amusing to watch. His screaming mother only adds to the dark humour.

Kill Bill (2003)

When one thinks of bloody films, of course Kill Bill comes to mind. Specifically the scenes from The Bride where “˜88′ crazy suited men try to kill her, but get a little more than they have bargained for. And the highlight of this bloody battle? When The Bride kills one of the 88′s by pulling his eye out completely. She also does a break dance move and cuts the shins, ankles, and legs of the 88′s, spraying their blood everywhere. That girl can move, and it is mesmerising yet stimulating to watch!

Saw (2004)

Another high contender in the gore stakes is the Saw collection. In one particular scene in the first Saw, Amanda’s head is in a reverse bear trap. There is a key to unlock it, but it’s buried in the guts of her seemingly dead roommate. In true Saw fashion, Amanda is expected to use a knife to retrieve the key from his stomach. The next few minutes see her riffling through his liver, intestine and other organs. As one can imagine, this is quite a messy job and she ends up covered in his blood and guts. Several points for creativity!

Scream (1996)

No horror movie list would be complete without reference to the ultimate classic, Scream. Let’s take the Casey Becker scene. She is running from the killer and, well, she doesn’t get very far. He stabs her in the chest, slits her throat, and then continues to stab away until she couldn’t be any deader, and his knife couldn’t be any redder. He kills her brutally with a kitchen knife! Lovely and lots of blood for good measure too.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

Final Destination 2- or actually any of the Final Destination collection- wins where gore is concerned. In this particular scene we see another incredibly gruesome and original death take place. A woman is involved in a car accident that causes a piece of pipe to break in her car. Whilst fire fighters use machinery to free her from the mangled car, the airbag goes off and the back of her head is thrown onto the broken pipe. Her death is unexpected and sudden, leaving her with a pipe coming out her forehead, with brain matter and a pool of blood streaming down her face.

Hannibal (2001)

Another master of creativity would be Mr. Hannibal Lecter. Remember the scene where he tied up Detective Pazzi with duct tape in Hannibal? Having secured one end of a rope round the detective and the other around a separate chair, he sliced his abdomen and threw him off a balcony. The rope around the chair stopped Pazzi mid fall, but not his guts. These kept falling, out through the hole in his stomach, and spilled onto the ground below as the force of gravity took its toll. What an ingenious, blood-thirsty, gory way to kill.

Carrie (1976)

Carrie takes blood to the high school movie. A geek that falls victim of the bitchy girls at school thinks she has finally overcome it all when she wins the coveted title of prom queen. Unfortunately for her, some of her tormentors manage to tip a bucket of pigs over her whilst on stage, in front of the entire student body. The neat thing about this scene is the realism, the fact that it could actually happen. As Carrie stands dripping in blood, the scene is compounded by the awkward silence that follows and the true horror of her situation comes to light.

Blood: The Last Vampire is out on Blu-ray and DVD November 2

http://www.bloodthelastvampire.co.uk/