Ethan Edwards

Final Destination 3

I watched the beginning scene of Final destination 3, where all of the characters are about to get onto the roller coaster which eventually breaks and all characters die. There are many conventions of thriller throughout this, which include; Omens, quick cuts and low key lighting.

The scene is set at night. This alone uses pathetic fallacy as the dark environment creates a lot more of a spooky place. There protagonist in this is a young girl who is at an amusement park with her friends. The girl is wearing a red jacket and red lip stick (none of the other characters are wearing this). This draws attention to her from the audience’s point of view because she is so bright in comparison to everyone else. Also from this colour it sets her up to look like a target for something bad to happen. Whilst they are waiting in the line, we the shot cuts to a pair of girls in short, skimpy clothing and a young creepy guy with a video camera who is trying to catch something sexy from them. Aside from everyone else, in there scene particularly there is a lot of swearing. This sort of provides a reason for something bad to happen to them. As from an audience’s point of view, these characters are not you’re favourite to see. As he records the two of them, we see a close up shot of the screen and is blood shot red. Although it is very un-noticeable, this foreshadows something bad happening to the two of them. As the line grows shorter and the young girl gets closer to the ride, that she is dreading the shot cuts to a giant statue of the devil standing above the ride, with the non-diegetic sound of loud growling, which is supposed to represent the anger of the devil. This giant omen, signifies something bad going to happen. As the girl steps into the roller-coaster line, the reflection of the light, causes her face to her red, representing she is stepping into her own hell. Moreover, as she turns the turnstile she reads a sign which says “once you go in there is no turning back… see you soon”. This omen clearly connotes that the girl will die. Even though the signs around her are always there because it is a rollercoaster, she sees them in a much more sinister and devilish light. As she turns the turn stile, the sound resembles a guillotine crashing down onto the hard wood. Furthermore, as she is walking through the line she see’s people screaming on the rollercoaster, which sounds like screams of joy but could be considered as screams; much like the screams of terror that will happen later on the film. The screams sound like screams of death, when in hell; the women sees the environment as hell because it is so scary. We constantly see the women have a moment where she realises, where she is and what she is doing. We see that the women has a sort of sixth sense, and allows her to notice danger before it happens. As she walks through the line, there are quick flashes of lights that resemble lighting striking, which is an omen of bad luck. As she gets closer to going on the ride, we see the entire environment is bright blood shot red. Red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red brings text and images to the foreground. It is used as an accent colour to stimulate people to make quick decisions. The shots of the skeletons, signifies the women’s death. The way they are all lined up above each other connote a dead and lifeless environment (hell). We then see a stretched shot of the number 6. The number 6, connotes the devil as the known phrase “666”.  As the dripping of the red fluid drops that looks very similar to blood and the man finally presses the bright green button in a large array of red buttons we see the roller coaster speed off.

This whole introduction, includes many different conventions of thrillers. The film is very entertaining to the audience from its immediate shot cut to its non-diegetic screams.