Greetings, and WELCOME BACK TO OCTOBER HORROR FEST!!! Dear readers, I am back once more, and this time, with a bittersweet note.
To start it off, Happy October everyone! My name is Danny, and if you’re a new reader, welcome to one of my FAVORITE yearly traditions. If you are returning from 2023 or 2024, welcome back my friends!!! For those of you who have been reading for the past year, there’s probably two major questions that you want answered.
WHAT HAPPENED TO HORROR FEST 2024 DAY 30 AND 31? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO SNOWFEST!?!?
If I am going to be 100% honest with you, readers, the answer to these questions is much simpler than it may appear. I got burnt out. Yes, alas, although I sit on my self proclaimed throne of “pop culture consumerism”, even I can’t keep it up 24/7. Last year, I fell behind schedule, and I couldn’t keep it up. For those of you who are curious, I decided to split day 30 & 31 with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, an incredible movie that I still have the ¾ completed article of sitting in my drive. Honestly, I can put that in one of these days just to show you guys how I wrote about it back then! And, does this count as a failure? Honestly, it is up to you guys to decide. Although I did watch a movie every single day last year, I couldn’t fulfill my duty to write for all of you. As for snowfest, it was much the same. Christmas movies are SO much harder to find (and write about) in comparison to horror movies. I didn’t even upload a single article, which honestly, is really embarrassing. I’m sorry guys!!!
I want all of you incredible readers to know that I promise you I will give it my ALL to end Horror fest on the most amazing note possible. It’s what I owe to all of you for sticking with me, and it’s what I owe to myself, after four years of this challenge. A third runner up question following the two pressing ones, “Danny, why do you sound so sentimental?” My friends, that is because this is the FINAL year of October Horror Fest. I’m sure you all noticed the new title, and besides being a reference to Friday the 13th, I mean what I say. This is the final chapter.
I’m currently a senior at our school, and after I graduate, I obviously won’t be able to write anymore articles for all of you amazing people. This does NOT mean however that I will stop the challenge personally! As I go through my next couple years in life, I will give it my all to continue my little challenge that I made on a whim four years ago, a challenge that has made me smile in so many different ways.
After I leave, I would LOVE to see Horror Fest continued in some sort of way. I am positive that the daily movies and uploads will not continue (we all need sleep.), but maybe, just maybe, a horror enthusiast like me will pick up the reins. They may be able to turn Horror Fest into their own special thing, just like I have, and try their best to inspire a whole new group of horror fans, just like my goal has been over these past three years writing for you all.
Before I get really REALLY sentimental (let’s save that for the Halloween finale), let’s go over some FINAL housekeeping things, and FINALLY enter into our first movie!
THE RULES. I’m sure you all know them already, but just in case we have some new readers, I’m going to copy and paste my little explanation from last year, just for time’s sake (It is currently nighttime as a write this, as somehow half of all horror fest articles are written in the dead of night) AND I KNOW, I’M SORRY. THIS IS THE LAST LAZY THING OF THE YEAR I PROMISE!
“The rules of the challenge have not changed since last year. However, be ready for all new scares! This month, I will not be repeating any movie I reviewed last year. All new films and media will be coming your way. As for the rules, as I’ve said, they haven’t changed. If you want a full rundown, be sure to check out day one from last year. For the people who don’t have the time or patience (trust me, I get it), the basic rules are as follows.
I have to watch a Halloween-related piece of media every single day for the month of October. It DOES NOT have to be horror (contrary to the name!) If I want to watch something a bit lighter, like “Halloween Town” or “Hocus Pocus”, I am able to. It does not matter what it is, as long as the said piece of media relates to Halloween. From short films to feature length animated spectaculars, as long as it has Halloween elements, it’s eligible. For some specifics…
If I begin a movie on a given day, and it finishes the next day, this still counts for the challenge. Although this happens rarely, it may happen. I went further into this on my previous day one, but I’ll be sure to let you all know.”
It is just about that time, my friends. Thank you all for joining me at the beginning of the final chapter, and thank you for these past three years. Now, without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…
FINAL DESTINATION (2000)
Is it just me, or am I incredibly surprised I haven’t reviewed this one yet?
Our story begins in the quaint house of our main character, Alex Browning. (This man is CRAZY.) He seems to be packing up for a trip, as our opening credits roll. This is where I’m going to nerd out just a little bit. Remember when I reviewed Scream, and how I said that it changed the entire genre? Well, just four years after Scream, we see those changes in real time. The dialogue is more fast paced and “for the teens”, the opening credits of fan blades whirling takes direct inspiration from Scream’s flow, it ALL connects. The first 20 minutes of the film, which are actually really good, end up being a little bit unintentionally funny for me because of this. Alex’s mother goes to rip off a tag that is left on his luggage, and Alex is upset when she rips it off, as he “needs it for luck so the plane doesn’t crash”. (Real subtle, Alex.)
Alex wakes up in the middle of the night, and heads out along with his high school classmates on their trip to Paris. However, as Alex begins to walk to his plane, he begins to notice strange things. His ticket and his birthday have the same numbers, as well as his seat on the plane. Even in the bathroom, Alex hears John Denver on the radio, who died in a plane crash. Alex is feeling INCREASINGLY upset, but tries to stick it out. Alex tries to fiddle with his table on the plane, but the lock holding it in place comes loose. Two girls ask him to switch seats, and Alex leaves his seat at the back of the plane and heads towards the front to sit with his friend Tod. There are LOTS of students on the plane, but let’s write down our main characters just so we remember. Our boy Alex, his best friend Tod, Carter (a semi-frenemy of Alex), Carter’s girlfriend Terry, Billy (another friend of Alex), the teacher Ms. Lewton, and of course, Clear (pronounced as Clair). Alex finally begins to rest on the plane, until suddenly, while sitting next to Tod, EVERYTHING GOES HAYWIRE. In an extremely well put together and VERY over the top scene which had me laughing and on the edge of my seat at the same time, the plane begins to EXPLODE. The walls are ripped apart, students go flying, blood splatters, and everything goes nuts. The pandemonium grows and GROWS AND GROWS…
Alex awakens with a start. The two girls come back to his seat and ask him to move. In a daze, our boy jumps from his seat and runs next to Tod, where he tries the lock on his table. It breaks, just like last time. Alex begins to FREAK OUT, running around the plane saying that it is going to explode. He enters a fist fight with Carter as he is dragged out of the plane along with, you guessed it, Billy, Carter, Terry, and Ms. Lewton. Tod’s brother immediately tells him to exit with Alex to make sure he is okay, and Tod obliges. We focus on Clear, who exits the plane herself as well. Ms. Lewton tells the French teacher to get back on the plane with the kids, and we watch from the airport as our group looks through the window. Alex explains his premonition to the group, as Carter begins another fight, furious over not being in Paris. As the fight continues, out of the top of the window, we see it happen. Alex was right.
The plane EXPLODES in a huge flash of light, as the shockwave causes the glass windows of the airport to crash down. The group falls to the floor, completely and utterly bewildered, and terrified. After the crash, the survivors are interrogated by two FBI agents, Weine and Schreck, who will show up LOTS in the film as we go on. These two men are extremely suspicious of Alex. However, with nothing to hold him under, they let him and the rest go. Clear is driven home by Alex’s family, showing her inner turmoil (VERY important), as Alex finally returns home, the young man immediately begins to sob in his mother’s arms. That night, Alex watches the T.V. report on the crash, as his guilt only grows.
Thirty-nine days after the crash, one day for each of the victims, a memorial service is held at the school. Tod meets with Alex, and the two chat, both saying they miss the other. Tod’s father still is not forgiving of Alex, and does not trust him, especially after what happened to Tod’s brother. As Alex goes to put a flower on the memorial, he is stopped by Carter, and the two engage in more bickering. However, things take a turn when Clear appears next to Alex. She thanks him, truly, for saving her life. She gives him her flower, and disappears as quickly as she came.
That night, after Tod gives a speech at the memorial, we get that unsettling feeling once more. Tod goes about his nightly routine, as the window suspiciously lets in a gust of wind, one that Tod notices. He finds it odd, but closes the window anyway, even as we see the shadow of a dark figure. Tod quickly sits on the toilet to do his business, but we focus on the piping behind the toilet, as it comes loose. The liquid from the piping begins to leak out of the pipe and across the flow, slowly but surely spreading towards Tod. Tod begins to shave, and plugs in his jukebox before immediately unplugging it, giving us a fakeout electrocution. Back with Alex, we see into his room, and just how far gone he is at the moment. Newspaper clippings and drawings of airplanes coat his room, as he desperately tries to figure out what went wrong that fateful night. As Alex finally begins to relax, he takes out a magazine, before an owl appears on his windowsill. He throws his magazine at the owl to scare it away, but the magazine gets caught in his fan. The paper is shredded and shredded, until one clipping, with one word, flies right back to Alex’s hand…
“Tod”
We immediately cut back to Tod, as he leaned over his bathtub to look inside. Behind him, the blue liquid finally catches up to him, and Tod slips. In a scene that completely caught me off guard and even shook me for a couple of seconds, Tod slips into the empty tub as his neck is caught on the clothesline strung across the tub. He flies in, unable to get his footing thanks to the liquid, and he is slowly, agonizingly, choked to death. In an INCREDIBLY important moment, after Tod finally passes, we see the blue liquid retreat from the tub, in a backwards motion, right to the pipe of the toilet, and disappearing.
Alex runs to Tod’s house, and he sees what has happened. In total shock and disbelief, he runs to Tod’s father, who says that Alex caused Tod to kill himself. Alex refutes this, saying that Tod was just talking to him about being good friends again. As Alex stands there, Clear appears behind a tree, ushering our boy to get out of there. Our special agents appear once again on the scene, watching Alex’s every move.
The next day, Alex finds himself on a path leading to Clear’s house, as a single leaf falls from a tree. Alex begins to talk to Clear, and grills her on why she was at Tod’s house. She says that she KNOWS that the FBI has no idea how or why the plane crashed, and they are still suspicious of Alex’s “premonition”. Clear begins to open up to Alex, and begins to truly talk to him. She says that on the plane, even though they barely talked in school, she FELT what Alex felt. Clear says she knows Alex still feels something in the air, because she still feels him. THAT is why she was there that night. Alex begins to think about it, and wonders if Tod was only the first of the rest of them to die.
In an absolutely insane plan, Clear takes Alex from her house to break into the morgue where Tod’s body is being held, just to be 100% sure that Alex’s theory of “the list of deaths” is correct. During this break-in, we immediately see that these two lovebirds have feelings for each other, although it starts subtly at the beginning. (I, for one, think they are adorable).
They see Tod’s body, as Tod’s arm REACHES UP from his bodybag. This got me REALLY good for a quick second, as the mortician William Bludworth reveals himself. He begins to talk to the pair, revealing that Tod didn’t kill himself (as we all know), but the man drops some of the most iconic and enduring lines in all of horror history, talking about how death is out of our control. It is all part of the grand design of death. Alex takes this to heart, and wonders if he can cheat death once more by figuring out the design. Bludworth reveals that Tod’s death shows that death has a NEW design for the group, and Alex must figure it out before everyone dies. Clear and Alex immediately run from the morgue, and the next day, go out for coffee.
Alex begins his descent into even greater paranoia, as he talks to Clear about the “design” of death, and how anything could be an omen. Alex says that maybe everyone in the group “messed” up death’s design, and cheated it. Maybe they weren’t meant to get off that plane, and maybe, death is still coming for them. Alex plans to find the patterns and cheat it again, and Clear, sadly, doesn’t believe him. But, besides troubles in paradise, a new problem is here for Alex, and his name is Carter. Carter rolls up the street in his car, almost hitting Billy on his bike. Ms. Lewton exits the coffee shop, and now, all of the group are together in one place. Carter and Alex begin to fight, but Terry breaks it up. She says that they HAVE to move on, as she walks into the street, telling Carter that if he wants to keep fighting Alex for the rest of his life, he can drop dead.
Now, dear readers, you know exactly what is about to happen. It’s a rule of horror movies, after all.
The second after Terry finishes her speech, a bus comes HURDLING towards her, turning the girl into a mess of blood and bones. The group is splattered in blood, absolutely horrified, as we cut to the next night. Clear calls Alex AGAIN, as she is worried about him, but Alex dodges her call. His father tries to talk to him, but Alex brushes him off as well. He needs to understand the design before he can talk. That night, however, he gets his biggest break yet. A news report shows how a faulty fuselage caused the explosion on the plane, and Alex traces the seats the explosion went through. Our boy finally gets his answers. The path of the explosion traces their deaths. It began with Tod, then Terry, and finally, Alex sees that Ms. Lewton is next.
We cut to Ms. Lewton’s house, as she is finalizing her move out of the town, still consumed with grief. She looks out the window, and sees our boy Alex. Of course, Alex is only here to ensure her safety, but he is doing it in quite possibly the creepiest way possible, just sneaking around Ms. Lewton’s house. Ms. Lewton (understandably in this case) calls Weine and Schreck, and they pick him up. As Alex gets picked up, the same gust of wind and shadow from Tod’s death enters Ms. Lewton’s home. Ms. Lewton walks around her house, as she plays, of course, John Denver. She goes to heat up some tea, as she throws a napkin on her knives. Her stove doesn’t work, so she uses a match. Instead of drinking the tea, she replaces it with vodka, which causes the mug to crack. She walks to a different room, where the vodka from the cracked mug falls across the floor and into a computer, which begins to smoke. You see where this is going, readers?
In the lockup, the agents grill Alex even more, but he can’t promise that no one else will die. They let him out after he tries to plead with them to understand his theories. Schreck tells Weine that he got the creeps, as he started to believe Alex. Alex begins to run to Ms. Lewton’s house, but the events are already in motion. It’s happening. Let’s go through this bloody scene, shall we?
The computer explodes thanks to the vodka, and sends a piece of screen glass FLYING into Ms. Lewton’s neck. She rips it out, blood pooling everywhere. The fire from the computer begins to trace along the spilled vodka on the floor, igniting the open bottle and old tea kettle, and causing Ms. Lewton to go barreling to the floor. She tries to reach up for her napkin, which of course, was on the knives. A knife impales her in the chest, as Alex finally enters the house. He tries his best to help, but death won’t have any of it. A chair falls onto the knife, fully killing her. Alex picks it up, and now his bloody fingerprints are on the door, and on the knife. Music swells as Alex BOOKS it, and runs out the front door. Billy is there on his bike, waves to Alex, and just before he can ask what’s going on, the entire house EXPLODES. Alex gets on his feet once more, and runs as far and as fast as he can.
We cut to Clear, where she is given Schreck’s card so that she can contact them if Alex shows up there. She knows, however, that Alex is on the run. She calls the surviving members of the group (Carter, Billy, and herself) to meet at the memorial, where she tells Carter to drive her to Alex. Carter is apprehensive, until Clear reveals that Alex knows which one of them is next, and that she’s being followed. We cut to Carter’s car, as the trio speeds off into the night in hopes of finding Alex. We finally get to an upstate national park, as Clear finds Alex sitting alone. In one of the sweetest and most heartbreaking moments of the movie, Alex asks if maybe their friends are still up there in the clouds, somewhere safe. Clear reveals her backstory to her love, as she says when she was younger, she was terrified of her parents dying. However, to her, it happened. Her dad went into 7/11 to buy cigarettes, and was killed by a robber. Her mom couldn’t deal, and married a horrible new man. She decided to abandon Clear because of this, and she expresses her absolute disdain for death. She says that there is a world where her dad is safe, and where their friends are still in the sky. A world where everyone gets a second chance. Clear tells Alex that they can’t give up, as the stars twinkle above them.
In the car ride back home, Alex reveals his knowledge, and he knows that the cops are ON HIM after his fingerprints were found with Ms. Lewton. He says that he knew that she would be next, and Carter takes this the most Carter way possible. As Billy prays that he lives long enough to see the Jets win a Super Bowl (as a Jets fan, I felt this in my soul), Carter begins to drive recklessly and quickly down the road. He wants to PROVE that he is in control of his own life, although all of them are on the same list leading to death. Carter eventually stops his dimwitted mad dash at train tracks, as we hear a train in the background. We finally see it approach the car on the tracks, as Clear, Billy, and Alex jump out from the car. The trio begs Carter to leave the car, but he refuses, still wanting to prove he is in control. Carter finally snaps out of his daze, only to realize Alex was right. He is going to die. His seatbelt is stuck, and his doors won’t unlock. Alex already saw a vision in his head just moments earlier of Carter’s seatbelt being broken, and he knows what he has to do. He runs back into the tracks as the train approaches, and PULLS Carter away from the car mere milliseconds before he would have died. Alex is now a two time hero, as Clear jumps onto him, holding him close. Carter STILL refuses to believe Alex saved him, but Billy begins to freak out. He discusses the list, who’s next, and that Carter is going to die, and he will take him with him.
However, the SECOND Billy says this, the train whips up a piece of shrapnel from the destroyed car, and sends it hurdling at Billy, decapitating him where he stands. (WOAH!) The group of course begins to panic, but Alex loses it. He says that he SAW the seatbelt, just like the plane, and that’s how he saved Carter. Because he saved Carter, he intervened, and death’s design skipped Carter and went to the next person on the explosion list on the plane, that being Billy. He HAS to see it, and he HAS to intervene to change the design. Our boy is 100% right, but he really REALLY is losing it. Clear tries her best to comfort Alex, telling him the police will be there soon. However, no comfort will come to the pair, as Alex reveals he’s next. And after him, Clear is on the chopping block. Clear begins to panic, but Alex swears he won’t let her die. The group goes running into the night soon after, still shaken.
The next morning, a paranoid yet determined Alex fortifies Clear’s old cabin in the woods, and gets ready to defend himself against death. We see the gust of wind enter the house, as the Grim Reaper prepares to face our boy. Alex is ready, though, and narrowly stops a knife from stabbing him through the closet door. He stands determined, ready to stop death, as we cut to Clear. She’s at her house, reminiscing on memories with her father, as our two favorite secret agents show up to her house. Clear immediately walks outside to talk to them, saying she won’t turn Alex in. Weine begs for Clear to tell them where Alex is, and he swears he will bring him in with full protection. Begrudgingly, still worried sick, Clear obliges.
We cut back to our paranoid boy Alex, as he comes to another realization, this one being one of the most horrific yet. Unlike his premonition, Alex NEVER changed seats with the two girls on the plane. He would have been next to Tod, but he never moved, and because of that, Clear’s seat was in front of his. The second he says this, his lantern goes out, and he realizes what it means. Clear is next.
At Clear’s house, all hell begins to break loose. A transformer collapses outside, and pure electricity starts shooting everywhere. Alex bolts out of the cabin, and runs from the newly arriving police, even duking into a boat and SAILING across the small river just to save Clear. Alex washes ashore and bolts through the woods, as the police now pursue him on foot. Clear runs outside to save her dog from the electricity, as the storm rages outside. Alex continues his tumble through the woods, almost being impaled by a protruding stump. Things get even worse in the world of Clear, as her pool collapses, causing water to mix with electricity. Her dog is finally freed and runs, as Clear tries her very best to climb back up through her bedroom window. Down below, we see the shadow of the grim reaper pass over the water. Death, being the ever persistent force, causes a lightning strike to cause a TREE to FALL onto our boy Alex, suffocating him. However, the police finally find out he was running to Clear, and they head to her house.
Clear is finally able to make it back upstairs, as Alex heaves an entire TREE off of himself, and continues booking it to Clear. The electricity now strikes Clear’s house head on, and in an absolutely insane scene, she runs through her house, lights exploding everywhere. She makes it to her car and tries to escape through her garage, but her car is halted in place. Alex FINALLY makes it to the garage, and sees the loose electrical cables. They are on top of the car, as gasoline begins to pour down. Clear is panicking, as Alex runs to the car, telling Clear that she is grounded by the tires, and not to touch anything. Alex begins to poke at the wires with a shovel, but his strategy is cut off by the wires igniting the fallen gasoline, causing a fire to engulf the car. (I was FREAKING OUT here.)
Our boy knows that the car is about to explode, and he knows what he has to do. As Clear begs for him not to do it, Alex tells her that if he does this, it will skip her and the cycle will be over. He tells Clear he will always be with her, as the police arrive outside. Clear SCREAMS for Alex, as he grabs the wires with his bare hands, and directs the explosion towards himself. Clear is shot out of the car towards safety, as the police attempt PTSD on our fallen hero…
We cut to white, as we see the inside of a plane. It’s an Air-France liner, and we see one more title card. “Six months later…”
On the plane, we see Carter, Clear, AND ALEX!!!!!! The trio are headed to Paris, as Clear and Alex hold hands, still in disbelief they even got on a plane again.
(Nerd time part two! There was actually a deleted ending (I just discovered this while writing) where Alex actually DIES saving Clear!!! It’s all on YouTube, and the acting is incredible. In this deleted plotline, we find that Clear was actually pregnant with Alex’s child! In the national park from earlier, Clear tells Alex that she will NOT let this second chance at life go to waste. After Alex’s death, Alexander Jr. “Chance” Browning is born, and the movie ends with Clear and Carter at the memorial, Clear once again saying she won’t let this second chance to live go to waste. As Alex Jr. is born, Clear says she “feels Alex’s presence”, and the window opens once more with a gust of wind. It’s ominous, but also comforting. The two (plus Alex Jr.) stand at the memorial, as a single leaf falls from the sky once again. I love this bittersweet ending, but audiences wanted our boy Alex to LIVE!!!)
The scared kids from the beginning of the film have matured in the past six months, and now all truly feel like adults. We cut to their safe landing in Paris, as the trio has drinks together. The trio has a toast to all of their fallen friends, and all the characters show true development. Carter admits that Clear and Alex are the only ones who understand, and that Alex was right. It did skip them, and it was a part of a design. Carter says, however, that they beat it. Clear says that the only thing they won was a chance at a full life, and that’s a chance she will never waste. She holds Alex’s hand, as Alex once again ventures into the design. Both of them tell him to let it go, but he pulls out a map of the path of the explosion, and goes over the list. He intervened to save the rest, but when he saved Clear, no one intervened in HIS case. Death didn’t skip him. Clear offers that the true design was that Clear, Carter, and Alex were meant to walk off that plane and live, but Carter says that maybe Alex is still next. The rules dictate that someone HAS to intervene, as Alex proved it three times with all of his saves. Carter says it may circle back to them, because Alex is still next. He says, however, that he is entirely safe, as Alex has to die before he does. Alex has his own spidey sense moment, as he looks around at the bustling city. We see various accidents and mishaps happen, as a blood red wine from the drinks falls on his name on the map. He runs to go back to the apartment, as Carter jokes he’s next. Alex tells Clear to stay, as he wants to protect her. However, through the glass on her left, Clear sees a bus. She SCREAMS for Alex, and he ducks back just in time for the bus to miss him.However, the chaos continues. A HUGE restaurant sign goes flying through the city on broken cables, and it is about to hit Alex when Carter JUMPS and tackles him to the ground, saving him. His death has been intervened. He says to Alex that he knew he was going to be next, but Alex responds by saying it just skipped him. Carter asks “whose next?”, as one of the most iconic final shots in horror commences. Alex has been spared. Carter is next on the list. Carter’s face shifts from confusion to realization and horror, as we see the sign SWING back around towards Carter, cutting to black as we hear the impact hitting him…
AND THERE WE HAVE IT! HORROR FEST DAY ONE IS DOWN!!!!! I, of course, finished this at 12:47 A.M. on the 2nd, but you guys best believe all my viewing of the movie and watching of it occurred on the 1st. It takes a LONG time to write these, and wow I did not expect for this one to reach NINE pages. A good way to start it off, huh?
Seriously, dear readers, thank you for coming back one last time. I am so excited to venture into the final chapter with you all. I hope you enjoyed it!!! But, before you go, remember this, dear readers. You can run, but you can NEVER cheat death’s design….
