Tag line : This ride will be the death of you!

Death comes chasing after yet another group of hapless youngsters in this third outing, only this time its a group who get thrown off a rollercoaster ride prior to it crashing, after one of the girls in the group, Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), has a premonition and starts panicking.

If you've seen the other two films you'll know what to expect as lots of fun and gory deaths quickly ensue, as death subsequently tries to catch up with the survivors, whilst Wendy and her boyfriend Kevin (Ryan Merriman) try to figure out how to avoid getting killed all over again.

This third outing is more of a standalone film, with the previous movies just getting a passing mention rather than having any characters interlinking them, as parts 1 & 2 did. Whilst the films premise may be a tad predictable, it still proves to be highly entertaining viewing.

If you enjoyed the previous films, you should similarly get a kick out of this one, the highlights of which including death by sun bed, death by weightlifting equipment and best of all death by engine block (best death scene ever in my book)!!!!. No Tony Todd this time though, although some of the sharper eared viewers may recognise the familiar voice of devil at the entrance to the Roller Coaster ride.

Overall Marks 6/10.

Other Information.

• The actors had to ride the rollercoaster 26 times on the same night in order to film all the scenes correctly for the entire premonition scene.

• The films budget was $34,000,000.

• It took 20 attempts to get the hammer to fall correctly onto the forklift gears for Erin's death scene.

• The film opened only 10 days after the crew had finished final re-shoots.

• As with the previous films, several characters were named after horror  film makers.  "Wendy and Julie Christensen" are named after Benjamin Christensen, director of Häxan (1922); r "Erin Ulmer" is named after Edgar G. Ulmer;  "Lewis Romero" is a homage to Herschell Gordon Lewis and George A. Romero. The character "Jason Robert Wise" is a reference to Robert Wise, director of The Haunting (1963/I). "Carrie Dreyer" was named after Carl Theodor Dreyer, director of Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932). "Ashley Freund" is a homage to cinematographer/director Karl Freund and the character "Ashlyn Halperin" was named after Victor Halperin, director of White Zombie.

• The amusement park scenes were filmed at Playland Amusement Park, which is part of the Pacific National Exhibition Grounds in Vancouver, Canada.

• The truck that boxes Wendy and Ryan in at the drive-thru with the "drink responsibly" sign, was the same one used in the motorway pile-up in "Final Destination 2".

• Ian McKinley was originally going to be called Logan and Frankie Cheeks was originally called Scotty.

• There was an alternate take on the "tanning bed" death scenes in which Ashley stops the heat from her tanning bed by inadvertently smashing the glass and Ashlyn is knocked out by the falling board, so they don't actually burn to death, but are then electrocuted. These alternate death scenes are selectable on the DVD.

• Though he doesn't appear on screen in this film, horror veteran Tony Todd, who was the mortician in the first 2 films, can be heard as the voice of the animatronic devil that stands outside the entrance to the rollercoaster and the voice of the Underground train announcer. Originally they weren't intending to use him, but decided to do so at the suggestion of one of the producers.

• Sam Easton's character Frankie was originally not supposed to die, escaping the drive-through crash with a broken neck, but this was changed during filming. This alternate scene is selectable on the DVD using the "Choose their fate" interactive feature.

• Ashley Tisdale and Venessa Anne Hughes, of "High School Musical" fame, auditioned for the respective roles of Erin and Julie, but lost out to Alexz Johnson and Amanda Crew.

• Amanda Crew originally auditioned for Erin and Alexz Johnson for Julie, but they ended up switching roles.

• Kris Lemche, who plays Ian, had to take a 2-day forklift driving course in order to drive the forklift in the film.

• The train number at the end was "081", which when reflected is the number of the aircraft from the first film "180".

Cast & Crew.

Buy the UK DVD

Buy the UK DVD Box set.

Buy the US DVD

Buy the US DVD Box set.

Notes on affiliate sites.
 

Other films in the series.

Reviews A-Z.

Reviews index. Home. Menu.