Final Destination 3

  • Review Date: July 23, 2006
  • R
  • Genre: Horror
  • 2006
 Review

Common Sense Media says

More blood, less invention. Not for kids.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

Find out more

Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

Find out more

Parents say

Kids say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this film isn't for young viewers. It's comprised of essentially nonstop violence against teenagers, usually staged in tense or jump scenes. Blood and gore are shown frequently and copiously. Two girls strip and show their breasts full-on before entering tanning tubes. One boy flirts aggressively, using sexual slang. A frightened horse runs through a crowd, accidentally dragging a girl. One girl gives her sister the finger. Lots of scary music and occasional loud noises.

  • No good role models.
  • Frequent and complicated means of death; heads smashed (revealing brains and splatting blood), bodies dismembered and penetrated.
  • Early obnoxious flirtations; character takes digital photo up a girl's skirt; mostly naked girls cooked in tanning tubes.

What's the story?

Like its predecessors, FINAL DESTINATION 3 delivers plenty of yucky death scenes and occasionally startling violence. As per the formula, death stalks a group of teens who somehow elude it in the opening catastrophe -- a roller coaster ride that goes terribly wrong. They're saved by Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who sees a vision of the disaster before it happens. Wendy's boyfriend stays on the ride, to meet his demise. Wendy discovers death's plan, and tries to warn her fellow survivors. Her photos from that fateful night hold clues about each victim's death. Violent and gross, these deaths mostly take place in front of Wendy and her confidant Kevin (Ryan Merriman), despite their warnings. Only the first death scene takes place without witnesses: The interchangeable Ashley (Chelan Simmons) and Ashlynn (Crystal Lowe) who strip to get inside tanning beds, then essentially cook to death when the units overheat and they're accidentally locked in.


Is it any good?

 

As death stalks the victims, Final Destination 3 encourages viewers to take pleasure in the mechanisms and the lunacy of the means: heads are smashed and nail-gunned, bodies are cut in half and crushed. Because the victims behave badly -- ignoring Wendy's warning or being rude or stupid -- you're not asked to invest in them emotionally.

But you do invest, if only because of formula, in Wendy, who tries so hard to save her classmates. "Can you feel how vicious it was?" she asks following one death, suggesting that death is being sadistic. The film asks you to take her perspective, but because it's the third time with all the gory tricks and tensions, the effects aren't so unexpected. So there's the question: When does pleasure in death effects become routine?


Sign Up Message
Sign up for our weekly newsletter
Each week we send a customized newsletter to our parent and teen subscribers. Parents can customize their settings to receive recommendations and parent tips based on their kids’ ages. Teens receive a version just for them with the latest reviews and top picks for movies, video games, apps, music, books, and more.
Please enter an email address.
Please check your email address for possible typos.
Sorry, you must be 13 or older to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Sign me up!

What families can talk about

Families can talk about the absence of parents in this movie: Only two even appear, at a funeral and in the background another shot, waiting at school. Why are these kids so alone as they deal with their friends' deaths? They could also talk about why horror movies are so popular, especially with teens.


This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
Teen, 14 years old
September 24, 2011
 
MAJOR SPOILERS INCLUDING ALL DEATHS!!!
I think common sense was wrong Wendy is a positive role model, she doesn't drink, smoke, do drugs, etc. Sure she and the other all use foul language but lets face you can't walk into a middle/high school without hearing "F*** You!!!", "You B****!!" And the most common "Fat***" And as long as your kids no they can't behave that way and use that language (which most kids know) then they're clear to watch this movie. This was actually the second least gory FD film. ****************************************************************** Death Scenes!!! Read only if you want to prepare/prepare your kid(s)!!! A girl has a vision of a roller coaster crash, most deaths are of off screen (characters falling off roller coaster screaming) on onscreen deaths in the vision are a boy getting slammed into a post and (you can only see this if your paying very close attention) spurts some blood from his back, another boy has trouble getting back into his seat after reversing the coaster and is bisected by a post, half his body is shown on the tracks (the fleshy part looks kinda like steak, point out to your kids that its probably made of steak.) (Later in film) 1)Two girls enter tanning tubes, you sort of see their breasts from the side. The beds malfunction and the girls are burned to death (Not graphic at all you only see some slightly darkend skin but thats all ) If you have an issue with your kids seeing some skin have them cover their eyes or skip the scene (is you tan often this is a wise idea) 2) At a drive thu a large truck slams into another car, forcing the fan out, it chops a mans head (though no brains are shown for more that a few seconds) blood spatters everywhere Two others look to see who it is and when they look at his face the fan goes off again and chops the back of his head off (only shown for 4 seconds) 3) A boy is excersizing on a weight lifter and is almost decapitated by two decorative swords, but they miss him. Then two weights come loose and crush his head, brains (that look an awful lot like ground beef) spatter everywhere, but there is nothing seen but a meat explosion, you don't even see his head pop. 4) An accident in a warehouse causes a pole to fly through a bag of wood shavings and blinds a girl she trips backwards and falls onto a nail gun which shoots like 15 nails through her face (which is quite cartoonish but if you/your kid is squeamish about eyes then skips this scene) blood drips from her mouth. 5) (I don't understand this scene but ok) A startled horse causes a flag pole to fly out of a guys hand and it impales a girl through the stomach some blood spatters on the faces of 2 girls. The impaled girl tips over and the flag pole sinks into the ground(with girl still attached) 6) Fire works are shot and a cherry picker holding a large sign falls and crushes a boy, he is anialated, his upper body is fully intact and he is giving the main character the finger.(in my opinion the goriest scene) 7) A train crashes and a girl is some home sucked out lots of red is shown (but it isn't graphic) A boy is slammed against a window of the train and the window cracks and he is sucked out and splattered all over the wall (only red flashes the whole scene is filmed with strobe lights) A girls leg is caught on the train tracks (her leg is broken lots of dead bodies around her) she has blood on her face, a train comes toward her and she screams and realizes it was just a vision she says something to her friend and pulls the emergency brake its broken she knows its to late to save anyone. the screen goes white and there are screams heard. over all this movie isnt so gory, kids 13 and up should be able to handle it.

Flag as inappropriate 
Teen, 15 years old
August 28, 2009
 
IT'S PRETTY FINE.
FUN BUT, TOO CARTOONY. THE KILLS WERE CARTOONISH.

Flag as inappropriate 
Teen, 18 years old
April 9, 2008
 
Grose Movie
I probobly spelt Groose wrong but i don't care. This movie is desgusting! I had seen parts of the 1st and second one. My older stepbrother decided to watch FD3 while we were on vacation at my cousin's house in Washington D.C and i was like ok w/e.He had control of the Tv anyway. The rollercoaster part was not that scary. Gory deffinatly but i could handle it. Then i saw the part in the tannning booth. I was so grossed out. I left the room but my stepbrother's were enjoying it because you see the girls boobs. E* I had my friend watch it for me at her house the next time it was on and she told me everything. The other events in this movie are nausiating. So today 4/3/07 i caught my younger stepbrother watching it right at the part in the tanning booth again. So i got him in trouble because he is only 11 and i know it what happens beyond this point will scare him. Besides it's rated R so he wasn't supposed to be watching it anyway. But if i hadn't told my stepmom he would be having bad dreams for a month. Basically, Final Destination 3 is scary and very stupid. It also has a very pointless ending. I wouldn't reccomend it it to anyone!

Flag as inappropriate 
Teen, 14 years old
December 11, 2011
 
Pretty good, but not for young kids
I've seen this on FX and it was pretty good. It's a little more graphic than FD2, but it's still really good and has some pretty believeable death scenes (except for the death scene where the two girls get burned to death inside of malfunctioning tanning beds) and the three main characters, Wendy, Kevin, and Julie are all pretty good role models. Violence: Some gruesome death scenes, the most gruesome death scenes probably being when a man gets the back of his head shredded off by a car engine and when a girl gets shot multiple times in the head by a nailgun. But most of the deaths aren't too bad for older teens. Sex: A boy takes a picture up a girl's skirt, a man flirts with two senior girls, and some brief nudity during the tanning bed scene. Language: Use of swears like "f**k" and "s**t" and some use of the middle finger. Consumerism: Slurpees and Coca Cola are shown, and Wendy owns what looks like an Imac computer, and mentioning of a PSP and Spongebob. Drinking: Nothing other than a character saying, "Are you on crack?"

Flag as inappropriate 
Teen, 17 years old
June 28, 2010
 
This movie is kinda vilolent. The girls being cooked in the tanning bed is pretty harsh. They show thier breast and then thier skin gets churned. The others deaths are kind of violent too.

Flag as inappropriate 
Parent
January 7, 2010
 
Final Destination 3
Not that good of a movie. I like the Final Destination movies, but this was a disappointment.

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 12 years old
November 22, 2011
 
final destination 3 is better then the 2nd one
This movie is better then the 2nd one, This one is about a girl who gets a prediction of the roller coaster crashing gets off of it survives and tries to get out of deaths way. This movie is really good this movie aint scary ecept one scene where hot girls get cooked in the tanning bed. Buy this movie on DVD or blu-ray

Flag as inappropriate 
Teen, 15 years old
June 10, 2011
 
ok
One of the best final destination but not for younger 15 for gory death

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 12 years old
February 5, 2011
 
for adults.
its ok but there alot of Violence. there if a part where a guy gets a female necklace a licks the private part. there is also a part when two girls go sun tanning and one of them is completely nude.

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 11 years old
August 9, 2009
 
adults
its too violent and has many nudity and sex references

Flag as inappropriate 

This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
Studio:New Line
Director:James Wong
Cast:Kris Lemche, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman
Genre:Horror
Run time:115 minutes
Theatrical release date:February 10, 2006
DVD release date:July 25, 2006
MPAA rating:R
MPAA explanation:for strong horror violence/gore, language and some nudity.

This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
 

Review It

Share your review with others

Hang on! You need to be a member to post your review.
A safe community is important to us. Please observe our guidelines.
About our rating system
ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.

Great alternatives handpicked by our editors

 

vote now

Will you see Final Destination 3?


Already seen it? What do you think?

 

Been There? Tell us about it