"I'll see you soon."

Coming out this Friday is Final Destination 3. Not sure about the rest of you, but I'm kind of looking forward to it. For me, anything that's scored by Shirley Walker and shot by Robert McLachlan (except for Cursed, of course) is worth a look.

Earlier today, in my 'net wandering, I ran across Jeffrey Reddick's original draft of Final Destination. It retains the concept of a group of teens who escape a gruesome plane crash after one experiences a vision of it, only to die one by one, but it is very much a different film. The doomed characters are all teens of different backgrounds (religious, black, Goth) and the force behind the murders is a dark spectre, like the reaper from The Frighteners before it's revealed as Jake Busey. And there's certainly nothing featuring Candyman, er, uh, Tony Todd as a creepy coroner.

I know that sadness is not an emotion typically engendered by horror films, but that's how I felt reading it. Not because it will never be produced as is and not because it was unentertaining, but because the characters are so likable and that...well, let's say that suicide and guilt figure heavily into this draft, much more than the film. Is it better than the film? I'll say yes...with a 'but'; the ending was weaker than in the movie. That's all I can really remember.

Judge for yourself.