Remember a couple of years ago when horror movies were all the rage? It was good times for genre devotees there for a while, but the post-Saw resurgence was short-lived. The market became flooded, audiences grew bored, and most recent releases, even installments of well-known horror franchises, have met a grizzly end at the box office. But one horror franchise may weather the storm: Final Destination. The FD flicks, while not exactly known for their originality, have continued to be a fun diversion for their shocking death scenes and wicked sense of humor. It's the wink and nudge vibe that's distanced the franchise from the whole 'torture porn' subgenre which has taken the real beating from moviegoers. That brings us to the inevitable fourth film in the series, 14220036.html'>Final Destination 4. And this time, it's in 3-D!

Go ahead and roll your eyes. We did. That is until we made our way to the movie's New Orleans set last weekend. It was there that we got the scoop from producer Craig Perry, director David Ellis (Snakes on a Plane) and the movie's hot young cast. We even experienced some of the movie's 3-D action firsthand and it's more than convinced us about the future of the franchise and the format.

The set itself is contained within a New Orleans warehouse district. And as we made our way towards the action, we passed numerous extras covered in made-up gore -- some with nails sticking out of their bodies and even one dude with his eye hanging out.

Final Destination 4 is being shot in HD 3-D using the PACE camera system, James Cameron's technique of choice on the upcoming Avatar. And FD4 is actually the first movie filmed on practical locations to use the technology. Proponents of next generation 3-D, most notably Cameron, have been saying for a while now that the technology will soon shed it's gimmicky perceptions and may even cross the genre barrier into dramas and the like. Believe it or not, Final Destination 4 looks like it could be the beginning of that. Yes, it has plenty of shocking deaths that make use of the 3-D presentation in just the way you'd expect (a severed head comes flying at the camera at one point), but in the footage shown to us by Perry the more mundane moments are just as impressive for their immersiveness. There's an establishing shot of a mall interior, for instance, that really pulled us into the scene. And simple things like watching the characters talking... the 3-D really makes you feel like you're there with them. Then there are the scares, like an ingenious car wash sequence featuring actress Haley Webb where the machinery malfunctions causing her Scion to get stuck on the track... 'and bad things happen,' as Perry quipped frequently during our time on set.

The story is, not surprisingly, similar to previous installments, but don't expect the rules of cheating death to get as much talk time as they did in the prior films. In fact, it sounds a little bit like a semi-reboot of the series. Many of the franchise staples, such as the voice over by Candyman actor Tony Todd, are getting nixed. But there's still plenty of the trademark gruesomeness, this time centered around a group of teens who cheat Death at a stock car race. Nick (Bobby Campo) has a premonition of a horrific crash -- the first of many he experiences throughout the course of the movie -- and manages to save several people. But his heroics have a horrific outcome when Death comes back for the survivors.

'Let's be realistic,' Perry confesses to the group of journalists gathered in the craft services tent, 'Final Destination movies have a certain formula that works. I think we lucked out on the first one by coming up with an interesting fulcrum that we can balance a lot of things on. That, married with the prospect of doing it in 3-D, I think facilitated us coming up with a bunch of scenarios that were fresh, original and yet familiar.'

Perry explains the new approach they're taking with Death this way: 'If you've survived something, you're not going to have this angst-ridden mortality question,' he says. 'You're going to be like, 'F****** aye! I made it!' The next step is that notion that you escaped Death, and now it's coming back after you. That's one of the things I think really helped this particular movie distinguish itself from the other movies. It's tonally more on target with how kids are today. And it won't just be the obvious jerks getting their just desserts either. Death won't be nearly as selective, and may start going after a few people we like in this movie as well.'