Final Destination 5

Directed by Steven Quale Starring Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell 15A cert, gen release, 91 min

Reviewing a Final Destinationfilm is a little like assessing an engineering project. After all, the franchise does not depend on fleshy characters or intricate plots for its success. Since the first, highly amusing film emerged just over a decade ago, the pictures have revelled in constructing fantastically elaborate deaths for the young, reliably wooden cast members. The constructions were magnificent in the first two films. Imagination faltered in the succeeding episodes. Happy to relate, the new film sees the series back to its disgusting, mindless, ingenious best.

As ever, the film begins with disaster foretold and avoided. A group of office workers are bound for a group retreat when a large suspension bridge collapses beneath their bus. The usual collection of horrible catastrophes follows. If you were not already desensitised to screen violence then the yacht’s mast that impales one of the female leads should do the trick. It is then revealed that one of our heroes, still safely on the bus, is experiencing the crash as a mystical vision. He pulls his pals off the charabanc, leaving the remaining passengers to their inevitable doom. Then death comes calling for the survivors.

You knew all that. The question is whether they die in interesting ways. Absolutely. The gymnasium death is brilliantly absurd and the hurtle towards an upturned hook is nicely grotesque, but it’s the laser eye surgery sequence that really sticks in the memory. Sales of spectacles will soar.