Final Destination (2000)

“In death, there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, no escape."

 I was a little wary to see a "horror" film with so many cast members and so many signifiers from all those godawful teen "comedy" movies that so blighted the turn of the millennium: if there's one film I can assure you I will never, ever blog, it's There's Something About Mary, the worst film I've ever seen. And yet this film, by not trying to be funny, manages to simultaneously be pretty decent, if not great, and feature Seann William Scott. I never imagined such a thing would be possible.

The concept is excellent, though; seven survivors of a plane crash have dodged their appointment with the Grim Reaper, but death s after them, inexorably, suspensefully and, on occasion, hilariously. My favourite death is Mrs Lewton's, delightfully thorough though it is. Yours may differ. But there's plenty of thrills suspense, just about enough of it to justify the inclusion of a character called "Billy Hitchcock".And I wouldn't particularly expect to see this as an in-flight movie.

For a film with no real stars and with a pretty obscure director this film did pretty well and, although it has no real stars and no great budget, it holds up passably well today. Death itself is certainly a pretty good horror villain, and the whole concept is sufficient excuse to give us a parade of deaths the like of which we hadn't seen since The Omen. This is a solid and entertaining horror which doesn't quite fully ex[loit a great concept but makes a decent stab.