The film starts with a plane crash so realistic it's uncomfortble. But it's just a dream. Alex Browning's dream, as he is just about to fly with his classmates to France. He takes his dream as an omen and decides to stop the plane from taking off. Only he and five comrades are thrown off the plane while the rest of his class fly off. Of course the plane crashes with no survivors. But while Alex and his friends may have escaped death in the crash, they can't cheat death. One after the other the survivors are killed in everyday situations and it's up to Alex to try to find out who's next in line.

It's with ill-concealed joy a blunted viewer can report that this film delivers the chills, thrills and all that comes with it. It's surprisingly nailbiting in places and unpredictable down to the last frame (literally). But actually, the film's benefits shouldn't come as a surprise, it's all made by yet more graduates from TV's X-Files, here screenwriter/director James Wong among others. And it very much resembles the series in style and tone. Being a veteran of 44-minute storytelling I guess Wong knows how to suck on the build-up before letting his shock-effects explode brilliantly. But he also know, I'm sure, that the key to suspence is the characters. Once the characters have us in their hands, the filmmakers can take us anywhere they want. They don't even necessarily have to have a monster. Or a boogeyman. Or anything you can touch. Just a mapped-out destiny for each and everyone of us. Our fate will come to us eventually, when we least expect it, in any ordinary situation, but if we can figure out and understand the clues it gives us in advance we can perhaps make death skip us. Till next time.

There is a convincing performance by Devon Sawa in the tortured lead role and several good performances in supporting parts (mostly lesser known faces from TV). Also Tony Todd (Candyman himself) is effective in an important one-scene part. And for the observing, all the characters have names after classic horrordirectors. So all this said, expect sequels somehere in time. As this genre goes, Final Destination is too good not to continue.

© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.