Effective and engaging thriller

Rating: 8/10 (22 July 2015)

Given the self aware nature slasher movies took in the late 90s following Scream, it was a logical progression for a movie to come along where death itself is the slasher. This is the idea driving this effective, well made and well acted, entry to the slasher genre that was a big hit in 2000 and spawned a successful franchise.
The once promising Devon Sawa stars as Alex Browning, a high school student who is about to fly to France on a school excursion, but has a premonition in which he sees the plane explode, killing everyone on board. Once on the plane, incidents from the vision start to occur. Alex panics, resulting in him, some classmates and a teacher getting thrown off the plane. The plane ends up exploding just as Alex saw in his vision.
Cue a creepy cameo from Tony Todd (better known to horror movie fans as the Candy Man) to explain to Alex that he has cheated death and now death is coming for the survivors. And that's the plot of this one.
The film contains a big variety of kills, from elaborately set up accidents to sudden decapitations. One of the more enjoyable things in this movie is working out exactly how the various scenarios are going to converge to achieve death's design. Death is one driven and creative entity.
Devon Sawa is great in this film, gradually going further and further off the deep end as he tries to stay a step ahead of death. His performance and the ability of Director James Wong to draw the most out of the premise are the main strengths of the film, while Kerr Smith, Ali Larter and Sean William Scott all do exactly what is asked of them as death's other targets.
The idea of Death stalking a group of people who have cheated him of his wages is an interesting one and this film doesn't waste its promise. Best to watch this on its own, and not think about later sequels. A good idea done well.