Death sure likes to keep busy...

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2012)

'X-Files' veterans Glen Morgan and James Wong do well with this better than average, interesting horror movie. It's not wholly original - a little known movie titled "Sole Survivor" predates it by about 17 years, and its succession of elaborate murder set pieces calls to mind the "Omen" series - but it's slick and entertaining. Its premise hinges on the idea that Death has a "design"; people can interfere with that design but are merely delaying the inevitable. Devon Sawa stars as Alex Browning, about to fly to Paris with his high school French class, only to experience a horrific vision of the airplane exploding. He and several others get off the airplane, which does indeed explode. However, the survivors won't have long to celebrate their good fortune as Death intends to claim them no matter what. Alex figures out the order in which they will perish and starts doing everything he can to intervene. The story becomes rather standard stuff as we watch our cast of characters get knocked off one at a time, and the brutality visited upon this unfortunate bunch is often extremely amusing, whether it involves stabbing, fire, decapitation, or being mowed down by a bus. Things get off to a moody, atmospheric, and ominous start with some well done opening credits and the viewer does get a sense of impending doom right away. One of the best touches is turning John Denver's song "Rocky Mountain High" (the late singer having perished in a plane crash himself) into a harbinger of death. The material is sincerely played by its cast, also including Ali Larter ('Heroes'), Kerr Smith ('Dawson's Creek'), Seann William "Stifler" Scott ("Goon"), Chad Donella ("Disturbing Behavior"), Daniel Roebuck ("Halloween II" '09), Brendan Fehr ("The Forsaken"), etc. The sequence with charismatic genre veteran Tony Todd as enigmatic mortician Mr. Bludworth is far and away the best, with Todd making the most of his brief screen time. Pacing is good, the special effects mostly convincing, and all in all the movie makes for a good diversion, although it eventually gets bogged down in the whole idea of just what the order of death should be, and the ending is just not terribly satisfactory. Still, filmmakers have certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of the concept here, with three sequels and one prequel having followed this initial entry. This is fun enough material with a lot of shocks, a bit of self-referential flavour to the writing (characters are named after notable filmmakers and actors of the 1920's, 30's, and 40's), and a fair amount of style. Seven out of 10.