Final Destination 3 (15) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

You've heard movies described as a "rollercoaster ride". This third instalment of the macabre comedy-thriller takes the literal approach by setting its long opening sequence on just such a ride - not quite as horrific as the first film's plane explosion, but unpleasant enough. The cast, mostly newcomers, is thereafter picked off in a variety of grisly ways, the gimmick being that Death announces itself as a stiffening breeze before making lethal mischief with sunbeds, runaway trucks and nailguns. The writer-director, James Wong, allows invention to run riot, and challenges the comforting truism that "everyone is equal before death": why is it, asks one character, that innocents are slaughtered when "pimps and vice presidents" go unharmed for years? Something to ponder while the body count climbs.