By Satyen K. Bordoloi

Film: "Final Destination 5"; Director: Steven Quale; Actors: Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell and Arlen Escarpeta; Ratings: ***

Among all horror films, the "Final Destination" series has an ingenious plot. Unlike your slasher, monster, supernatural killer films, the villain is none other than death itself - a super villain if you can call it that - that can neither be fought nor reasoned with because it's not really a 'living', visible entity. There is thus no postponing the inevitable, only the illusion of it.

The fifth instalment of the movie plays the exact same plot. After a group of people survive sure death in a suspension-bridge collapse due to the premonition of a colleague, they fatefully realise that there's no way to cheat death as it comes for them one by one.

There are seemingly endless ways for people, fragile as we are, to die. The strength of the franchise has not been the originality of the plot or script, but of coming up with the most bizarre and unconventional ways to kill its protagonists.

The idea is to put the invisible man, death, at the helm of this orchestra of killings.

And for this invincible, omnipotent and omnipresent opponent, every little thing counts. Even a little screw has the potential to cause the most gruesome death through a series of events that work like clockwork under death's conducting wand.

Since the adversary - death - cannot be fought, the series can work only in terms of the ways in which the characters die.

This fifth installation does bring out its dose of some of the most inconceivable deaths... during a Chinese acupressure therapy, while getting laser done on the eye, and during a gymnastic routine, among others.

For audiences who like this kind of cinema, the film really works.

It has many elements that make it better than the rest in the series. Compared to the others, this one has a fairly steady pace. The film also introduces a certain way to cheat death -- which works for it.

The visuals and effects work up the horror of the manner of dying and the film does manage to tease the viewers with multiple permutations and combinations to its death.

The scene of the death of the gymnasts illustrates this best. A small loose screw from an AC duct above lies in wait for its victim, so does a loose performing rod nearby while a little gush of water is making its way to an open electrical wire.

The audience, aware that death is inevitable, is at the edge of their seats wondering what will cause it. The way it finally happens is scientifically impossible, but macabre nonetheless.

The film ends on the plane where the first one had begun. And going by the looks of it, this particular film may have ended, but this - one of the most successful horror franchises from Hollywood - is far from its final destination.