-By Maitland McDonagh

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Of the 25 employees of Presage Paper (Get it? Presage?) on a rented tour bus that’s supposed to be whisking them off to a team-building retreat but is instead idling in the middle of a long, long bridge, only eight survive the span’s sudden, catastrophic collapse. And they owe their lives to Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto), an aspiring chef who gave up a prestigious internship in Paris because his girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell) didn’t want to go: Just before the accident, Sam had a horrifying vision of what was about to happen, and those who followed his lead and beat a hasty retreat to terra firma—Molly, Peter (Miles Fisher), Sam’s best friend, and his perky girlfriend, Candice (Ellen Wroe), a college gymnast doing an internship; odious boss Dennis Lapham (David Koechner); and co-workers Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), Isaac (P.J. Byrne) and Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta)—avoided miserable fates. Or did they?

FBI agent Block (Courtney P. Vance), who’s heading up the investigation into the catastrophe that killed a total of 86 motorists and construction workers, is convinced that Sam played some part in causing it. After all, Block is a rational man and the only rational explanation for Sam’s advance knowledge of the bridge collapse is that he had something to do with making it collapse. But there’s no evidence, so he has to content himself with keeping Sam and his friends under surveillance.

The “Lucky Eight,” as they’re dubbed by the media, soon discover that they’re not as lucky as they seem. Death is a sore loser with a mean streak and, one by one, they start dying in bizarre, grotesque accidents, starting with Candice, who somehow winds up in a broken, twisted knot of broken bones and ripped flesh during a routine practice session, and horny, opportunistic Isaac, whose death at a holistic spa is designed to delight anyone who secretly believes that acupuncture is the ancient Chinese term for “torture by smiling sadist with evil needles.” In a slight departure from the earlier films, Final Destination 5 holds out the hope that there may be a way to escape certain death, albeit one whose price is eternal damnation (something no one actually says aloud, which is what passes for subtlety in Final World), but savvy series regulars won’t put much stock in it.

Like Final Destination 4, Final Destination 5 is in terrific-looking 3D (and really, how can the Final team resist, what with all the spurting blood and flying body parts?), and is generally technically slick, briskly paced and painless to watch, assuming you’re not the sort to squirm miserably at the sight of anatomical mayhem. If you were, of course, you probably wouldn’t have read this far, let alone considered ponying up for a premium-priced movie ticket to see attractive young people turned into human hamburger. And yes, there is a shot of a meat grinder: In keeping with the Hell’s PSA theme that informs the series, young Sam’s culinary ambitions occasion several leisurely looks at the dangers that lurk within the kitchen…especially the professional kitchen, with its rotisserie stakes, bubbling fry stations and banks of razor-sharp knives.