Director: Steven Quayle
Year: 2011
Country: USA/Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
When a group of survivors of a devastating bridge collapse suddenly start turning up dead in a series of freak accidents, the others learn that they were meant to die on that day and try to prevent it from happening to them as well.
Review:
As much as this one provides a lot to absolutely love, there are still a few problems here that keep this down. When this one works, it's enjoyable mainly for its high-quality action along the way here, starting with the absolutely fantastic opening hallucination here as the small cracks in the road lead to the series of rather fun roadways dropping off into the water below taking people and cars along with setting up the series of support collapses that take out several others along the way as the fleeing survivors are taken out as they try to escape back to safety in a fun sequence that serves as a rather enjoyable opening. When it comes to the real accident and the events relating to the escape gives this one a really enjoyable beginning.
Other fun moments here come from the spectacular attacks along the way as the deaths are a lot of fun if a bit hokey at times in the Rube Goldberg-ness of their set-ups, especially the gymnast accident and their co-workers' accident in the factory are just fun if goofy and ill-thought-out even though in all the kills the gore is spectacular and the suspense is decently handled. The set-up in the massage parlor and the doctor's office works the best here, which are really chilling and make for some fine times here, giving this one enough positives to hold out over the few flaws here.
The biggest one here is the revelation added to the storyline, though the new twist on the hero's plight doesn't make much sense. For something as supposedly vicious and cruel as what's stalking the heroes to just roll over like it does here with this new twist doesn't really make any sense at all, for that changes the entire purpose of the events that transpire. It's barely even integrated into the story and seems placed there merely to give this one something new without really doing anything original or creative here.
That also ends up giving us the finale in the restaurant, which has no business being here and nearly ruins the film on its own just for its inclusion. The only other flaw here is the pace, since it's also way to lax about going after them once they've survived, taking forever to start knocking them off and we get way too much time with their personal lives here trying to make the impression of them going about their lives with a sense of relief in having survived rather than being aware of their surroundings, making it way too boring in the first half. All in all, it's a pretty decent entry if not overly spectacular.
Overview: ****/5
An entertaining enough series entry despite some slight problems, this is still one of the better entries in the series and gives this quite a lot to like that keeps it up over a small series of flaws. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre fare, are hardcore franchise completists, or those who are fine with the issues on display will have a lot to like, while most others out there should heed caution.
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