The idea of being stalked by Death - not a scythe-wielding reaper but something incorporeal - is, for lack of any better term, really weird.  The idea of a film being based on this concept seems almost laughable.  And yet, in 2000’s Final Destination, a very strange and abstract idea is turned into a wonderfully creepy and stylish film.

The basic plot is simple enough: while waiting for the flight that would begin a class trip to Europe, high school student Alex (Devon Sawa) is struck with the thought that something is not right.  When seated on the plane and preparing to take-off, he is hit with a horrifying vision of the plane exploding in flame.  A subsequent frenzied attempt to warn the others and get off the plan causes a mid-aisle fight that gets a teacher and several students including Alex himself ejected from the flight.  Watching their plane leave without them, the arguing continues in the airport until suddenly Alex’s vision comes true and the jet explodes just after take-off.

The survivors - six students and one teacher - are left with the guilt of having survived while their friends and, in some cases, siblings died, and the unsettling knowledge that Alex knew it was going to happen.  They had cheated Death - or so they thought.

Death, it seems, has other ideas.

What follows is a string of complicated and yet totally believable 'accidents'.  A quick slip on a slick bathroom floor leads to the accidental hanging death of the first survivor.  In one of the better sequences of the film, one character takes a seemingly harmless step off of a curb, only to be hit head-on by a bust going full speed.  The look of shock and horror from the other students gathered at the curb as they are speckled with blood is absolutely priceless.

Throughout it all, Alex keeps receiving signs and visions of what will happen next.  Before the bus incident, he 'saw' a vision of a bus speeding down the street.  It doesn't take long for him to connect the dots and figure out what is happening: the survivors are dying, one by one, in the order they should have died on the plane.  Trying to stay one step ahead of death, the remaining survivors band together to fight their own fates.

The film stars a veritable Who’s Who of 2000's teen drama set -- including Kerr Smith of the WB’s Dawson’s Creek, a small role by Brendan Fehr of tv's Roswell - as well as the up and coming members of Hollywood’s young adult set, such as Seann William Scott. 

A refreshing look at fate and inevitability, Final Destination presents a nearly hopeless situation as seven people battle against an enemy that is unseen and virtually undefeatable.  After all, everyone dies at one point or another.  There is no creeping monster or identifiable villain, only the inevitability that life has to end at some point. 

The huge creep factor in the film comes from the plausibility of the accidents that overtake Death’s victims.  Little choices made by each character can lead to their death - a step off of a curb, a late night trip to the bathroom, standing too near to train tracks or even - and god forbid this one for anyone reading this or even me as I write it - using a computer.  Watching this film reminds you that everything you do has some risk, usually impossible to access.  Our days are numbered, and Death will take us one by one.