Final Destination was a fun and serviceable horror franchise that ran for five films from 2000 to 2011. The second instalment was the best of them, but they all provided the vicarious thrill of Rube-Goldberg supernatural murders and a bleakly comic tone. As always, you cannot keep a good horror concept down: Final Destination: Bloodlines comes to cinemas 14 years after the last sequel with a whole new array of inventive murders and gory mayhem.

For those who came in late: a character will have a premonition of a fatal accident, causing them and a few friends and strangers to escape their intended fate and survive. An anonymous force will then, like some Exodus spirit of death, claims the lives of the survivors one by one in the order they were supposed to die. Death comes via increasingly unlikely mishaps.

In this latest case the premonition hits a woman in 1968 named Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger), who saves not a handful of people from death but literally hundreds. It is a smart and inventive twist on the franchise format, since the sheer quantity of survivors means it takes death literally decades to reclaim them all. Jump to the present day, and Iris’ granddaughter Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is struck by nightmares of the original incident. This time around, it is not survivors that death is hunting down but their descendants. Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein deliver effective direction from a screenplay by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor.

Time away from movie screens has done Final Destination a world of good, since this is easily the most enjoyable and accomplished sequel yet. Bloodlines has a much more ambitious set-up than the earlier films, as well as a much more in-your-face and graphic depiction of its murderous set pieces. Crucially it is the funniest of the six films to date, with a gleefully mean-spirited streak that leaves viewers caught between shrieks of disgust and peals of laughter.

Films of this nature typically do not rely too much on strong acting talent, but in this case a lot of the comedy only works because its cast are delivering it with such effectiveness. Kaitlyn Santa Juana is a strong and relatable lead, but there is also particularly strong work undertaken by Richard Harmon and Owen Patrick Joyner as her two ill-fated cousins. Series stalwart Tony Todd makes his final on-screen appearance here, filmed shortly before his death from cancer. It is a surprisingly heartfelt and sensitive scene that should please his fanbase, and honours him effectively.

As is perennially the case with Final Destination, the film stumbles a little in its climax and dénouement. This is par for the course, since it is a difficult premise in which to find satisfying conclusions. Nothing presented here detracts from the bulk of the film before it, but I live in hope that someone will crack this creative puzzle sooner or later. Honestly this film is, despite its title, more about the bloody journey than its destination.