After sitting out the sequel, series creator James Wong is back in the director’s chair for another Final Destination outing, and this time some unsuspecting high school kids are off to a theme park. What could possibly go Wong?

A rollercoaster is the perfect setting for this thrill-ride of a franchise that’s already off the rails, capturing that sense of fizzy anticipation and mindless fun. This is a rare (maybe even unique) horror series that actually gets better as it progresses, with a 2006 threequel that nails the saga’s camp, portentous pastiche.

Final Destination 3 even incorporates Heathers-style satire and actual tension into its The Omen meets Mousetrap kill sequences, including the most disastrous trip to a tanning salon since The One with Ross’s Tan. The scene’s use of the Ohio Players’ Love Rollercoaster is particularly smart, more for the urban legend about the song capturing the scream of a woman being murdered than its rollercoaster callback.

We are invited to enjoy these quality kills by making the victims as deserving as possible. The high school students (all visibly well into their 20s) get their kicks by killing pigeons, upskirting and, worst of all, referring to themselves in the third person. Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s “control freak” character (something it tells us three times without showing us) spends the entire film with her mouth open, yet has the audacity to call another character “sad” for knowing that SpongeBob SquarePants lives underwater. Where did she think he lives? Huddersfield?

Regardless, the teen-savvy, postmodern take on urban legends and cartoon violence come to life (or death) make Final Destination 3 a scream of a splatter flick.