Although The Final Destination was intended to have been the final Final Destination, the franchise came back for a second final time in 2011, and the sixth instalment is coming out next month.

In truth the hyper-formulaic series can run as long as the filmmakers can think of new ways for people to die by accident – and the more outlandish the build-up, the better the pay-off. But they seemed to forget that simple rule after Final Destination 3 (the rollercoaster one), all but abandoning the kitschy Rube Goldberg sequences in favour of monotonous relationship dramas and casual racism.

Directed by Steven Quale (2nd unit director on Titanic and Avatar), Final Destination 5 makes the least sense of the lot. Bizarrely inspired by The Office, the 3D film follows the employees at a paper company (including a chef and a construction worker) on a work retreat. As their bus drives across a bridge, Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto) envisions the bridge collapsing in a Godzilla-style disaster spectacle that demonstrates Quale’s experience in 3D action set pieces.

But the movie immediately grinds to a halt, and nothing happens apart from Sam and his girlfriend (Emma Bell) arguing over whether or not he should move to Paris for work. By the halfway mark, there has been only one death (an admittedly hilarious gymnastics one), and Tony Todd looks bored to have to introduce a twist whereby the characters can supposedly cheat death by murdering someone.

The deaths eventually start in earnest, including a racist Chinese massage scene, and a laser eye surgery procedure involving a Goldfinger-strength laser. These kills are largely as forgettable as the characters, and their reliance on precariously perched cups of water and faulty wiring removes the playful sense of misdirection that once made these sequences fun.

The Final Destination movies work best when leaning into their camp cartoon carnage and critic-proof self-parody. But as this weirdly sombre chapter plods towards its self-referential twist ending, the joke is firmly on the audience.