Despite the cynically sequel-disguising title, we’re onto the fourth instalment of the Mousetrap-inspired horror series, wherein Death eviscerates poor suckers with ingenious slaughter-snares.
By this point you’d hope the makers would have changed up their now-musty formula — exploring the source of those premonitions, perhaps, or plonking the action somewhere exciting like the White House.
Sadly the only things tweaked are the visuals (now in decent 3-D, meaning you get blood, sharp objects and viscera relentlessly chucked at your face), with the story again centred around blandly fresh-faced teens, plus a character named “George the security guard”. There are some nice stand-alone sequences, like red-herring-filled visits to a beauty salon and car wash.
But the opening gumball-rally massacre fails to tap into a common nightmare scenario like the preceding films’ airplane/ freeway/ rollercoaster infernos, and the whole thing has the air of a join-the-dots cash-in.
