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Final Destination 2 (2003)

Final Destination 2 reminds me a lot of Halloween 2. Was there really a reason or need for another? I guess not, but, if you were determined to make one, if it absolutely needed to be done, this is as good as it’s going to get. Fans of the first will enjoy getting more. Specifically, more spectacular deaths. Isn’t that the reason you’re checking it out?

One year after the first film, Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) is driving with her friends when she has a premonition: a hideous car pileup will cause them and dozens of others to die. When Kimberly freaks out and prevents several of the people from getting on the highway, she interferes with Death’s “plan”. Now the survivors must figure out a way to escape their seemingly inescapable deaths.

The film starts with a bang. That car pileup Kimberly foresees is spectacular; easily the most impressive wreck I’ve ever witnessed in a film. It doesn’t matter that it’s “undone” by her interference. The kills that follow are so varied, so crazy they push the limits of what an R-Rated horror movie means. When this film's protagonists bite the dust, they're mega dead. You’re lucky if there’s enough of them left to fill a gym bag.

In many horror films, a bigger body count and gorier deaths is a sign of a franchise progressing towards trouble. Since you can't recreate the scares of the original, give the audience more blood and guts, right? What makes Final Destination 2 different is that director David R. Ellis saw an opportunity. The deaths in the first film were all plausible but improbably. Everything just happened to fall into place a little bit too nicely. This film makes it clear: Death is upset that its plan got messed up and is taking the opportunity to have fun. There are some sick bits of irony as people's deaths are caused by mundane things and clues of their incoming demises are foreshadowed. This film makes the right decision to be frequently funny, poking fun at the far-out premise before you get the chance to.

You’ve got some laughs, there are bits of good suspense as the Rube Goldberg-like chains of events unfurl, and the kills are both varied and impressive. A few elements prevent the film from being better than the first. Firstly, you don’t get attached to this cast as you did the original survivors. With the characters quickly figuring out what’s going on and no premise needing to be introduced, you'd think we’d get to know them better than the people in Final Destination, but you don’t. This time saved is counterbalanced with more people to bump off. I’ve also got mixed feelings about the lack of recurring characters. There is a nice little bit where they mix things up here (if you remember the ending of the first film, two people were left alive) and I can’t say too much without spoiling things. It’s not necessarily bad, as having 2 people informing this new group of survivors that they are going to die would be somewhat redundant, but there was a missed opportunity to do more. I’ll also add that Cook does not have the same acting chops as Devon Sawa, who was terrific at making you believe he was mourning the death of his friends while fighting for his life.

Unlike the first, Final Destination 2 is strictly for horror enthusiasts. That does not make it a bad movie. As a direct sequel to Final Destination, this 2003 horror flick is probably as good as you could get. The special effects are jaw-droppingly good, there’s a lot of imagination in the money shots and it mixes the dark laughs with the suspense effectively. (On Blu-ray, August 22, 2016)