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Final Destination 2
Starring A.J. Cook, Michael Landes and Ali Larter
Directed by David R. Ellis
Written by J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress
New Line Cinema
If you learned anything from Final Destination, it’s that you can’t cheat Death. And in case you missed that lesson the first time, here’s a sequel to remind you with a healthy dose of gratuitous gore. Final Destination 2 picks up on the one year anniversary of the crash of Flight 180. This time, a group of teenagers and some other motorists avoid a brutal traffic disaster, thanks to a premonition by our heroine Kimberly (Cook). Once again, those meddling kids have foiled “death’s design” and the ole Reaper is pissed.
The plot is formulaic as hell (setup, psyche out, pay off, repeat) but I’m willing to suspend disbelief in exchange for a gory ride down the slippery slide. Clear Rivers (Larter) returns in a desperate attempt to connect the story to the original, but does anyone really care? Let’s face it, the only reason this movie is even watchable is due to the entertaining demises that befall these poor sods. Make no mistake, without the slicing, dicing, filleting, and pureeing, this flick is a recipe for boredom. But like its predecessor, I was expecting a bloodless teen snorefest and got something several sanguineous degrees better!
The theatrical version has a full minute of gore cut from it to get it the R rating, but you won’t notice – it’s still fun to watch. Just like in the first film, Death reigns supreme and he legislates freely as he systematically stalks and dispatches each character in gruesome ways.
No one is safe, not even children. Because of this, the movie ends up being deliciously morbid, creative and unpredictable.
FD2 also pays subtle homage to the genre in a couple of ways that erudite horror aficionados will notice. Tony (Candyman) Todd’s reprise cameo role as the mortician, Mr. Bludworth, along with the deliberate inclusion of horror icon names in the script (I caught Carpenter and Corman), are appreciative nods that were written into the first film as well. In short, FD2 isn’t exactly high art but as long as they keep pumping out the red stuff in such clever and copious amounts, we’ll keep watching!