This is a follow up to a mildly successful horror movie that came out a couple of years ago - Final Destination. It’s always nice seeing a production company capitalising on the success of a film. I was cynical before watching this, as I am with most popularity induced sequels. Then I decided that I couldn’t really expect much from this film wether it was rehash or not - It’s your typical gory teen horror flick and I sat down and pressed play with this in mind.I have to say that I was surprised to find that this movie was better that the original - not that the first was exactly a challenging experience - but I must confess that I am a fan of these types of films. I didn’t expect much in the way of plot or characters, as it’s hardly a prerequisite in a film where the bits between the death scenes aren’t much more than filler. I admit this is a bit of a generalisation, but I also think it’s justified to some point. Anyway! Rambling aside - the creators did do a good job with this film. I love a good death scene and FD 2 had death scenes a plenty. I was trying to figure out if they were intentionally funny (you’ll know what I mean if you watch the film) or if they were trying too hard to be scary. There wasn’t really any suspense or tension to speak of; it was more a case of cringing at some of the more graphic scenes, which were quite impressively done.Final Destination 2 continues the scary coincidences theme of the first film, though it’s not really necessary to have seen the original. The characters give enough information throughout to understand what the premise is. The opening scene has the lead character Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) leaving on a trip with some friends and they are involved in a pile up on a freeway. This leads to a chain reaction of events involving a number of people who become victims of the aforementioned gory deaths. Kimberly ends up being responsible for these people, as she has been burdened (though it’s never explained why) with visions of the characters’ ultimate demises. We don’t really warm to the characters, and I felt this was mainly due to the less than fantastic dialogue, and slightly wooden acting. This actually caused me to find their deaths humorous, as they were quite over the top and, I felt, somewhat reminiscent of an episode of `Itchy and Scratchy’.I also loved that Tony Todd (The Candyman) reprised his role as the creepy William Bludworth, as the Candyman horror series are one of my favourite.

THE EXTRAS

Special features included on this DVD are:Beyond the Movie: The Terror Gauge, Cheating Death - Beyond and Back DocumentaryFilm Maker Commentary: Director David Ellis, Producer Craig Perry and Screenwriters Eric Bess and J. Mackye GruberBits and Pieces: Bringing to Life DocumentaryDeleted/Alternate Scenes

CONCLUSION

A great no-brainer of a movie - about a GROUP of people attempting to cheat Death and he’s out to get these people in a big way. Be prepared for a lot of gory death scenes and loud car crashes and explosions and fire. A great film if you’re in the mood for some senseless violence and cringe-worthy gore.