Final Destination 2 Review
by David N. Butterworth (dnb AT dca DOT net)February 10th, 2003
FINAL DESTINATION 2
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2003 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
"Final Destination 2" is the latest entry in what I like to call the "inventive
death" genre. This genre--which should not be confused with the "dead teenager"
genre--started, at least for me, in the mid-1970s with "The Omen" trilogy. In those series of films a creepy little kid with a 666 birthmark buried deep in his scalp was born to unassuming but politically connected parents and before
you know it he starts knocking off everyone with whom he comes into contact (yes, he's a *real* son of a jackal, the Antichrist himself!).
The deaths in those movies were certainly inventive. I remember quite vividly David Warner being beheaded by a sheet of plate glass that slid from a truck (set in motion by said devilish spawn, of course), and Patrick Troughton
(playing a priest) being impaled by a toppled church spire, freakish accidents both. And then the death by raven and death by elevator and death by frozen lake sequences in "Damien: Omen II."
"Final Destination 2" is a lot like that. In fact, it's a lot like its predecessor, "Final Destination," a surprise hit with 2000 audiences, hit enough
to spawn a similarly plotted sequel at least. In that film survivors of a plane
crash (they got off the plane before it went down when one of the passengers had a premonition of the disaster) meet with rather grisly ends. Turns out you can't cheat death. Death has a list, you see, and once you're on it, you're
on it.
The specter of flight 180, as it's known, surfaces in "FD2." As the film opens, Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) and three of her friends are heading out on a road trip in Kimberly's hulking red SUV. While waiting in line to enter a freeway, Kimberly has a premonition of a massive and horrific pile-up, so she blocks the traffic and in so doing temporarily cheats death. But the on-ramp
"survivors" soon start dying in mysterious and freakish ways. Turns out Death has a list and once you're on it, you're on it. Will Kimberly survive, and what will be left of her is she does?
The film's opening set piece, a spectacularly staged series of events on an interstate involving multiple passenger vehicles, a motorbike, and an 18-wheeler
hauling logs that culminates in mass, fiery destruction, sets the tone for the rest of the film. You know from the outset you're not going to be spared any in the gore and gross-out departments. The rest of the film strings together the fates of these survivors, cleverly constructing unique if implausible ways of doing them in while Kimberly, Clear Rivers from the original film (safely padded celled up in the local sanatorium for her own safety), and a cute but generic police officer try to figure out how to stop the madness.
There's not a lot more to "FD2" than that. Director David R. Ellis certainly knows how to set up and deliver a shocking scene or two but doesn't spend a whole lot of time or effort in the down times. I myself am getting a bit old for these kind of horror movies--I found myself turning away during many of the critical moments--but if you're into the genre, "Final Destination 2" certainly
gives your stomach a run for its money.
--
David N. Butterworth
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