Final Destination 2

Sequels to horror movies, by and large, suck. No, honestly. Name me five that are any good.

OK, there's always one. But the truth is that most horror / slasher films rely on a gimmick of sorts: with Halloween it was the indestructible killer, with Nightmare on Elm Street it was the killer that could strike when you slept (causing insomnia in thousands of cowering children the world over). In the case of Scream it was the self-awareness of the principal characters - these were kids in a scary movie who knew they were in a scary movie. And generally what happens is that the gimmick is either flogged to death (metaphorically speaking) in the second / third / fourth / eighth film, quickly squeezing the life (metaphorically speaking) out of the franchise - or it's dumped entirely, leading would-be critics to complain that this new installment "lacks the freshness of the original".

The original Final Destination had the bizarre freak accident as its gimmick. Leaking petrol, soap on the floor of the bath, precariously balanced knives - seemingly innocent household objects led to a series of Tom and Jerry style routines that would almost have been funny if they didn't end so unpleasantly. Expertly staged domestic turmoil led to horrible and macabre deaths - coupled with a few genuinely unpleasant shocks - and the fun lay in working out not only who would be next but just how they would die.

The story of the sequel lies along much of the same lines: Kimberley (A.J. Cook) is on vacation with friends when she experiences an unpleasant premonition of a horrifying (and beautifully crafted) highway accident. Kimberley manages to escape involvement in the accident, but it's clear that she is not going to avoid her fate so easily: one by one the other would-have-been victims start to meet grisly fates. Kimberley gradually realises that there must be a way to stop the chain of events - but how do you cheat death?

This is more than a straight remake, however, and the connections to the plot of the first film are expertly woven into the narrative. Cook makes for a feisty heroine who accepts the supernatural explanation perhaps a little too easily, but we nonetheless care about her and want her to come out of it alive. Although things get a little predictable and the explanation for what's happening is somehow less convincing than it was the first time round, the pacing and sense of constant tension manage to compensate for any plot loopholes.

That said, this is not a picture you'd watch for the story: what we want are more unpleasant and elaborate death scenes, and here the writers have not disappointed. If the first Final Destination seemed rather contrived, the sequel pushes the boat out and gets really silly - the joke, of course, is that you'll follow a number of possible causes of death only to find that the character meets their end in quite a different manner than you'd supposed. If they make for occasionally unsettling viewing (one scene in particular had me squirming in my seat in a way that I haven't done since Dave Brent was doing Dawn's appraisal in The Office) that's all part of the fun - this is not some masked killer on the rampage, this is death-by-rusty-nail.

Through some innovative writing, solid (if shallow) characterisation and a few moments that will require an asbestos-lined stomach, the production team have actually succeeded in making a sequel that (for once) surpasses the original. We're never allowed to forget that this is incredibly contrived, and that's all part of the fun - it doesn't take itself remotely seriously, and neither should we. And all those of you who, like me, have long maintained that pigeons are a public menace - this time we're finally proved right. Wonderful stuff.

(Sunday, 2nd March 2003)