Final Destination 2 (2003) – A Horror Movie Review a Day Halloween 2025 - October 2nd
Welcome to Knockout Horror. It’s the second of October and we are back with another entry into our Spooky Month horror-movie-a-day review marathon. Today, we are checking out a splatter-horror modern classic in the form of Final Destination 2. I reviewed the first Final Destination as part of my 2024 31 Days of Halloween so this was a bit of an obvious choice.
Two Decades of Cheating Death
Honestly, I am kind of astonished that the Final Destination franchise is still gracing us with its presence over two decades after it first hit our screens. I still remember heading to the cinema to watch the first movie all those years ago. If you would have told me back then that I would be still talking about new iterations 25 years from now, I would have laughed my arse off.
The even crazier thing is that Bloodlines was, legitimately, the best entry yet. The series has almost always been met with a lukewarm critical response. Hell, it’s even been completely panned on at least one occasion – four is sitting at a lowly 28% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes. The fact that we all still look forward to these movies and still talk about them to this day is a testament to its genuinely enduring formula.
Final Destination 2 follows the same premise as its predecessor. A young woman, Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook), on a road trip with her friends suddenly has a premonition of a horrible pile up involving herself and numerous other people. Startled, she refuses to join traffic, only for the event she saw in her mind to actually take place. Thinking she has narrowly escaped a horrifying fate, it soon becomes clear that she will have to work a little harder if she wants to truly escape death’s design.
Refining a Killer Formula
It’s the same formula as the first movie and that’s where the series’ strength lies. It’s as if Final Destination was training the audience to appreciate, understand, and thoroughly buy into its very specific brand of horror. A character has a premonition of a horrible accident. Said accident happens in as dramatic a fashion as possible. Character escapes death only to spend the rest of the movie narrowly avoiding close brushes with an early demise.
It just works so well. You don’t have to think too hard about what’s going on, there are plenty of opportunities for laughs, and the setup allows for the creators to get as gruesome as want when it comes to kills. This is proper laugh out loud, popcorn cinema and I love it. Final Destination 2, basically, refines the very things that made the first movie so much fun. That all starts with a far more impressive opening event.
The highway pileup is absolutely iconic. Don’t even dare to pretend that you can drive behind a log truck without thinking about Officer Burke’s (Michael Landes) horrifying fate in Kimberly’s premonition. It’s impossible! This is a properly old fashioned stunt sequence. Featuring a mix of practical effects, car flipping, and some believable visual effects flair.
Whereas the plane crash in the previous movie felt understated, the highway pileup sets a high benchmark that the series would struggle to follow. Hell, it might be among one of the better disaster scenes in all of horror history. I wouldn’t say that the movie is all downhill from there. With that being said, Final Destination 2 feels, in many ways, like a far more restrained affair.
A New Director, A New Design for Death
James Wong handed over the directorial mantle to David R. Ellis for this entry into the series. The pair would then yo-yo the subsequent movies back and forth a few times. Wong helmed the third film in the series before Ellis returned for number four. Ellis seems to have a penchant for Rube Goldberg-style kills that are understated rather than over the top. He also seems to prefer allowing death to have its way with random objects. Manipulating them to aid in its ultimate goal of increasing its kill count.
There’s a sense of plausibility to some of the kills here, while others are only possible due to supernatural shenanigans. Many of them feel quite lowkey and a bit less inventive than the first movie. Setups are, often, designed purely to subvert expectation. Meaning that when the axe actually falls, it’s slightly less exciting than you initially thought.
It’s not a bad thing, it’s just different. I occasionally got the sense that most of the budget was spent up after that pileup scene. Go big or go home, right? This is still a thoroughly entertaining film, though. The kills are a lot of fun, a couple will probably shock you, and the laughs come thick and fast. At least one of the “accidents” here deserves to be very high up on a list of best Splatter Horror deaths of all time. Some of the character interactions are pretty comical, too.
A Bloody Good Time, If That’s Your Thing
On the downside, anyone with an aversion to movies that depend heavily on gore and shock factor should give this a miss. Final Destination 2, like its series’ compatriots, is a bloody movie. Ellis aims to shock on a few occasions and packing a mannequin full of meat and claret is sometimes the best way to do just that. If you are looking for considered story telling and in depth character development, boy will you be disappointed. Characters are as shallow as a puddle in the summer.
There are some nice references to the first movie. Fans will enjoy a return appearance from Ali Larter’s Clear Rivers and Tony Todd’s sinister Mr. Bludworth. A few attempts have been made to tie together the movie’s two key disaster events. Whether these land for you depends on your willingness to stretch plausibility. It’s fun, though, and I did enjoy the connections, however vague. The movie can feel a little bit low energy at times, as well. Much of which is down to attempts to develop the story.
Acting from the leads is absolutely fine. Larter came on a lot between the first and second film which is nice to see. Cook is decent in the lead role, too. Some of the side characters aren’t quite so strong. This sort of adds to the charm of the movie, though. Cinematography is fine, special effects are fantastic, and a lot of work has gone into making sure you squirm a little. There aren’t too many things to complain about as long as you go in with your expectations correctly aligned.
Should You Watch Final Destination 2?
If you are looking for some mindless splatter horror fun, Final Destination 2 is a fantastic option. It’s a much better movie than the original and fixes a lot of the problems that film had. The opening disaster is absolutely iconic and probably the best in the entire series. There are enough laughs to keep things light and enough gore to keep genre fans happy. Grab some popcorn and have a great time.
Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight
Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.
A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.
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