Final Destination 2 does one particularly smart thing, and it is a decision that pays enormous creative dividends for this horror sequel. In developing a follow-up to the 2000 original, director David R. Ellis and writers J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress worked out the parts that worked the best as well as the parts that did not. The end result is a film that spends much less time on building portent and narrative, and a lot more on perversely elaborate death sequences. It is a surprisingly sadistic film, but also a remarkably funny one. Does it make the viewers terrible people? Perhaps, but at least they had a better time on this second go around.

Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) has a premonition of a deadly highway pile-up, and her sudden panic at the real event causes a string of people to survive who would otherwise have perished. In the aftermath, a supernatural force works to kill them off one by one anyway, via an elaborate series of coincidences.

There is no denying Final Destination 2 is a better film that its predecessor. It is better shot and paced, and smartly delivers exactly what its target market wants. Whereas only one supernatural murder was particularly elaborate, here every death is plotted, paced, and executed for maximum comedic effect. In this regard it follows a well-worn model adopted by 1980s slasher films – the characters do not exist to have depth or motivation, but rather to be fodder for whatever is killing them one-by-one. One early sequence, in which a big-spending lottery winner gets progressively assaulted by his own kitchen, is a masterful exercise in teasing audience expectations and just continues to develop to an absurd level of complexity.

The cast vary in complexity. There is not a lot for A.J. Cook to do as Kimberly but panic and look earnest. Similarly Michael Landes is let down by his two-dimensional ‘good cop’ character. Thankfully the supporting cast get more interesting work to do, including Keegan Connor Tracy as a brittle business executive and Jonathan Cherry as an already somewhat paranoid stoner. Tony Todd returns as the mysteriously grim undertaker William Bludworth. In keeping with the rest of the film he is much darker and more unpleasant here, and quite inappropriately funny.

One genuinely clever addition to the film is Ali Larter as Clear Rivers, the sole survivor of the original film. Still endless pursued by the forces of death, she has self-admitted herself into a padded hospital room to avoid any and all danger. Her cynicism and bleak demeanour make her a much more interesting character than she previously was, and her unsympathetic reactions to the events around her prime the audience to accept the pitch-black comedy David R. Ellis is aiming for.

Final Destination 2 is a fascinating example of simplifying a film to make it more enjoyable. Ultimately it is difficult to feel that the plot matters, or that the protagonists should survive their ordeal. The first film operated as a straight-forward supernatural thriller. The second film has defined the entire raison d’etre of the franchise going forward.