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Rating: Null/10 (21 March 2003)

Last night, after work, I decided to catch a late showing of FD2, a film I wasn't really sure if I wanted to see to begin with. The first one boasted some pretty nifty death scenes and managed to keep me entertained for most of the running time. Knowing that this was going to be more of the same, I went anyway, glad that Devon Sawa was now out of the picture. Well, it was more of the same, but this time it was done much better, with a lighter (and sickly funny, I might add) tone. True, this one had most of the stuff that has made me hate most of the so-called, half-assed, "horror" movies over the last ten years, but this time it really didn't bother me and I was surprised that I liked most of the characters. What really made this one stand-out to me was the fact that we had a good director who's not afraid to show us some gore. No fake outs or camera cut-a-aways here, nope. This one shows it all and gleefully at that. In short, it's not for the squeamish.

Now, the plot paralells the first film to a tee, but what I really liked was how it tied each of the main characters to those poor souls in the original. It was a pretty cool idea and it was pulled off convincingly. Tony Todd shows up again as the mortician and I'm not really sure what his purpose is supposed to be, other than to be ambiguous and aggravate the hell out of me. Now it may just be my feeble mind, but I have yet to figure out his character and how he's supposed to know all of this stuff about death. Please, on the next one, let's have a little bit of background info on him.

The death scenes here are something to behold. Yes, some may complain that they are too elaborate and blah blah. Yes, they're elaborate, but that's what makes them fun. I won't spoil anything for you. Too many people have mentioned the opening highway scene already, so I'm not going there, but I will admit that it was pretty damn unsettling and it did cross my mind more than once on the way home. brrr.
If you liked the first, you've probably already seen it. If you didn't like the first, see it anyway. The ending is something else, I can tell ya that....hehehe