When 2000’s Final Destination became a pretty solid box office hit, a sequel seemed inevitable. Burgeoning horror franchises usually strike while the iron is hot and crank out sequels virtually immediately.

However, fans needed to wait a surprisingly long three years for 2003’s Final Destination 2. This didn’t seem to damage the movie’s commercial prospects, as Destination 2 did well and spawned three more sequels through 2011 along with a 2025 reboot.

On the way to a rowdy Daytona Beach vacation with her friends, Kimberly Conrad (AJ Cook) experiences a supernatural vision of a horrible highway accident that results in multiple fatalities.

This eventually occurs, but not before Kimberly manages to steer some of the potential fatalities from their fate. However, Death won’t be denied and that malevolent force comes after these “survivors”.

In other words, we get basically the same plot as the first movie. Someone has a premonition of a tragedy, tries to prevent it and finds out Death doesn’t give up that easily.

As with most horror franchises, narrative and characters seem largely superfluous. Instead, viewers come back to experience the new and creative methods the filmmakers’ use to kill and maim.

Director David Ellis toys with the audience with each and every gruesome death. Although we know who’s going to get it, the when and how parts are hard to figure out and are actually enjoyable to see.

For example, in the first death, one of the “lucky” survivors gets his hand stuck in a garbage disposal. Then, his fishsticks catch on fire in the frying pan and his microwave starts shooting out sparks.

Which one of these three elements will be his demise? None it seems, as he frees his hand and escapes the confines of his fiery apartment.

But then mere moments later, Death comes calling in a most gruesome way. Ellis does a great job of letting us think we know who’s going to expire next and how, but he always seems to come up with something much more shocking and grisly than we could have ever imagined.

The sequel is much campier than the original and it doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is. That’s definitely a good thing and it makes Final Destination 2 much more enjoyable.

Rather than treat it seriously, the film doesn’t mind having fun with its own premise. It’s a gory good time and Final Destination 2 delivers the goods.

Final Destination 2 appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Despite some inconsistencies, the image usually worked well.

In general, sharpness looked positive. Occasional instances of softness materialized but most of the film seemed reasonably accurate.

I saw no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and the movie lacked edge haloes. Grain seemed light and the flick showed no print flaws.

The palette of Destination 2 leaned natural overall, with some more stylized reds apparent sporadically. While the colors didn’t dazzle, they felt appropriately rendered as a whole.

Blacks seemed acceptably deep – albeit slightly inky at times – and shadows offered positive delineation. Nothing here excelled but the presentation held up fine.

In the same vein, the movie’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack felt good but not great. We found a soundscape that popped to life mainly during the action/horror sequences.

As such, we got a mix heavy on ambience and creepy atmosphere that kicked into gear on limited occasions. Still, those moments added real punch and the rest of the soundfield suited the story.

Audio quality remained positive, with music that felt bright and full. Effects offered appealing range and clarity as well.

Dialogue always came across as natural and concise. Due to a mostly limited scope, this didn’t wind up as a consistently impressive track, but it did what it needed to do.

As we move to extras, we launch with an audio commentary from director David Ellis, producer Craig Perry and screenwriters Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. All four sit together for this running, screen-specific take on the development of the sequel, story/characters, cast and performances, stunts, various effects, editing/cut scenes and related domains.

Expect a pretty strong commentary here, as the participants keep things brisk and entertaining. They hit on all the appropriate subjects and turn this into an informative little track.

Three featurettes ensue, and The Terror Gauge goes for 14 minutes, one second. It shows a “scientific experiment” to show how horror movies impact brain functioning conducted by neurofeedback specialist Dr. Victoria Ibric with some young volunteers.

This reel gives us the shocking revelation that scary films make people scared. “Gauge” seems like an interesting idea but it presents nothing genuinely interesting.

Cheating Death spans 18 minutes, eight seconds. It features information from emergency room physician Dr. Robert Brumblay, researcher/author PMH Atwater, retired Army Colonel Diane Corcoran, “experiencers” Suzaane Boehm and Linda Reiker Jacquin and “Changing the Face of Death” founder Nadia McCaffrey.

The show looks at near death experiences. It feels like an overwrought stab at pseudo-science.

Finally, Bits and Pieces lasts 30 minutes, 30 seconds. This one comes with remarks from Bress, Ellis, Perry, film historian David Del Valle, journalist Drew McWeeny, filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis, visual effects coordinator Joe Conmy, editor Eric Sears, visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer, stunt coordinator Freddie Hice, Digital Dimension president Benoit Girard, special makeup effects artist Bill Terezakis, and actors Lynda Boyd, Keegan Connor Tracy, Jonathan Cherry and TC Carson.

“Pieces” gives us an overview of the “splatter film” genre as well as aspects of the Destination 2 production. The program turns into a pretty solid take on these topics.

Two music videos appear. We get “Middle of Nowhere” from the Blank Theory and “Seven Days a Week” from the Sounds.

Though mainly a lip-synch performance reel, “Nowhere” attempts flashes of a Final Destination-style story. It manifests these too inconsistently for these components to add up to much.

“Week” attempts nothing more than the usual mimed band show. However, it’s energetic, the song’s pretty good, and the singer is sexy so that’s good enough for me.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find five Deleted/Alternate Scenes. These occupy a total of 10 minutes, 18 seconds.

The added materially offers a bit more exposition and not much else. None of them would’ve been necessary in the final film.

We can watch the scenes with or without commentary from the same crew who did the feature discussion.

Though its story and development doesn’t stray far from where it predecessor went, Final Destination 2 still manages the gore and creative kills its fans want. This makes it less than original but still satisfying for those with a taste for this kind of material. The Blu-ray comes with largely positive picture and audio as well as a moderate array of supplements. Destination 2 should keep the franchise’s aficionados happy.