Myztlee
09-11-2003, 12:26 PM
Very much like the first movie, I started off loving it, then slowly hated it. Main reason (mild spoilers, sort of), the way people start dying off, while insanely intricate, are still "believable", ie nothing directly supernatural happens, the chain of events are all entirely possible, though some clearly done to be spectacular, but no more implausible than say stopping to pick up a penny, which makes someone bump into you, which makes you drop your purse/backpack, which makes you miss the next crossing light, which makes you cross the other way which makes you get run over by the drunk driver that had passed out as he approached the intersection.
I loved some of the setups, you see one thing after another and you just know it's leading to something bigger, waiting for the final "domino" to be in place before the first one is knocked over. You can play "connect the dots" trying to figure out the workings of the contraption before it goes into play, and it always goes one step more.
Some play on some very real fears, ie needles, dentist drills, fire, car crashes, and can make some people really cringe.
Sadly, just like the first movie, the intelligence of the setups starts to fade, and is replaced by the annoying things like objects moving by an invisible force, setups that are just not possible without outside help, all the things that ruined the first movie as well. I know they're trying to show how "death's design" is at work, but if they'd just left it to plausible chain of events, even if improbable, they were still believable and possible. Once things start moving around on their own, I got annoyed and lost my enjoyment for the film.
Of course, it being a movie, all deaths must be spectacular, and some set some new levels for gore. Impressive, but also very "hollywood" - someone hides from "death" by locking themselves in a room where nothing can "go wrong". But if death really wanted to get you, he'd just give you a brain aneurysm or something. Still, that hole aside, overall the movie is a few steps above your average "dumb" horror/slasher movie, and I did still enjoy it as a whole, though not as much as if they'd kept going the way it started off.
Anyway, definitely worth a rental, or get 1 and 2 as a double-header (FD1 is also very entertaining). If you want some good scares and tension and don't mind the occasional spray of blood, these are for you.
I loved some of the setups, you see one thing after another and you just know it's leading to something bigger, waiting for the final "domino" to be in place before the first one is knocked over. You can play "connect the dots" trying to figure out the workings of the contraption before it goes into play, and it always goes one step more.
Some play on some very real fears, ie needles, dentist drills, fire, car crashes, and can make some people really cringe.
Sadly, just like the first movie, the intelligence of the setups starts to fade, and is replaced by the annoying things like objects moving by an invisible force, setups that are just not possible without outside help, all the things that ruined the first movie as well. I know they're trying to show how "death's design" is at work, but if they'd just left it to plausible chain of events, even if improbable, they were still believable and possible. Once things start moving around on their own, I got annoyed and lost my enjoyment for the film.
Of course, it being a movie, all deaths must be spectacular, and some set some new levels for gore. Impressive, but also very "hollywood" - someone hides from "death" by locking themselves in a room where nothing can "go wrong". But if death really wanted to get you, he'd just give you a brain aneurysm or something. Still, that hole aside, overall the movie is a few steps above your average "dumb" horror/slasher movie, and I did still enjoy it as a whole, though not as much as if they'd kept going the way it started off.
Anyway, definitely worth a rental, or get 1 and 2 as a double-header (FD1 is also very entertaining). If you want some good scares and tension and don't mind the occasional spray of blood, these are for you.