Whoa, this film is a laugh riot! I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be funny, but damn if I wasn’t laughing my ass of all through this film. Whilst the first film was a pretty decent horror film that put a big enough spin on the teen horror genre to be fresh, the sequel just goes out of it’s way to be as silly, gory and inventive as possible with it’s kills. You really can’t take this film seriously as a horror film as it isn’t in any way scary, not even slightly.

Well, maybe that’s not strictly true. The opening scene involving the build up to, and the pile up itself are handled extremely well and generate a good amount of tension. You know the muck is going to hit the fan and it’s pretty nail biting stuff watching the set-up. There’s the guy drinking in a truck, the pregnant driver, the bus full of drunken football players, amongst other likely candidates for doom. Something is going to happen, something bad and when it does, wow, it’s very impressive.

Director David R. Ellis does this all through the movie with the various kills. He shows all the components that may (or may not) make up the death. It’s a heck of a lot of fun to sit and take it all in and try and guess how the character is going to meet his maker. More often than not you will never be able to figure it out as the kills are incredibly inventive. And when death drops his scythe you are more likely to be in fits of laughter at the ridiculousness of the kill than ducking for cover in fear.

The death scenes are also incredibly gory. I really cannot believe that this film was passed as a 15 certificate; I had it pegged as an 18 all the way. It’s probably to do with the fantastical nature of the deaths, if they were a touch more realistic no doubt the film would have garnered a higher rating. Maybe it’s because I was raised on a steady diet of Freddy and Jason, but this kind of gory horror doesn’t frighten me at all, I’m more likely to be scared by something like ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or ‘My Little Eye’.

As I said Ellis’ direction is pretty tight and I would reckon that given better material to work with that he could make a pretty decent flick. But, the script here is beyond woeful and is as unintentionally funny as the gore on the screen. When you have lines like, “If Clear was right that means Nora and Tim are going to be killed by pigeons!” you know you aren’t watching a Shakespeare adaptation. It should also be noted that the scene when they connect the sequel’s events to the first films is the most ludicrous thing that I have seen on screen for a long, long time.

The only way to spurt out dialogue like that and not look like a moron is to ham it up and boy, do the cast ham it up. All the major players take themselves less than seriously and this adds to the campy nature of the film and the overall fun factor. The cast are all much of a much with nobody really impressing, but it’s always nice to see genre stalwart Tony ‘Candyman’ Todd in a horror flick.