- Directed by James Wong
- Written by Glen Morgan, James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick
- Stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ectjqGg92M8
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one is more of the same, only with different specifics. A vision before a disaster saves some people who were meant to die, and then death comes after them. The deaths are even more Rube Goldberg, and suspenseful and creative, this time around. The acting and direction gets the job done, the effects are good. If you’re a fan of the previous films, you’ll probably enjoy this one too.
Spoilery Synopsis
We see footage of a carnival as credits roll. When that’s done, we cut to a bunch of people on a high-drop ride. Wendy takes a photo, where the ride is “High Dive,” the photo shows “High Die,” with the V gone dark. Wendy, Kevin, Jason, and Carrie are having fun, and Wendy is also taking photos for the school yearbook. The group decides to ride a roller coaster with a talking devil on it. Wendy’s weirded out about it, and they all argue about where to sit. A weirdo, Frankie, wants to sit behind a couple of hot girls and takes Wendy’s seat. She and Kevin end up sitting in the very last car.
We cut to a hydraulic leak somewhere on the ride. They ride up to the top hill and let loose; Yep, it’s a roller coaster! Frankie drops his camera, which breaks something, and the whole coaster starts coming apart. Everyone dies.
We flash back to everyone getting on the coaster. Wendy says, “We have to get off here. It’s gonna crash!” This results in a fistfight, and most of the characters get off. The ones remaining ride the coaster… and die.
Some time later, Wendy looks at a memorial to the dead students. Kevin tells her about the people in the first movie; there was a death-avoiding premonition then, too. It does sound like her situation. Wendy isn’t listening.
The two girls who should have been in the front of the coaster go to the tanning salon (remember those?). The attendant is really busy and lets them self-serve. We see that the shelving unit is loose, the attendant gets locked out, there’s a high voltage sign: this place is a deathtrap. One thing leads to another, and they get trapped inside the tanning pods. They burn to death before the attendant can get back inside.
Wendy tells Kevin that she feels that Death is following her; she can feel it. She admits that she’s looked up Flight 180, and now she believes the group is doomed. The kids should die in the same order in real life as they did in Wendy’s vision, so Frankie Sheets should be next. There’s another whole thing involving out of control trucks and a slow drive-in window. Wendy and Kevin avoid death, but Frankie, in the car ahead of them, doesn’t. Wendy’s photos give tell how people are going to die, but only vaguely.
Kevin and Wendy go to see Lewis, who’s working out in the gym. Wendy tries to see a pattern in the photos, but there are just too many ways to die in this place to narrow it down. He works on a machine directly under a pair of sharp-looking display swords. The swords fall, and don’t do what they all expect, but he dies anyway.
We cut to Ian, who is shooting pigeons at the hardware store with a nail gun while standing on a forklift. Erin lets in Wendy and Kevin. They think Ian and Erin are next, but they are skeptical. The forklift gets caught in a chain, there’s glue, wind chimes, antifreeze, saw blades, and power tools, oh my. Well, stuff happens. Erin gets nailed and Ian lives… for now, but he shouldn’t have lived. And he’s very suspicious of Wendy now.
Wendy’s sister Julie was next on the roller coaster. Amber and Perry were probably with her. Wendy goes after her to the centennial celebration, where Kevin is working security. A cannonball rolls downhill, messing with a trailer support. As the fireworks start to launch, the trailer they’re on starts rocking. A horse goes berserk and ends up nearly killing Julie. We soon figure out who was sitting next to Jule on the coaster– ouch!
Kevin almost gets burned alive but Wendy pulls him away at the last minute. Ian walks through the party, and Wendy thinks he’s involved with her death. He mocks Wendy and says he’s beaten death and completely safe. He’s… not immune.
Five months later, Wendy’s in the big city. She hears a song, sees a number, and wonders if it’s all over for her. She wants off the subway, right now. She runs into Julie and doesn’t get off as she wanted. She finds Kevin on the train as well. All three of them “beat” death– or did they? As the subway train crashes, we see that no one beats Death. And we wonder why it took five months.
Wendy reverts back to just before the accident. It was another vision and it’s happening again!
Brian’s Commentary
We’re both pretty sure we’d not seen this one before. No one from the previous two films are in this one, so it’s a whole new start. The deaths in this one are the whole point of the film, and they are more Rube Goldbergy than ever. You know who’s going to die next, but the various clues and hints as to how are often red herrings.
It’s well made with good special effects and very creative deaths. If you’re a fan of the series, this is pretty much just like the others, more of the same.
Kevin’s Commentary
I had seen a clip of the opening chaos scene before, and the rest was new to me. This one did seem to have more of a focus on the death scenes, which were a bit more elaborate and involved this time around. We knew someone was going to die, but exactly who and how wasn’t made clear until the resolution. I thought this was a worthy sequel, as entertaining as the previous two.