Not quite up to the relatively lofty standards of the spooky almost-classic released by New Line Cinema three years ago -- with franchise founders Glen Morgan and James Wong having moved on -- "Final Destination 2" is nonetheless a gory good show for fans of R-rated horror mayhem.

Probably headed for boxoffice grosses a few leagues north of its progenitor, "FD2" is director David R. Ellis' second feature, and it certainly relishes finding inventive ways to kill off its cast, most of whom are marked for personal demises after being caught in a "rift in death's design."

Original writer Jeffrey Reddick is an executive producer on the current film and shares story credit with screenwriters J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress. Also returning are producers Warren Zide and Craig Perry.

Grisly humor -- with an effectively haunting resonance for anyone who has been near a deadly accident or part of a narrow escape from danger -- is the general approach after another elaborate setup. In the first film, it was high school students exiting a doomed jetliner before takeoff based on lead Devon Sawa's premonition. He and fellow coed Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) were the only survivors when "death itself" -- an invisible force entering as a ghostly breeze and often utilizing water -- went about tying up loose ends.

In "FD2," on the first anniversary of the plane crash, it's an apocalyptic freeway pileup that teenage Kimberly (A.J. Cook) sees in a vision and keeps a group of cars from avoiding. While death is not easily thwarted and her friends are wiped out in the ensuing crash, she is saved by a rookie policeman (Michael Landes). They form the core of nine strangers, many of whom initially don't believe Kimberly's warnings that the incident recalls the first film's much-publicized deadly weirdness.

A very happy lottery winner (David Paetkau) is the first to go in an apartment fire that he almost escapes from unscathed. Convinced that she and all the others are soon to be dead meat, Kimberly seeks the help of Rivers, who is voluntarily living in an institution where she can protect herself from any accidents.

Eventually, Rivers and Kimberly rally the group around the time a construction site accident and elevator take out a mother (Lynda Boyd) and her son (James Kirk). The perceived need to keep the premise moving by inserting a complicated red herring results in the survivors trying to track down a pregnant woman (Justina Machado), believing that her successfully giving birth will un-disrupt death and alter their fates.

Alas, a collision on a rural road results in two more unpretty corpses (Keegan Connor Tracy, Jonathan Cherry). The finale occurs in and around a hospital where one terrified customer (T.C. Carson) is toyed with and almost lives to tell about it. Death sure can be fun, but the movie does give one the chills.

As for the performances, Larter and Cook steal the show. Ellis, whose second-unit work is in several recent and upcoming blockbusters, has more success with some of "FD2's" signature sequences than others. This sort of material is supposed to bypass the brain but stop short of being mindless.

The film walks that thin line fairly well.