[cheebacheeba]

I found the first one refreshing, in that it was the first horror film in a while had something INhuman as a "bad guy", I enjoyed final destination for the same reasons, but I can't remember which one came out first just now...
It was sickening and frightening with great atmosphere (the bodybag/burial-shrine scene), the villain pulled off scary pretty well, the revelation about what he was and his methods was pretty damn cool, and, well, you got to see a cop decapitated (The coolness on the axe shit on anything from #2), and best of all, you got to see the creeper run over repeatedly - was anyone able to STOP laughing when this happened?
I also think a small cast worked well for the tense feel of the movie, I thought the phone call and the cat woman scenes were great too.

I loved the first one.
I have to admit, I was dissapointed at how abruptly it ended, but mostly just because I didn't get to see MORE, I was so enjoying that film that when the credits rolled and I realised what the hell was happening, well, a few people turned around to see who had said "aw ...fuck!" I coulda sworn it wasn't all THAT loud...

The second one just didn't have the elements that made me enjoy the first one so much. He just didn't seem as threatening this time around...I mean yeah, he killed them, he just didn't seem to have the same presence.
The cast was a little TOO generic, and pretty damn annoying, this didn't bother me all that much, most of them were, after all, a pleasure to see killed.
I didn't mind the scarecrow scene, and I actually quite liked the way the movie ended, the thought of his reawakening among a potential FAMILY of young people trained to kill him from birth is interesting...
I didn't dislike the second film, it just didn't do for me what the first one did.