The writer/director/thief of NMLTROR "borrowed" heavily from I-had-no-clue-I-wuz-snuffed movies like "Stay", "Identity" "Dead End", "Point Blank", "The Sixth Sense", "The Others", "Carnival of Souls" but also the "Final Destination" series when he made the first movie, so it's no wonder that this prequel runs into the same kind of trouble as all the "Final Destination" sequels did: we already know the outcome. The main characters all dead i.e. dying. The whole it-was-all-a-dream shtick dates back all the way back to "The Wizard of Oz", so indirectly even that movie is one of the dozens of films that served as "inspiration" (i.e. source of thievery). Basically what I'm saying is, if you're looking for originality here, just forget it. But if you're a horror film fan, you must have already given up on that anyway. (You need to watch between 50 to 100 horror films before you find one that contains some new idea.)
Admittedly, effort was made if not exactly to circumvent this problem than at least to make the movie as unpredictable as possible – within its predictable and limiting parameters. Hence the ending with two actual survivors this time around, plus the fact that Reeker actually gets killed. It's interesting though that the director lets the new sheriff survive, of all people. Isn't this the same guy who told us that he gets horny when he watches dolphins mate? Was the director trying to tell us something about himself, perhaps? Hm.
But then comes the next unoriginal plot-twist i.e. premise-theft: new blood has been sought out by Evil to be trained as a serial-killer and then later as Reeker's replacement. Something tells me we've already had that idea in the supremely idiotic "Saw" series. Having a kid become a new killer is pretty daft. When is Reeker 3 going to be recruited, when he is 3 months old?
In a strange way, the writer/director/thief HAS managed to create a first in cinema, although perhaps unintentionally. Namely, "Reeker" features Reeker 2 (i.e. this movie's kid), while "Reeker 2" aka NMLTROR features Reeker 1, the original Reeker. I don't think we've had that before. But because this is a prequel, it could be argued that this is "Reeker 0". Does this make sense to you? NMLTROR is a rather silly horror film, with several inane reactions by the characters, and even dumber dialog, and yet it is an improvement over the first part, which was even less original and kind of dull.