Summary
- The Final Destination franchise plays with innovative death ideas, distinguishing itself in the crowded slasher genre.
- Final Destination 5 excels by focusing on new characters, retaining the series' dread, and tying the narrative together.
- The original Final Destination sets up a killer premise by innovating within the slasher formula, but subsequent entries lost impact.
One thing that defines a great slasher flick is the actual context of the kills, the way the filmmakers play with and subvert audience expectations to create a sense of dread and unease that permeates throughout. Going into any horror film, it's a safe assumption that most if not all the characters will die. And as G.I. Joe said, knowing is half the battle. Audiences are less invested emotionally because they know what's coming; the contextualizing is almost like a nod to this understood truth and a reminder that danger lurks around every corner. Sadly, this is often lost in gore and jump scares, leading to a slew of unspectacular entries that have marred the overall quality of the genre for casual audiences.
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Final Destination dialed this concept up to ten, allowing it to stand out in a crowded field and spawn a successful franchise. The series has seen some diminishing returns, but it remains a modern classic. With Final Destination: Bloodlines reminding fans that death is still lurking, now is a great time to either get acquainted with the series for the first time or prepare for a rewatch.
Spoiler Alert: For anyone looking to jump into the Final Destination franchise for the first time, some plot details will be discussed below.
5 The Final Destination
New But Shallow Dimensions
The Final Destination
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- August 28, 2009
- Runtime
- 82 minutes
- Director
- David R. Ellis
- Cast
- Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb, Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella, Justin Welborn, Stephanie Honoré, Lara Grice, Jackson Walker, Phil Austin, William Aguillard, Brendan Aguillard, Monique Detraz, Chris Fry, Tina Parker, Cecile Monteyne, Dane Rhodes, Gabrielle Chapin, Harold Evans, Curtis Akin, Eric Paulsen, Dennis Nguyen, Jedda Jones
The Final Destination was unfortunately released during the 3D boom of the late noughties, an irresistible feature for many film studios but something the slasher genre was almost uniquely susceptible to. Piranha 3D, My Bloody Valentine 3D, and Saw 3D were all released within a year because of a gimmick that quickly became played out and elevated zero franchises.
In practice, it was just an excuse to have things flung directly at the camera with exhausting regularity, all plot and substance be damned. The Final Destination did not buck this trend. Adding to the fact that the series follows a very linear path, with creative ways to die being what sets each sequel apart, meant that the formula was starting to feel pretty tired at this point as well. There are a couple of fun death scenes, but with nothing new to add and chasing trends, The Final Destination marked quite a low point for the series.
4 Final Destination 3
A Rollercoaster Of Emotions
Final Destination 3
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- February 10, 2006
- Runtime
- 92 minutes
- Director
- James Wong
- Cast
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche, Alexz Johnson, Sam Easton, Jesse Moss, Gina Holden, Texas Battle, Chelan Simmons, Amanda Crew, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Tony Todd, Ecstasia Sanders, Jody Racicot, Patrick Gallagher, Maggie Ma, Jim Shield, Cory Monteith, Dylan Basu, Alberto Ghisi, Stuart Cowan, Harris Allan, Alexandr Kalugin, Nels Lennarson, Jacob Rupp
Final Destination 3 features what may be the most memorably grizzly deaths that the franchise has to offer, which will still make fans shudder when they hear the otherwise jaunty "Love Rollercoaster" by Ohio Players. The film also stars popular scream queen Mary Elizabeth Winstead and sees the return of original director James Wong. However, it does little to further the series despite the star power.
Final Destination 3 clings to the coattails of its popular predecessors with heavy use of previous footage in promotional material and more subtle references throughout. Ultimately, the film does not stand on its own merit, and the general plot reflects that, relying too much on the cliches of the series. It does at least make one of the best uses of the classic twist of characters thinking they've broken the cycle with its ambiguous ending.
3 Final Destination 2
The Original 'Ending'
Final Destination 2
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- January 31, 2003
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- A.J. Cook, Ali Larter, Michael Landes, Terrence T.C. Carson, Jonathan Cherry, keegan connor tracy, Lynda Boyd, James Kirk, Justina Machado, David Paetkau, Tony Todd, Sarah Carter, Alejandro Rae, Shaun Sipos, Andrew Airlie, Noel Fisher, Christina Jastrzembska, Eileen Pedde
- Runtime
- 90 Minutes
- Director
- David R. Ellis
This is the only entry in the series to directly follow on from the previous, after the ambiguous ending of the original left some survivors alive. Final Destination 2 continues the story of Ali Larter's Clear Rivers as she joins up with a group who've experienced the same death-dodging consequences as her.
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The early sequel did not plan for the larger franchise that it spawned, and that helps it feel like a more complete story than most of the entries that followed, as it seeks to tie up loose ends and offer more thrills than the modest first entry. That said, it does suffer from being overly expositional, feeling the need to re-explain the premise and any addendum rules despite the fact it would not be advised to watch it without seeing the original.
2 Final Destination 5
A Refreshing New Take
Final Destination 5
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- August 12, 2011
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Courtney B. Vance, David Koechner, Arlen Escarpeta, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, P.J. Byrne, Ellen Wroe, Tony Todd, Brent Stait, Roman Podhora, Jasmin Dring, Barclay Hope, Chasty Ballesteros, Mike Dopud, Tanya Hubbard, Frank Topol, Tim Fellingham, Blaine Anderson, Dawn Chubai, Ryan Hesp, Andy Nez, Diana Pavlovská, Jodi Balfour
- Runtime
- 91 minutes
- Director
- Steven Quale
It seems impossible, given everything disclosed above, that a fifth entry, shot at the late end of the 3D boom, could somehow excel above the others, and yet, it does. The return of William Bludworth, played fittingly by horror icon Tony Todd, allows the movie to drop some quick exposition to catch everybody up without falling into the trap of retreading too much ground.
Allowing the plot to focus more on the new cast of characters and the circumstances of each one's macabre demise, Final Destination 5 feels like both a self-contained and complete narrative. With death sequences that showcase some of the best anguishing dread that the series excels at, horror fans can simply sit back and revel as events unfold. Despite feeling unrelated, Final Destination 5 then does audiences one better by tying the series together with a shocking finale. This entry provided a fitting end for the series, which is likely the reason why it remained on ice for 14 years.
1 Final Destination
A Killer Premise
Final Destination
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- March 17, 2000
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke, Seann William Scott, Chad Donella, Amanda Detmer, Tony Todd, Daniel Roebuck, Roger Guenveur Smith, Brendan Fehr, Forbes Angus, Lisa Marie Caruk, Christine Chatelain, Robert Wisden, Barbara Tyson, Fred Keating, P. Lynn Johnson, Larry Gilman, Guy Fauchon, Randy Stone, Mark Holden, Marrett Green, John Hainsworth, Pete Atherton
- Runtime
- 98 minutes
- Director
- James Wong
Final Destination is not perfect. It is still a shlocky early noughties slasher, but for fans of the subgenre or the wider horror genre in general, it's a must-see movie. The success of slasher films rests on adhering to the formula more than most genres, so it's always refreshing when a movie manages to innovate whilst retaining recognizable traits. And Final Destination achieves that.
Presenting the inevitability of death as the main villain is all too real in terms of horror. The slow burn with which it prods and teases its victims' demise is both unsettling and shocking as the rules are rewritten across the 98-minute runtime. This premise was never as impactful as it was when viewers first learned of it during their initial watch of the movie. The series fell prey to the very thing it so elegantly shimmied around in this first entry, however, and once those rules were broken, fans increasingly knew what to expect. Sticking too closely to its own formula meant that Final Destination could never shock in quite the same way again.
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