Summary
- Urban Legend is a classic slasher with creative kills based on deadly urban legends.
- Happy Death Day is a self-aware Groundhog Day-style slasher with ironic foreshadowing.
- Stay Alive is a mid-2000s teen horror soaked in gamer culture and nods to Final Destination.
The Final Destination series turns 25 this year, and after a 14-year hiatus, horror fans can finally watch a new set of characters try to escape Death's design in Final Destination: Bloodlines.
Final Destination: Every Movie, Ranked
The Final Destination series is home to some truly terrifying flicks, but some are arguably better than others. Here's how they compare.
With its chilling premonitions and everyday moments twisted into intricate death traps, James Wong's iconic horror franchise created a stand-out formula within the genre. Fortunately, it's not the only film series that features elaborate death scenes, a looming unseen threat, and a fate-driven narrative. Here are the best horror movies like Final Destination that fans need to watch.
10 Urban Legend
A Nostalgic Slasher With Creative Kills And A Folklore Mystery
Urban Legend
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- September 25, 1998
- Runtime
- 99 Minutes
- Director
- Jamie Blanks
Urban Legend is a classic whodunnit teen slasher flick where a killer stalks a college campus, enacting gruesome kills based on various deadly urban legends.
The film scored two sequels, and fans will find the same ironic soundtrack and darkly playful kills that define Final Destination across the series. Urban Legend: Bloody Mary even swapped the slasher for a supernatural threat and features a tanning salon death reminiscent of Final Destination 3, despite predating it by a year.
9 Happy Death Day
A Stylish, Self-Aware Groundhog Day-Style Slasher
Happy Death Day
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- October 13, 2017
- Runtime
- 96 minutes
- Director
- Christopher Landon
A slasher with a time-loop twist, Happy Death Day follows a college student who is murdered on her birthday and forced to relive it repeatedly until she solves her murder.
Morbidly funny, Happy Death Day is as serious as its title. Packed with ironic foreshadowing that evokes Final Destination's signature Easter eggs, it's a clever but light-hearted horror. With an upbeat energy, bursts of violence that keep its repetitive premise fresh, and a standout mean-girl heroine, Happy Death Day is a solid addition to the 'cheating-death' horror canon.
8 Stay Alive
A Supernatural Horror Soaked In Early 2000s Gamer Culture
Stay Alive
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end- Release Date
- March 24, 2006
Stay Alive fully embraces its cheesy premise of a haunted video game where "if you die in the game, you die for real." Wearing its nods to Final Destination on its sleeve, the opening scene warns its cast of misfit gamers that they are "marked for death." What follows is a series of inventive fake-outs and inescapable deaths, with each character dying in a way that mirrors their in-game demise.
Stay Alive is a mid-2000s teen horror with all the trimmings, complete with a nail-gun-wielding goth girl ripped straight from Final Destination 3.
7 Escape Room
A Suspenseful 'No-Way Out' Popcorn Horror
Escape Room
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- January 4, 2019
- Runtime
- 100 minutes
- Director
- Adam Robitel
Swapping the opening disaster sequence for a deadly puzzle room, Final Destination meets Saw in Escape Room. In this movie, a group of strangers attend an escape room that turns lethal, forcing them to solve high-stakes puzzles to survive.
The fast-paced, twisty horror offers inventive visual set-pieces and thoughtfully diverse puzzle rooms. While it lacks gore, Escape Room keeps audiences hooked with its genuinely mounting suspense as the players try to navigate its fiendishly elaborate traps.
6 Countdown
An Entertaining PG-13 Techno-Horror
Countdown
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- October 24, 2019
- Runtime
- 90 Minutes
- Director
- Justin Dec
Countdown follows a group of college students who find themselves trying to escape fate after they discover a cursed app that predicts when they will die, triggering a string of bloody deaths.
While genre fans may feel techno-horror fatigue, Countdown knows what its PG-13 audience wants: jump scares, fun death scenes, and just enough tension to keep them hooked. With its own set of rules and looming ticking clock of fate, Countdown plays like a tamer, smartphone-based Final Destination.
5 Truth Or Dare
An Undeniably Silly And Fun PG-13 Horror Flick
Truth or Dare
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- April 13, 2018
- Runtime
- 100 Minutes
- Director
- Jeff Wadlow
Another race against time to beat a mythical curse, Blumhouse's Truth or Dare puts a sinister spin on the titular familiar party game. When a group of twenty-something friends play a demonic version of truth or dare, they’re forced to either reveal their deepest secrets, complete increasingly dangerous dares, or die.
What follows is a fast-paced, undeniably absurd watch with creepy smiles and creative kills. It's a twisty plot driven by the death-defying structure that fans of Final Destination live for.
4 The Monkey
A Devilishly Playful Horror Comedy Full Of Exaggerated Violence
The Monkey
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- February 21, 2025
Based on Stephen King's short story, Osgood Perkins' The Monkey follows twin brothers, Hal and Bill, who discover a cursed toy monkey and unleash a cascade of carnage that spans 25 years.
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The vivid, horror-filled ride thrives off its ridiculous kill scenes, which are delivered with wicked humor and drenched in gore. While it lacks the atmospheric dread of Final Destination, its kill variety makes it a high-energy companion piece and a satisfying choice for those craving more comically over-the-top horror.
3 Thanksgiving
A Campy And Gory Festive Slasher
Thanksgiving
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- November 17, 2023
WHERE TO WATCH
Eli Roth carves out aggressively creative deaths in his festive horror Thanksgiving. The movie opens with a Black Friday massacre, which could easily feature in a Final Destination installment, before becoming a gory whodunnit slasher as the townsfolk are hunted by a vengeful killer.
Filled to the brim with impressively sadistic kills, including the creative use of a trampoline and, of course, an oven, Thanksgiving is a slick and delightfully gory seasonal slasher film that could easily spawn a bigger franchise.
2 One Missed Call
A Chilling And Dread-Inducing J-Horror
One Missed Call
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- January 17, 2004
WHERE TO WATCH
Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call takes the cursed tech concept of Ringu and replaces the VHS tape with a cell phone, as a circle of friends receives disturbing voicemails from their future selves, capturing the moment of their death.
The unnerving atmosphere and fatalistic horror recall the serious tone of the first Final Destination movie, while the imaginative death scenes carry the franchise's same flair. It's a hidden gem with some memorable and effective scares that its American remake failed to recreate.
1 Wish Upon
A Schlocky Teen Horror Flick With Final Destination-Style Kills
Wish Upon
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- July 7, 2017
WHERE TO WATCH
For fans who are looking for a PG-13 riff on Final Destination, Wish Upon delivers. In this movie, a mysterious magic box grants a teenage girl seven wishes, each coming at a deadly cost.
Wish Upon is a flawed but entertaining 'so-bad-it’s-good' teen horror, and for those who can have fun with its outdated dialogue and gimmicky premise, the memorable kills make it well worth the watch. Packed with outrageous deaths sparked by everyday objects, including garbage disposals, bathtubs, and elevators, Final Destination fans will feel right at home.
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These often-overlooked PG-13 horror gems prove that a good movie doesn’t need R-rated gore and bloody violence to make the viewers lose their sleep.