After fourteen years away, the Final Destination franchise is back with Final Destination: Bloodlines. Our review called it “An infectiously entertaining return” and the film is one of the best, in what is potentially the most consistent series within horror. Each film begins with someone experiencing a premonition of a disaster, freaking out and saving some of those around them. Their survival is short lived however, as Death, not taking kindly to being cheated, begins stalking them one by one. The deaths are elaborate and extravagant, and have easily been responsible for unlocking new terrors in its audience.
It is this talent that has seen Final Destination maintain its fear factor, but while the intricately constructed slayings are nightmarish, it is the inciting incidents that really get under the skin. From broken roller coasters and motorway pile ups, to collapsing cinemas and bridges, these opening tragedies have become iconic. But which one is the worst? We’ve delved into the series to find out.
8. Cinema – The Final Destination
The Final Destination was released during the 3D craze and did as much as it possibly could to make the audience feel as though they were part of the film. This meant an over reliance on gimmicks that popped out of the screen, but then during the final act, The Final Destination changed tact. Typically the Final Destination movies only have one big disaster, but the fourth film decided to add in a second one with hopes of making the audience scared where they sat – in the cinema.
Believing that they have cheated Death once more, survivours Nick, Lori and Janet return to normality. Lori and Janet visit the mall to do some shopping and catch a movie, but as they settle in, Nick has a vision of the movie theatre collapsing and races across town to save his girlfriend and her best friend. Sadly this premonition is far too gimmicky and serves only to drag out the runtime. A second tragedy was fun in concept, but sadly in reality is lacking the umph it required.
7. Speedway Crash – The Final Destination
The fourth film in the series, The Final Destination, is often viewed by many as the worst in the series. Part of its failure is its repeated use of cheap 3D tricks to try and scare the audience, but the other rests with its opening incident..Just like the cinema collapse that comes later, there is something about the crash at the speedway rally that doesn’t fully land. Perhaps the decision to feature two premonitions diluted both of their potency.
The disaster that Nick witnesses is graphic and bloody enough to entertain, but when placed alongside others from the series, fails to invade the psyche in the same way. It is interesting that both of the events in The Final Destination feature an audience as its victims, and that they are spectators to the accident rather than being directly involved, causing a disconnect.
6. Suspension Bridge – Final Destination 5
Although Final Destination 5 has some of the best deaths in the series – gymnastics and laser eye surgery anyone? – the opening catastrophe doesn’t stand out. Wannabe chef, Sam, sets out on a corporation away day, only to witness the destruction of the bridge that they are travelling on. In his vision all of his colleagues suffer a variety of grim injuries, from falling to their deaths, being squished, or impaled. It is a solid death sequence, but one that feels too close to that already seen in Final Destination 2. It seems that after the disappointing reception to The Final Destination, the team wanted to get back to safe ground. But in doing so they just created a muted echo of what had come before.
5. Train Derailment – Final Destination 3
The Final Destination wasn’t the only film in the series to make the leap from one to two premonitions, Final Destination 3 also utilized the trick. The outcome here is marginally better than what followed in the fourth film, primarily due to it being a short add-on rather than full act. A common occurrence across the franchise is that survivors find themselves in Death’s path once more, though in both Final Destination and Final Destination 2, the outcome remained vague. For the third film, the audience got a fully fledged premonition, rather than warning sign, featuring a subway train derailing just as Wendy thought her nightmare was over. It’s an action-packed adrenaline jolt that serves to leave the audience on a high, and is certainly a factor in the third film being a popular entry.
4. Highway Pile Up – Final Destination 2
Featuring Final Destination 2’s opening multi-car pile up smack bang in the middle of premonition rankings, will likely be seen as sacrilege to some. This is because, of all the opening death sequences, the one featured in this film has one of the most iconic images in the franchise’s history – the truck loaded with logs. The image has been seared into the memory of an entire generation of movie watchers, but other than the carnage that it creates, the rest of the pile up is a little vanilla. As with Final Destination, the magic in Final Destination 2’s opening comes from its realism. Car accidents occur daily across the world and Final Destination 2 is a horrifying rendering of real world tragedy, but needs more log truck-like moments to bump itself up the list.
3. Restaurant Destruction – Final Destination: Bloodlines
The latest entry into the Final Destination series is not for the faint of heart. The opening premonition triggers a variety of new nightmares as a series of events unfold, causing maximum catastrophe, as a brand new sky high restaurant collapses during its opening event. What makes this premonition so intense is that it forms a significant portion of the first hour of Final Destination: Bloodlines.
This extended time allows directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky to really ratchet up the tension, constantly leaving the audience guessing when the disaster will kick off. Once triggered, the destruction is of a level never witnessed before in the series as the event progressively gets worse and worse. It is grim, gory, and the definition of a thrill ride. It is very much not a sequence for those afraid of heights, though whether it will make people afraid to dine out remains to be seen.
2. Rollercoaster – Final Destination 3
Final Destination 3 is viewed by many as being one of the best films within the series, and it is the demise of rollercoaster Devil’s Flight that is responsible for this. Yes, the sun tan death in epic, and the nail gun to the face gnarly, but watching a fairground attraction fracture into pieces is harrowing. No matter how many safety checks are done, there is something about rollercoasters that never feels 100% secure. We’ve all had that sinking pit in the stomach sensation as we sit down on a coaster. Is the safety bar secure enough? What if I fall out? And the big one – what if the ride breaks down?
The third Final Destination film answered all of those questions in horribly graphic fashion, fueling those already suffering with aversions to fun fair rides, whilst even managing to make the most seasoned rider think twice.
1. The Crash of Flight 180 – Final Destination
Try as they might, no Final Destination premonition has bested that seen in the original movie. Flying is statistically the safest way to travel, and yet a fear of flying is a very common phobia. As such, seeing Flight 180 get pulled apart shortly after takeoff was unsettling to watch and has inadvertently caused even more people to become afraid of travelling by plane. The detail is truly horrifying and even though it is less gory than the films that followed, the impact of the crash is far greater.
One of the reasons why this premonition is still the best all these years later is that it is the original. This is the film that created the formula and those witnessing the plane crash for the first time in the cinema twenty-five years ago, like Alex, thought that it was real. The success of this first premonition made it the mainstay of the series and without it there likely would not be this list. Sometimes there is simply no beating the original.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is in cinemas now.
