Fourteen years after its last outing, the Final Destination franchise makes a long-overdue return to the big screen with Final Destination Bloodlines: A film to remind you, in case you needed it, that there are far worse things to inherit than a receding hairline.
Final Destination 2 still boast some of the series’ most iconic kills, but the franchise only really landed on its signature, playful groove in later sequels. That irreverent brand of horror is back again in Bloodlines, offering a reminder of how reliable this franchise can be. As we wait patiently and hopefully for further installments, here are 10 movies to watch after Final Destination Bloodlines that capture a similar vibe.
Candyman (1992)
Bloodlines delivered a surprisingly poignant moment with Tony Todd’s last appearance as William Bludworth, the mysterious mortician who knows an awful lot about death. The franchise’s one true recurring character (he featured in all but 2009’s Candyman helped the actor make his name—just don’t say it too many times.
Final Destination 2 (2003)
In all honesty, you could go watch any one of the five original films after seeing Bloodlines. Final Destination is one of the more uneven horror franchises, but that also means that each film has its own distinct flavor. Released in the gritty, faded-color years of the early aughts, David R. Ellis’ Final Destination 2 remains the most self-serious and scariest installment in the series. Bloodlines contains multiple references for fans of the series to pick up on, yet none more obvious than a recurring wink to the iconic opening highway sequence from Ellis’ film: A kill so gruesome it changed the way an entire generation thought about log trucks.
Saw X (2023)
Four years after the first Final Destination was released, James Wan seemed to rejig the film’s formula with 2004’s Saw X rejuvenated the series. Come for the kills, stick around for a surprisingly touching meditation on death.
Cube (1997)
While we’re on the subject of deadly traps, it’s well worth going back to Cube, Vincenzo Natali’s inventive 1997 cult classic about a group of people who wake up in a maze of booby-trapped rooms and have to band together to find a way out—or, you know, die. The series faded away after some middling straight-to-DVD sequels in the early 2000s, but a proposed project at Lionsgate in 2015 and a recent Japanese remake suggests the IP is still in circulation.
The Monkey (2024)
The Final Destination series has inspired many imitators, most recently Osgood Perkins’ Psycho’s Anthony Perkins) that takes exactly the kind of sadistic funs in its decapitations and disembowelments that fans of the FD franchise have always enjoyed. Theo James plays Hal and Bill Shelburn, twin brothers who rediscover a toy monkey that may or may not have been the cause of a series of random, improbable, hilarious, and increasingly gruesome accidents 25 years ago. Sound familiar?
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
It took a little bit of time before the Final Destination movies decided to drop the lore and focus on delivering what its audience loves best. That self-awareness is commonplace in a lot of horror movies these days, but few have approached it in as fun and interesting ways as Buffy the Vampire Slayer collaborators Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, The Cabin in the Woods crammed about as many horror tropes as it possibly could into its 95-minute runtime then proceeded to pick them apart: A film that played as both a nightmare vision of a choose-your-own-adventure story and a wonderfully satanic TV gameshow.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Barring the 1984 original and Dream Warriors, the first in the series in which Freddy’s victims took back some control in the dream world. Phillip getting strung up by a giant Freddy puppet is probably the most inventive, and Taryn’s death by syringe glove the most harrowing, but who can forget the bionic arms protruding from the television set to grab poor Jennifer. Welcome to primetime indeed.
Insidious: The Red Door (2023)
Noisy and dangerously magnetic, solitary and claustrophobic, it’s surprising how few horror films have weaponized the MRI machine. Final Destination Bloodlines boasts probably the most outrageous kill to feature one (oh, that Prince Albert), but audiences looking for something more chilling can take a look at Patrick Wilson’s Insidious: The Red Door from 2023. The most recent film in the Blumhouse franchise was not the strongest in the series by any means, but the scene in which Wilson’s Josh Lambert discovers he’s not alone in an MRI’s darkened age will make you think twice before getting your next scan.
It Follows (2014)
Released by A24, David Robert Mitchel’s It Follows is one of the great modern gems of indie horror. It’s pace and mood might be a far cry from Bloodlines, but if you like the idea of a nameless force moving through brutal kills in a specific, unflinching order, it is definitely one to seek out. Maika Monroe stars as a college student pursued by an uncannily slow-moving and shape shifting entity—a curse that can only be ed on to someone else by sleeping with them. There are things being said here about the hormonal urges of young people and their anxieties about having sex, but never to the point of interfering with the film’s capacity to terrify. The film’s signature 360-degree panning shot, in which the follower is only gradually revealed, remains influential a decade later.
Back to the Future (1985)
Wait, hear us out! Watching a head get crushed in a trash compactor might not exactly scream Bob Zemeckis, but anyone who comes to the FD movies for their demented spins on Rude Goldberg machines will feel right at home in the opening minutes of Back to the Future. We could have mentioned any number of Wallace and Gromit films here, but Zemeckis beat Aardman to the punch with this unbroken shot of a machine that turned on the TV, made some toast, and fed the dog to, at best, varying degrees of success. Hey, at least no one dies.
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