The Final Destination Franchise

The Final Destination franchise? In July? What is going on?

If you had those thoughts when reading the title for this post, allow me to explain.

Two good friends (Brad from The Cinema Guys and Drew from Reel Feels Podcast) put together a new horror movie challenge for 2022. Last year, the challenge was to watch 100 horror movies in the 100 days leading up to Halloween. This year they decided to up the ante. 150 horror movies in the 150 days leading up to Halloween (follow #150DaysOfHorror on Twitter to follow everyone’s progress and see what they are watching). They can be first-time watches, favorite re-watches, whatever tickles your fancy, as long as you watch 150. The challenge started on June 3rd, so we are about four weeks in as of today.

What is a good way to stay on track with a 150-day challenge? Franchises. If I have seen an entire franchise before, I will not re-watch it during a challenge like this. If I do, I won’t count it towards the challenge. That being said, the Final Destination franchise is one where I had only seen the first two installments and HBOMAX happened to have all 5 streaming. I am not here to analyze each one, more so to just talk about what I enjoyed of each and how I would rank them.

So last night I dove in and re-watched both Final Destination and Final Destination 2.

The first one I remembered fondly and was happy to see that it still holds up. Honestly all that I vividly remembered from the second one was the entire log truck scene (to this day I still will immediately change lanes if I find myself behind a log truck). While part two did not rewrite what a sequel should be, it was a very enjoyable continuation of the story.

All that remained was three first-time watches. Boy, what a mixed bag of results.

The third installment, Final Destination 3, takes its own approach to things. The continuity in the overall story suddenly does not seem to be an important factor. Where it redeems itself and remains enjoyable is with the gore and kills. Over the top, gratuitous, and hilarious.

The fourth installment, The Final Destination, tries to follow in the third’s footsteps…

…and fails miserably. What a dumpster fire. While it was released 4 years prior to Sharknado, I could not help but sit there and laugh as I thought of a Final Destination/Sharknado movie. The story was the equivalent of word salad and any “wow” factor in the kills is diminished by how absolutely cheesy and cheap it looks. Luckily, this was not in-fact The Final Destination as we were given a fifth installment.

Final Destination 5 was released in 2011…

…and is arguably as good as, if not better, than Final Destination 2. The story makes sense, gels well with the original, and has plenty of gore and over the top ridiculousness in the kills for everyone to enjoy.

Overall, this franchise is one that I really enjoy. No, they are not all winners, but as a whole it is a fun and enjoyable journey. Here’s hoping the sixth one can follow in the footsteps of its predecessor.

If I were to rank the five installments, it would look something like this:

1. Final Destination
2. Final Destination 2
3. Final Destination 5
4. Final Destination 3 A drop off deeper than the Mariana Trench…
5. The Final Destination

What say you?! Can you say, “I’ve Scene That!”? Have you seen the entire Final Destination franchise? If so, what do your rankings look like? Let me know in the comments below or by reaching out on social media.

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And for all you horror movie lovers reading this, don’t forget to follow the #150DaysOfHorror on Twitter.

Better yet…start now, catch up, and join in on the fun!