Editorials
[Special Feature] Top Kills From Previous ‘Final Destination’ Entries!
Coming out this Friday, New Line’s Final Destination 5 (official website) is the latest sequel in the horror franchise that with every entry sees a new set of unlucky characters ripped, shredded, maimed, burned, stabbed, beheaded, disemboweled, and generally tormented by that most relentless of all movie killers: Death itself.
In anticipation of the film’s release, I’ve compiled a list of my choices for the top kills from the last four movies, each of which I’ve embedded a clip of for your viewing pleasure. So enjoy – and when you’re finished reading through my list, be sure to let us know in the comments what your favorites are!
So let’s cut the crap, shall we? The fun of the FD films is the opportunity they afford us in watching a bunch of good-looking actors die in unimaginably gruesome ways. I ask you: in what other franchise have you seen Seann William Scott’s head sliced in half by a sharp sliver of flying metal? Or Ali Larter’s face instantaneously broiled by an explosion? I rest my case.
As with anyone, of course, I can’t help but play favorites, so in honor of the release of the fifth entry, coming out this Friday, I culled through every single FD kill scene on YouTube to come up with my top pick from each installment. Look, it’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.
Victim: Ms. Lewton (Kristen Cloke)
Cause of Death: Impaled by a kitchen knife
Though the first movie suffered a bit from post-Scream “self-aware-itis”, it’s still my favorite of the series. The deaths weren’t quite as gruesome, sure, but in my opinion it gave us the best set of characters in any FD movie to date.
Not that it didn’t feature some pretty neat kill scenes, my favorite being the unfortunate chain of events that result in the death of teacher Valerie Lewton (Get it? Val Lewton? Ha!). Not only is the nifty Rube Goldberg aspect of the series in full force here, but having the entire ugly spectacle soundtracked to her mom’s favorite John Denver record is just beyond cruel.
Victim: Brian Gibbons
Cause of Death: Blown apart by an exploding barbeque
The main strength of FD2 lies in the inventiveness of the kills, so I’m a bit ashamed to say that my favorite death in the film involves a gag at the end where a kid is instantly incinerated by a freak barbeque explosion.
But I can’t help it. When a mother witnesses the death of her child in real life, it’s horrifying. When a mother witnesses the death of her child in the movies, it’s still pretty horrifying. When a mother witnesses the death of her child in the movies and then his flaming, severed arm lands on her dinner plate, that shit is funny.
Victims: Ashley Freund (Chelan Simmons), Ashlyn Halperin (Crystal Lowe)
Cause of Death: Roasted alive in tanning beds
My favorite deaths of the entire series thus far are those of Ashley and Ashlyn, best friends who go for a little indoor tanning session and come out, shall we say, a few shades darker than they intended.
What makes this particular bit so fantastic for me is that I live in L.A., and you can’t throw a rock without hitting some crazy, narcissistic bitch just like these girls. So sue me if I happen to enjoy watching two fictional characters modeled off of this totally warranted stereotype catching fire and screaming in agony. Besides, aren’t the movies all about wish fulfillment?
Victim: Hunt Wynorski (Nick Zano)
Cause of Death: Sucked through a swimming pool drain
This, friends, is why I’m scared shitless of pool drains. If you ever find yourself tempted to sit on one for whatever stupid reason, don’t. If it’s cracked or broken, it will suck your insides out through your ass.
While I’d have to say the most painful death imaginable probably involves some combination of fire and an intestinal crank, Hunt’s death ranks pretty high up there as one of the scariest. Imagine: you’re stuck at the bottom of a public pool, drowning, your entire body being sucked through a drain about the size of a baseball, and to top it all off you’re swallowing water made up of about 29% urine. Really, does it get any worse?
Victim & Cause of Death: Watch the trailer and tell us what “death” you’re looking forward to the most!
‘Final Destination 5’ comes out nationwide on Friday, August 12th.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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