Editorials
‘Final Destination’ – Death and the Inescapable Boogeyman
The Final Destination series is one of the most fun and entertaining horror franchises out there. The first film was released back in 2000 and since then, the series has grown to spawn four sequels (most of which are good) and a devoted fanbase. Each film focuses on a different group of people being stalked by Death after they have narrowly managed to avoid certain doom in some sort of horrific accident. The series is massively fun – always delivering a thrilling experience, while never taking itself too seriously.
Taking a page from the slasher genre and using it to write its own rules, the series employs an ever-present, yet somewhat unconventional boogeyman – Death itself. Though never actually personified, Death is a presence throughout each of these stories, stalking around, silent and unseen by all. It influences the scene and the characters’ surroundings to build elaborate traps to ensnare its unsuspecting victims. The basis for the series revolves around Death having a very specific plan – a design. Everyone has their own appointed time to die, and if circumstances cause that plan to go awry, Death must correct the mistake.
Each film focuses on a group of people who manage to elude their own deaths as a part of a major catastrophe, only to find themselves targeted by the mysterious reaper in the weeks following the event. They are hunted down one by one and eventually succumb to a fate they thought they had avoided. Death is a tricky hunter though, and it lays traps that are not easily avoided. Red herrings, complex setups and out of nowhere turns surprise the victims in their final moments. It is these sequences that make the films such a blast to watch. As it happens, Death can be massively entertaining when it designs an elaborate mousetrap around its victims when they think they are the least vulnerable.
But as much fun as the series is, it also works on a more somber level. More than other horror franchises, there is a truth at the center of it. And that is that death is inevitable. That every single one of us will die. The characters in these films seek to escape their deaths, but really, the only victory that can be achieved is putting them off. The punchline of these films is that when you least expect it, Death will circle back around and cross you off of its list once and for all. But even if these characters were to succeed in their quest and Death were to bow and admit defeat, it would be a temporary victory. Death will always return eventually. Even if you don’t mess with death’s design, it will come for you one day. It is a certainty.
As Tony Todd’s recurring character Bludworth notes in the first entry, “In death, there are no accidents. No coincidences, no mishaps…and no escapes. What you have to realize is that we’re all just a mouse that a cat has by the tail.”
We talk a lot about how horror films allow the audience to examine and accept our own mortality in a safe environment. By seeing the deaths of characters acted out onscreen from the comfort of a theater chair or our own couch, we are able to process the fact that as mortal beings, we will one day die. The Final Destination series is perhaps the most direct application of this theory. One way or another, be it today, next month or 50 years from now, we will have to face Death. Granted, we might not all be accidentally stabbed when a knife falls from the butcher block underneath the towel we were trying to grab to stop the bleeding from a glass shard embedded in our neck when the vodka we were drinking caused our computer monitor to explode and start a fire, but we will, at some point in time, bite it. Plain and simple. Death will come for every one of us.
That inevitability is part of what makes this series so enjoyable, in a way. If death is a certainty and is ultimately unavoidable, then we are allowed to have a bit of fun with the concept. And the Final Destination films embrace that sense of fun head-on. The kill sequences are fantastic, always beginning with a slow build of suspense as Death lays its elaborate traps and then springs them in the craziest way possible. The onscreen deaths range from clever and complex to borderline ridiculous. Tanning beds, trains, weights, elevators, nail guns and lasers (among other things) are all implements of destruction at one time or another. Death has a rather twisted sense of humor, and it is clear that it enjoys its work almost as much as we do. Ultimately, this all serves not only as a means to entertain, but to keep things from getting too heavy and allow us to pull back a bit and simply enjoy ourselves in the knowledge of our own mortality.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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