Editorials
The Original ‘Final Destination’ Established Death’s Design with Unforgettable Kills
Twenty five years ago, a new horror franchise was born with 2000’s Final Destination, a supernatural horror film that made Death an unstoppable slasher villain that employed Rube Goldberg machine-like tactics to reclaim the lives of those who evaded his grasp.
Final Destination, directed by James Wong and written by Wong, Jeffrey Reddick, and Glen Morgan, featured a clever setup that presented no shortage of creativity when it comes to delivering over-the-top kills and breathless, nail-biting suspense thanks to the elaborate series of events that would result in a gnarly and sometimes comically complex death sequences.
The series, now six entries deep thanks to this week’s release of Final Destination Bloodlines, offers some of horror’s most unforgettable kills, so much so that we’ve ranked the entire franchise (so far) by Death’s Designs.
In anticipation of the sixth installment, we’re retracing Death’s steps to examine the established lore, formula, and, of course, the standout kills from the series, starting with the film that set Death in motion back in the year 2000.
The Inciting Event
Final Destination established one vital component of the franchise’s successful formula straightaway: the inciting premonition of a lethal cataclysmic event that would disrupt Death’s plan and incite his vengeance.
The original movie introduces a high school class embarking on a school trip to Paris. Before boarding, Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) can’t shake the mounting feeling that something is wrong, which only escalates as he and his classmates finally board the plane. There, Alex experiences a vivid premonition of a mechanical failure leading to a catastrophic in-air explosion shortly after takeoff that claims the lives of everyone on board. He snaps to from his vision, but becomes hysterical when reality begins mirroring his vision.
That panic gets him and a handful of classmates and a teacher ejected from the flight, sparing them from the plane explosion that arrives minutes after deplaning but setting in motion an even grislier fate as Death returns to claim them one by one.
It’s a jarring and effective inciting event; the disaster gets grim in its explicit detailing of each death from passengers getting sucked out of the plane midair to being burned alive. Not only does this paint a stark picture of the kill order, a critical part of Death’s equation, but it helps prepare audiences for the Rube Goldbergian demises that’ll reclaim the disaster’s evaders.
The subsequent entries in this film series adhered to the blueprint that Final Destination established. Each would feature a plausible catastrophe, dialed up to gory excess, that would designate a protagonist who’s doomed to read Death’s clues in the bid to escape its clutches once again. The inciting premonition lays out the intended order for its human characters to decipher and attempt to shatter, and key music that helped signal impending Death machinations.
Final Destination‘s inciting plane crash may get overshadowed by some of the more elaborate opening sequences in subsequent sequels, but its impact remains just as effective today.
The Standout Kills
1) The First Cut is the Deepest
The first to fall among the plane crash escapees is Alex’s best friend Tod Waggner (Chad Donella), which sets the standard for the Rube Goldberg machine style of demises. In this case, it means that tension gets coiled to an almost excruciating degree as we watch Tod shaving in his bathroom, unaware of the dangerous chain reaction being set in motion around him.
The camera closes in on all the details, leaving viewers guessing at the myriad of emerging ways Tod could die. It even offers a fakeout; Tod nearly gets executed by a radio.
Instead, Tod slips into the tub and gets choked by the laundry line; a ruthless demise made even crueler by painful details like blood vessels bursting in Tod’s eyes as he asphyxiates.
2) The Lewton Bus
If the characters’ names aren’t already an indicator, the original film pays tribute to horror pioneers. While teacher Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke) is directly named after legendary producer Val Lewton, Final Destination pays an amusing tribute to Lewton’s original jump scare in his 1942 film, Cat People, referred to as the Lewton Bus.
The Lewton Bus is a technique that relieves the built-up tension with an innocuous jump scare. In Cat People, it was the abrupt and noisy arrival of a bus just as danger was about to strike. In Final Destination, the bus becomes literal as Terry Chaney (Amanda Detmer) steps out into the street, where a bus unexpectedly crashes into her mid-sentence.
3) Kitchen Nightmare
Terry’s abrupt death is downright gentle compared to the film’s Lewton character. Death shows no mercy for the petrified teacher who blames Alex for the mounting body count.
Final Destination showcases the myriad of household items that can become tools of death as Valerie tries to unwind at home, with the camera soaking in all the details. The stovetop pilot light isn’t cooperating, which is a pesky problem for Valerie as she tries to make tea. It sets in motion the film’s most drawn-out death, a chain of suspenseful events that sees boiling water flung, spilled alcohol prompting an electric fire, and a resulting explosion that flings glass into her neck.
It’s enough to seal her fate, but Death isn’t done yet. Val also manages to yank on a towel that brings kitchen knives down with it…right into her torso.
Death’s Expert
“By walking off the plane, you cheated Death. You have to figure out when it’s coming back at you.”
Final Destination also marked the start of its sole recurring character outside of Death itself: William Bludworth (Tony Todd). The mysterious mortician gets introduced in the original film when Alex and Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) sneak inside the morgue to see Tod’s body. Bludworth’s brief but memorable scene provides key exposition about Death’s Designs and following the order. He warns of the consequences of interfering with Death.
Tony Todd’s appearance in this scene quickly made Bludworth a fan favorite and ensured that we’d see Bludworth again. He’s back one last time in Final Destination Bloodlines.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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