It’s been 25 years since the start of one of the most lucrative horror franchises ever created, and two and a half decades later, the Final Destination series is still going strong. While the characters and general formula have been tweaked from the first entry to Final Destination: Bloodlines, one thing remains clear: Death comes for us all.
Even the worst-received film in the franchise made $187 million at the box office, so with Bloodlines at a shocking 95% on Rotten Tomatoes (at the time of this article – 76 reviews), it wouldn’t be surprising to see the series get incredibly close to the revered one billion-dollar club for horror, joining the ranks of the IT, Resident Evil, and The Conjuring franchises.
It all started as a concept for an episode of The X-Files by writer Jeffery Reddick, who worked at New Line Cinema at the time. The idea was picked up as a film, and ‘90s heartthrob Devon Sawa was chosen for the lead role. Sawa was surrounded by a well-blended mix of newcomer actors, like Ali Larter (who would go on to star in the Resident Evil franchise), and Sean William Scott (fresh off a breakout role in American Pie), as well as some familiar faces, like Daniel Roebuck and the late horror legend, Tony Todd.
Final Destination did something that no other horror movie had been able to do successfully: create an unbeatable villain that was completely invisible, even to the audience. Not counting for the fact that death is a very real, scary, and crushing concept, the inability to see what was coming added a layer of fear to the film.
As the first few deaths kicked off, I remember finding myself looking at every single area of every single frame, wondering what part of the surroundings would be instrumental in a character’s death. Oftentimes, I’d be completely surprised, as something not introduced would be the cause, like the bus that smashes through Amanda Detmer’s Terry. As the franchise went on, moments like this became predictable, but in the first entry, we didn’t really know what was coming.
Related: Interview: ‘Final Destination’ Creator Jeffrey Reddick Talks ‘Don’t Look Back’
The movie was peppered with Easter eggs, too, sneaking in death omens throughout its runtime. John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” would play, or the number 180 (the plane number in the opening scene’s disaster) would appear moments before someone was killed, as a little hint for the audience.
Final Destination wasn’t without its silliness, though. As with most horror films from this era, there were some unintentionally comical moments, like Death covering its tracks by sucking the water back into the toilet after Tod slipped on it; a scene I texted writer Jeffrey Reddick about, and he assured me it wasn’t in the script, and was added in by the studio. This was a side of Death we never saw in the film or the franchise again.
There was also the strange FBI subplot, with Agents Shreck and Weine (pronounced “ween”) following Sawa’s Alex Browning around from death to death, convinced he had something to do with the plane explosion, with the flimsiest evidence possible, like Alex’s shoe print being burned into the floor in Ms. Lewton’s house fire. It was all very convenient.
Related: I Survived the ‘Final Destination’ Franchise
Where Final Destination ultimately succeeded in hooking the audience into seeing the next film (and my personal favorite) was the writing choice to make the viewer finally feel safe; that Death had been evaded. The movie’s closing moments prove otherwise, showing that death keeps circling and can’t be beaten, and leaving the fates of Alex and Clear unknown… until Final Destination 2.
Final Destination may not be an all-time great horror movie, and even lies somewhere in the middle of its franchise in terms of quality, but it’s proven to be an all-time great concept that made a lasting impression on the genre and culture as a whole, and that’s why the franchise is still pumping out successful films, more than two decades after its release.
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