When I was growing up, films like Police Academy and Friday the 13th were both ridiculed for the number of sequels they had.

Now any film that is remotely popular, will get a film series, and despite originally started out as a concept for an episode of The X-Files, Final Destination was a hit and sequels would follow every 2 or 3 years.

Then after Final Destination 5, the film series stopped.

But the one thing 5 showed us is that you can’t stop death, as afterall the fifth film followed The Final Destination, which it clearly wasn’t and on most current branding, it is indeed now called Final Destination 4.

So 25 years after the first film was released, and 14 years after the fifth movie, Final Destination: Bloodlines is heading to cinemas.

The reboot of this series seems to have been talked about every other year since the fifth movie so it feels inevitable that it would happen.

More importantly the trailer for Final Destination: Bloodlines has been viewed in record numbers, and it seems audiences are only too pleased for its return.

We are a fan of these movies, as they always have enough horror and scares to keep you entertained, and also sometimes some laughs as some of the deaths are just plain daft.

With the previous five movies currently on one of our streaming services, it seemed right to have a rewatch.

 

We share our highlights but be warned this will include some spoilers.

 

FINAL DESTINATION

The original and best in our opinion.

Alex, is about to head to France on a school trip, when on the plane he has a vision of it crashing and when he wakes, and signs of his dream appear to be trye, he is desperate to get off the plane and is thrown off, along with some friends and a teacher.

Whilst in the airport, they see the vision become true, and now all those who got off the plane and cheated death, will now start dying one by one.

As the late, great Tony Todd, playing a mortician in the film reminds us that you can’t cheat death.

It is hard to not beat the opening death of Alex’s best friend, Tod, as an array of connections will see him be strangled in the bathroom.

It is hard to not include Terry’s hit by a bus death, but with the likes of Mean Girls and more, it just feels this one has been over parodied.

Other deaths include death by a sign; A long build up from an expoding computer and falling knives to ending with a house explosion and a rather silly death, involving decapatation after a train hits a car.

 

FINAL DESTINATION 2

This one sees the vision of a horrific traffic accident, following released logs from a lorry, and again the survivors start getting killed off in grizzly ways.

Much like the house explosion, long built up death, the opening death on this film, sees a microwave explosion, a burning frying pan, hand stuck in a waste disposal unit, a house fire all build up to an escape with a death partly caused by disgarded Spaghetti, with the help of a fire escape ladder.

Again we are teased about a potential death in a dentist, involving suffocation from a fish mobile which ends in a nasty crush by pain of glass.

Like the train in the original film, we get a decapatation, this time using a lift.

The nastiest death for us is the death by airbag, following a car crash.

The silliest is probably a death by barb wire fence, due to the CGI involved.

Sadly, in this sequel we only get one returning character in Clear, but they will come to a horrific death in a fire explosion.

But not before sharing that the cycle of death, can be stopped by new life, or being resuscitated after death.

The film also ends with a rather daft death by barbeque.

 

FINAL DESTINATION 3

This one is a bit of a let down for us after the first two movies.

It is still enjoyable popcorn entertainment but the roller coaster crash at the beginning for us, isn’t the strongest opening.

Despite this actually being a fear of ours, when on coasters of the harness coming lose etc.

This film also suffers as a plot line involves taking ‘Upskirting’ pictures, it isn’t needed, and much like American Pie these days, it now feels just plain uncomfortable to watch.

This film also has no appearance from Tony Todd’s mortician, although he does voice the roller coaster ride’s devil.

Despite it being one of the weaker entries, the deaths in this film are plain nasty.

What seems as a silly sauna sequence, turns particularly nasty as you can practically smell the flesh burning off the victims.

A death caused by a runaway truck is also pretty nasty, and similar to the air bag death of the sequel.

Again we get a decapation, this time involving gym equipment.

We get a nail gun death and a death involving signs at a historical reenactment.

To make it even nastier, this is the first film to have no survivors as the film ends with a train crash.

THE FINAL DESTINATION (4) 

The opening on this one takes place on a race track, and again like the roller coaster, does seem plausible but the execution is way over the top.

Sadly, for us anyway, this is the weakest in the franchise, it does not help that we did not rewatch this as we did at the cinema, where we saw it in 3D

A lot of the deaths are clearly made to take advantage of this so without it, well it just feels a bit flat.

The opening death sees a ridiculous turn of events started with being dragged along the road behind a runaway trailer, only to then end up catching fire.

We then have a whole string of events at a hair salon that you will think will end in a death, only to it to end by a flying stone from a lawnmower outside.

Again at a mechanics, you think anything could happen but will eventually involving a gas tank and a fence.

We also have death by swimming pool plug hole, falling bath tub, and hit by a van.

Then the ending gets really bogged down with the lead,who told the group to leave the race track  now seeing numerous signs and visions, in particularly nasty death by escalator being a stand out, to an explosion in a cinema.

And again, after thinking it is all over, we have no survivors due to a runaway lorry.

Whilst it is not our favourite, we do love the fact that this entry features a chihuahua called Browning.

FINAL DESTINATION 5

This fifth movie was always planned, despite the previous entry being called the Final Destination, which should already be a big clue.

This one is a return to form, with it probably being our 3rd favourite in the franchise.

This one has an opening of a collapsing bridge, again though like the previous entry, it was made for 3D so some of the deaths lose their edge without it.

But the deaths are also still quite different from the previous films.

We have a death by gymnastics, which will feel like forever as you focus on a tack, that the gymnast may or may not land on.

A death in a massage parlour will feature acupuncture and falling buddhas.

A horrific lazer eye surgery sequence which will feature all ways that you will think the kill will happen, from the equipment to a window.

Death by spanner, a spit roast bar from a restaurant will also happen until the final sequence.

Our survivors are on a plane to France, and it turns out is the doomed plane from the original film, so this serves as a prequel and it is all the better for it.

But of course this means The Final Destination can remain the final entry…until Final Destination: Bloodlines which will definitely be on our watchlist.

 

So our final order is Final Destination; 2; 5; 3 then the Final Destination.

But what about you, are you a fan?

We would love to hear from you.

You can always keep up with what we are watching by following us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/barkingmadaboutfilms/

 

Or you can follow us on Letterboxd to see all the movies we watch: https://letterboxd.com/Bill626/

 

 

We hope you enjoyed our monthly reviews and if this has given you inspiration for films to watch or you want more ideas for what to watch then why not check out our digital calendar full of ideas and dates in movies  https://barkingmadaboutfilms-com.stackstaging.com/introducing-the-bmaf-film-club-calendar/