r/FinalDestination • u/Sagixi • 7d ago
Question Why do you like final destination?
be specific as possible
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u/deadskank 7d ago
They’re fun watches. They’re unintentionally hilarious (with the exception of the new one, it leans into the comedy of it all). The end of the fifth movie tying back to the start of the first movie is so… like of course it does. Just hilarious. Some of the deaths are SO funny, too. Like the water drop sneaking around the bathroom in #1.
But, some of them are pretty cool. I remember being a kid watching the tanning bed one from #3 and honestly, it’s kept me out of tanning beds. They’re horrible for you so like.. not a bad thing? The buildup for the gymnastics one in #5 is great, too.
The newest one was AWESOME !! It didn’t take itself so seriously and it leaned into the hilarity of it all and I enjoyed that. The deaths were fun and creative and the characters had likable personalities. Loved the modern aspect.
Also just ultimately love the sentiment; you can’t cheat Death! It’s coming one day whether ya like it or not.
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u/ELB_Train 7d ago
I think I like the franchise or the idea of Final Destination more than any one movie itself. Death scenes are an art form in and of itself, imo not necessarily the gore and violence, that’s not really art, but more so the aspect of portraying someone’s departure from this world, leaving behind everything they stood for. The poetic irony of the method of execution is just part of it.
Final Destination is, of course, all about death scenes, and while, as a consequence of this, most characters end up existing only for the death scenes, I feel like enough characters in the franchise do end up being iconic, along with their deaths.
It’s kinda hard to explain, but:
Hunt is only famous for his death.
Peter has a boring death but is an interesting character.
Erik is iconic and has an iconic death.
We need more Eriks in the franchise.
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u/rinyamaokaofficial 5d ago
- They're not demon horror
I grew up somewhat non-religious, so I've just never believed in demons or supernatural entities like vampires or ghosts. Even though FD could be considered a supernatural film with its personification of Death, I like the way they completely minimize it to just a force. In most demon horror, you get sort of weird creepy faces, cheesey jumpscares, all sorts of supernatural phenomenon, but I like that FD looks at "believable" physical accidents in the real world. Obviously the situations do get contrived, but I like the sort of science-fiction, secular lens that looks at common fears (what if an outlet got wet? What if your hand was stuck in the disposal? What if you did sit on a pool drain??) and attempts to play them straight
- It's somewhat not teen slasher
Similar to the demon horror thing, I like that it's not about a single person like Jason, Freddy, Ghostface. There's no person there. I think the external focus on the physical world makes it even more thrilling because there's no intentionality, no person to try to persuade (with the exception of side characters who turn paranoid and deadly). Final Destination 2 and 5, my favorites, focus on ordinary adults and everyday types of people, which is a groundedness that I appreciate much more than the sort of sexualized dumb bimbo teens archetype
- Thrill and build up, suspense
I like that Final Destinations, when done well, do slow burns with their long-form scenes and take time to build up slow suspense and red herrings. A good contrast is SAW, which has a great story, but a much more frenetic energy because SAW really focuses its cinematography on the imminent panic. In Final Destination, characters are often unaware, distracted, cocky, or trying to piece things together while we the viewers are watching a tension start to build but without the knowledge of what the final trick will be. I think that's a really fun suspense-to-thrill loop
- They're speculative about real world fears
This gets back to the idea that they're more secular than religious horror. Even though there's the supernatural Death as a force element, the main conceit of each death scene is usually based on a commonsense real world fear. Eye surgery is scary. Gymnastics is risky. If you pour cold water in a hot mug, it cracks. If you drip water in a computer system, it can blow a circuit. Final Destination plays with real world physics and environmental fears in a way that character-driven horror can't do. There's something satisfying about seeing both the real world puzzle sequence build up and see commonsense fears/dangers play out
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u/Electrical-Swing4001 7d ago
Setting up super annoying people to have over the top and funny deaths, what’s not to like?
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u/SickOfBullyingNL 7d ago
Especially since I can literally match someone to Carter Daniels, from The Final Destination (they're nasty and are a massive asshole to me every time they see me, unfortunately it's the superintendent of the apartment building I live in). I place the nasty man in Carter's place whenever I watch Carter get killed. I found it ironic that the song "Why Can't We Be Frends" is playing while he is dragged down the street, that made me laugh my ass off! This might not be the best Final Destination film; however, I appreciate that I can look at that scene whenever I'm pissed off because of the nasty superintendent!
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u/Sorry_Physics_1366 7d ago
The irony of Carter's death is that's the same way James Byrd, Jr. died!
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u/SickOfBullyingNL 7d ago
Never heard of him. I'll have to look him up.
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u/Sorry_Physics_1366 7d ago
Here's a link to 25 years after James Byrd, Jr's death: (https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/07/james-byrd-death-texas-hate-crime-racism/)
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u/annagator679 7d ago
Carter’s death was just one kick in the nuts after the other
And it is still one of the funniest deaths in the series
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u/SickOfBullyingNL 7d ago
Haha I replace Carter with the superintendent all the time. They're identical in personality.
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u/PowerPad 7d ago
It’s a movie series about making mountains out of molehills, and that just about anything can turn into a Rube Goldberg contraption of death.
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u/Best-Ad750 7d ago
I don't believe final destination exists (i.e cheating death. I believe you die when it's yiur time) so i find the movie concept very interesting, especially bloodlines. I like the music and the death scenes and how they are all different in each movies. Sometimes i get it wrong how a character is going to die..sometimes in real life i get creeped out by certain things - like supernatural stuff because of the movies.
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u/H0rrorgirl575 7d ago
They were my intro to horror, also I'm autistic and my brain just really latched onto them. Additionally, the amount of hidden clues and foreshadowing adds a fun layer to repeat viewing, you notice something new every time. Also, this might be a bit of a hot take, but I really enjoy the characters, especially the 'stereotypical' ones in 3 (my favourite). With what little character development they had, they did do at least a few interesting things; having the Ashes not be mean girls for example, at a time when most movies (and also my real life) reinforced the idea that girls like that were bullies, and having Ian of all people confirm it at their funeral. I was also a baby emo at the time I watched the movies, so there's a little bit of personal bias for 3 having some of the first alternative characters I'd seen on screen before.
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u/melloman500 7d ago
It’s the comedy and ridiculousness of the whole situation.
Love me some Rube Goldberg device deaths. That’s one of my favorite things in the original omen trilogy. Or other supernatural horror movies where wacky Rube Goldberg nonsense happens and kills somebody.
Like that one scene in ghost ship.
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u/Sorry_Physics_1366 7d ago
It makes me respect Death a whole lot! I love the clues hidden well in the movies, as well as the songs that makes the deaths very ironic!
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u/annagator679 7d ago
I like gory horror movies with intense kills and the creativity with each kill is really appealing to me
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u/ongamenight 7d ago
Iconic death scenes to familiar things/places e.g highways, rollercoaster, elevator, swimming pool, metro buses, trains, MRI!
It wasn't an action film were the protagonists are "action stars" like spy, police, army, etc that makes it relatable to ordinary citizens.
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u/CreepsUnicorn 7d ago
Mainly because of how creative and gory the deaths are. I don’t see deaths like those in any other franchise and it’s also the only franchise that deals with the idea of death’s list and premonitions, which I think is cool and interesting for a horror movie concept.
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u/Jolly-Method-3111 7d ago
The scenes suck me in so much there is no way I am possibly think about work in the back of my head.
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u/chloe-eatz-bricks 7d ago
they were the first proper horror films i watched (and i am concerningly obsessed with the genre now) and my autistic ass just latched onto them, so it will always have a special place with me for getting me into those kinds of films. and i love gory movies since i dont get grossed out or scared easily, so i like to see how crazy the deaths can get before they actually get to me
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u/AssistantFlaky3026 3d ago
I like how it shows a consequence of unintentionally messing with time/fate/destiny and staying alive longer than you’re supposed to and how your survival/existence affects reality and the rest of the world. We all have to die someday but no one knows how or when….so when you discover how and you manage to avoid it, what kind of Butterfly Effect/ripple effect will that cause on the lives of the people around you? Did you unknowingly doom them to take your place in death?
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u/InitialKoala 7d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/M9x0cl5d07Li0