What is Final Destination?

After a teenager has a terrifying vision of him and his friends dying in a plane crash, he prevents the accident only to have Death hunt them down, one by one. Final Destination is directed by James Wong and stars Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, and Kerr Smith.

Final Destination is one of the first slasher movies from the early 00s that was able to break away from the label of being a Scream copycat. There was a time in the 90s where every slasher movie was a Scream copycat just because it was a slasher movie. That’s not to say none of those slashers were inspired by Scream because some of them definitely were. But Final Destination was one of the slasher franchises that broke from that label by having a new original concept that was able to break free from restrictions of being a Scream copycat. And not only that Final Destination was able to begin its own trend in horror movies. If you ever have seen an outrageous and outlandish death in a horror they have probably received a Final Destination comparison. The outrageous deaths in Final Destination are what sets Final Destination from every other horror movie.

Final Destination doesn’t do anything else special. The characters aren’t very unique or particularly interesting. So the deaths and the reason behind why the characters are dying is what makes Final Destination entertaining to watch. Even if you aren’t invested in the characters and I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t, they are somewhat lacking. But, the deaths of the characters are engaging and you’re always looking out for how the next character will be killed. Instead of theorizing about a killer (because there isn’t one), you are theorizing about how the characters will die. That’s such an interesting subversion of the horror genre of not having a killer in the movie. It’s what makes Final Destination a unique horror movie and franchise.

Final Destination may not subvert any other horror cliches, but I honestly think subverting not having a killer in a horror movie and that’s enough in my book. It stands out from other horror movies by simply subverting a single horror cliche. That’s what makes Final Destination well remembered by many horror fans even though it could have been another Scream rip-off. Final Destination is a fun horror movie to watch and worth watching if you love the horror genre. Final Destination easily could have been a forgotten slasher from the early 00s, because there’s already so many of those. But, Final Destination subverts a horror cliche and by subverting that one cliche it birthed a whole new horror gimmick of outrageous deaths. And Final Destination became more of a horror phenomenon than anyone could have imagined and for that, I have to respect it.