The Final Destination series debuted in 2000 with a simple and sick premise: if you dodge death, it’ll find you. This premise involved the protagonist having a premonition that a group of people will die in a freak accident. With a series of what’s typically described as Rube Goldberg-like accidents, the characters dodged death time and time again, only to ultimately meet their demise just as the protagonist had predicted. Rarely did anyone survive a film, leaving only a series of characters played by horror legend Tony Todd to link the series together.
They were big box office successes, with Final Destination earning $112.9 million on a $32 million budget. The budgets increased for future installments, as did the earnings. The only people who weren’t happy with the films were the critics. The following is a list of the movies critics liked most based on an average of each film’s Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic Scores.
The Final Destination - Average Score: 29
The fourth installment of the franchise, The Final Destination, begins with a group of friends going to a car race. Nick has a premonition of an accident and gets his friends out before it happens, but in franchise fashion, death isn’t willing to let them go so easily, and it ultimately gets the best of them.
It’s the only film in the series without an appearance from Tony Todd, which was a huge disappointment considering his character was a staple in the franchise. The film failed in other ways as well. Gary Goldstein from The Los Angeles Times called it, “[A] silly and predictable fourth installment in the lucrative thriller series about pretty young people attempting to cheat death.” The biggest problem with this film is its predictability. When a Final Destination film (or any film, for that matter) works well, it’s because it’s teasing what’s going to happen next. The Final Destination didn't do this, and the lack of excitement and anticipation certainly played in to its low critic score.
Final Destination - Average Score: 35.5
Final Destination kicked off the franchise as the very first film in the series. In many ways, it was the most successful creatively. It premiered in the year 2000 when the horror genre was going through growing pains and wasn't sure where it was headed. Scream was popular among those who liked slasher films, but even so, audiences were sick of seeing teenagers get stabbed by men in masks, as this scenario was overdone in the 80s. Final Destination managed to have the fun of a slasher film without this trope.
The film opens with Alex having a premonition of their plane exploding during takeoff. He gets into a fight with the school bully, the plane explodes, and for the first time, audiences were introduced to the Final Destination series' main premise. It was unique, but critics didn't love it.
Final Destination 3 - Average Score: 42
Final Destination 3 has what’s maybe the series' greatest musical callback, as two girls are trapped in tanning beds while “Love Rollercoaster” by the Ohio Players blares in the background. It’s not a terribly ambitious entry into the series, but what it lacks in plot originality, it makes up for with some of the gnarliest deaths.
It was the first of the films to have a female lead. Wendy is played by the incomparable Mary Elizabeth Winstead who would go on to play Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and to star in the excellent 10 Cloverfield Lane. Both the musical callback scene and the female lead likely elevated this film's critics' scores over the others, though the scores still weren't the best.
Final Destination 2 - Average Score: 43
The second installment in the series has arguably the best scene: the restraints holding down the logs on the bed of a truck come undone on a major highway, bounce into the other cars on the road, and destruction and human carnage follows. Whether it’s truly the best scene or not, it’s certainly a memorable one.
The film had some other notable series’ deaths, including an elevator decapitation and a fire escape ladder jamming through someone’s eyes. The script of Final Destination 2 pushed the series in some new directions, with the characters actively looking for a way to escape death’s plan through “new life.” While the following films drop this storyline, it was a fascinating addition to the series, though it wasn't enough to raise critics' opinions about the film.
Final Destination 5 - Average Score: 56
Final Destination 5 had an incredible set piece featuring a suspension bridge in the beginning, but it’s more likely to be remembered for the ending. The fifth entry into the series ends where the first begins, implying that if no one had escaped the bridge collapsing in the fifth movie, the plane wouldn’t have exploded in the first. It’s not a time travel movie, but the ending makes it feel as though it is. Though Final Destination 5 still wasn't well-received by critics, it is the highest ranked in the series.