10 Movies Like Final Destination You Must See

Created by Jeffrey Riddick, ‘Final Destination’ follows a group of teenagers who are about to leave for a school trip to France, when one of them has a premonition about their flight blowing up mid-air. He forces his friends to disembark at the terminus, thus saving their lives when his vision comes true moments later. However, the survivors soon meet bizarre, fatal accidents that make it seem that Death refuses to be cheated for long.

The 2002 film, directed by James Wong, has spawned one of the most successful horror franchises, spanning a total of six films, as well as a novel series and a comic book series, all following the same premise. The taut storylines with innovatively gruesome death sequences and the underlying theme of the inevitability of death have developed a cult following, as the audience can connect with real phobias that they may face or establish. The following movies, similar to ‘Final Destination,’ would be a good place to explore the genre more extensively.

10. The Butterfly Effect (2004)

‘The Butterfly Effect’ follows Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher), a 20-year-old college student who discovers that his consciousness can travel through time and inhabit his younger self for brief moments. He attempts to use it to prevent minor incidents from his traumatic past from taking place. However, following his return to the present after every attempt, he finds it to have taken a turn for the worse. He soon comes to the realization that actions always have unintended consequences, and a perfect life is a fool’s dream. Directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, the science fiction thriller expands upon the idea of the inevitability of fate, similar to the ‘Final Destination’ films, which highlight that the ultimate outcome for everyone is death.

9. Polaroid (2019)

Directed by Lars Klevberg, ‘Polaroid’ revolves around a cursed camera that sets an evil entity upon whomever is photographed with it. When high school student Bird Fitcher (Kathryn Prescott) obtains the camera from a garage sale, she takes pictures of her friends with it, putting everyone’s lives in danger. In an attempt to prevent their impending deaths, the group looks into the camera’s ownership history and stumbles upon horrifying hidden truths. The supernatural antagonist of ‘Polaroids’ targets a group of teenagers in the film who share a common link, similar to the ‘Final Destination’ films, as they desperately try to outrun their inevitable demise.

8. Premonition (2007)

‘Premonition’ revolves around Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock), a married woman with two children who starts experiencing the days surrounding the death of her husband, Jim (Julian McMahon), in a non-chronological manner. Becoming aware of the impending tragedy, Linda does her best to stop it from coming to pass. Still, her efforts in the moments pre-incident seemingly have no altering effect on the moments that follow. Director Mennan Yapo’s supernatural psychological thriller reaffirms the inevitability of fate, which forms the core of the ‘Final Destination’ films. Both argue that our actions in the past are not meant to change our future, only explain it.

7. It Follows (2014)

Directed by David Robert, ‘It Follows’ tells the story of Jay Height (Maika Monroe), a carefree university student who sleeps with her boyfriend Jeff Redmond (Jake Weary) to discover he has passed a curse onto her. It involves her being followed by a shape-shifting supernatural entity that seeks to end her life. The only way for Jay to escape is to have sex with someone else and pass it on to them. However, as soon as the entity manages to kill one person, it goes after the previous person in the chain. Unlike typical slasher films, ‘It Follows’ brings an unspecified supernatural being as the antagonist who seeks to strike names off an apparent death list, similar to Death itself in the ‘Final Destination’ films. Both stories also involve the passing on of the curse, as the characters in the latter believe they can skip death by sacrificing another life in their place.

6. Stay Alive (2006)

Directed by William Brent Bell, ‘Stay Alive’ revolves around a video with the same title, whose players get killed the same way as their characters die in the game. After the death of the last players, Abigail (Samaire Armstrong) and Hutch (Jon Foster) come into possession of the game and decide to play with their friends and co-workers. Soon, they are pursued by an evil spirit hell bent on taking their lives. Unlike the usual slasher films, ‘Stay Alive’ and the ‘Final Destination’ films both have a supernatural entity as antagonists that target specified individuals who share a unique connection. In the case of this film, it is playing a cursed video game, while in the case of the latter franchise, it is escaping gruesome collective death, as fate seemingly intends.

5. The Ring (2002)

‘The Ring’ tells the story of a cursed videotape whose viewers die on the seventh day of watching its content. When a teenager, Katie (Amber Tamblyn), dies as foretold after viewing the tape, her elder sister and journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) decides to investigate the phenomenon. Spiralling down the rabbit hole of hidden curses and buried secrets, Rachel struggles to uncover the truth as the fate of her family and herself hangs in the balance for watching the tape.

Directed by Gore Verbinski, the supernatural horror film is a remake of Hideo Nakata’s eponymous Japanese film, which, in turn, is based on a novel by Koji Suzuki of the same name. Similar to ‘Final Destination’ films, ‘The Ring’ deals with the inevitability of death, with the inhuman antagonist picking on its targets based on specific criteria. The concept of escaping one’s demise by passing on the target to another person also exists in both worlds.

4. Happy Death Day (2017)

Directed by Christopher Landon, ‘Happy Death Day’ follows college student Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe), who gets murdered on the night of her birthday and wakes up to find herself stuck in a time loop. No matter what she tries, she gets killed every time and is forced to relive the same day over and over. Frustrated, Tree decides to make a stand with the help of her friend, Carter Davis (Israel Broussard), and find the real identity of the killer to prevent her impending end and break the loop. ‘Happy Death Day’ and ‘Final Destination’ both attempt to drive home the belief that death cannot be cheated, and the steps we take to escape our fate only allow us to reach the end in a different way.

3. One Missed Call (2003)

Originally titled ‘Chakushin ari,’ the Japanese film ‘One Missed Call’ directed by Takashi Miike tells the story of people suffering gruesome deaths after being informed of its date and time beforehand via a mysterious phone call. College student Yumi Nakamura (Ko Shibasaki) finds herself at the center of the supernatural phenomenon when her friends start receiving such calls, and meet their horrific demise despite their best efforts. The supernatural horror thriller shares many themes with the ‘Final Destination’ franchise, from the characters desperately trying to put off the inevitable to their deaths being captured in traumatising sequences. In both storylines, a group of young adult students finds their lives hanging in the balance and they do their best to defeat an inhuman entity that they have the misfortune of encountering.

2. Countdown (2019)

Justin Dec’s ‘Countdown’ revolves around a smartphone app that tells users the exact time of their death. However, if the person tries to avoid their impending demise according to fate’s plan, they are accused of violating the agreement, and an inhuman entity proceeds to follow and take their lives. After two teenagers meet their maker in this manner, Quinn Harris (Elizabeth Lail) comes across the app that informs her she has two more days to live.

Quinn proceeds to do everything she can to survive, aided by her sister Jordan (Talitha Bateman) and recent acquaintance Matt Monroe (Jordan Calloway). Many parallels can be drawn between ‘Countdown’ and the ‘Final Destination’ films, as both worlds have the inescapable nature of death as the core of their stories. Even though death comes for everyone at last, the films argue that it follows a planned approach, which it intends to follow no matter what precautions the living take.

1. Sole Survivor (1984)

‘Sole Survivor’ marks the feature directorial debut of Thom Eberhardt and follows Denise Watson (Anita Skinner), who becomes the sole survivor of an airplane crash. However, ever since she escaped death, she has had the sensation of being followed in all places. While her doctor tries to explain it as “survivor’s syndrome,” she slowly becomes convinced that it is death who is after her, for it does not like to be cheated. Released 16 years ahead of the first ‘Final Destination’ film, ‘Sole Survivor’ can be considered a spiritual precursor to the hit franchise. Both films open with unintended survivor(s) of a plane crash, who then get the feeling of being followed by an inhuman entity that they believe to be death. The theme of Death disapproving of letting go of its intended victims, who search desperately for a way out, forms the core of the horror films.