Final Destination (2000 2011)
The franchise: Final Destination boils horror down to its most basic component: its characters are going to die, and theres no escape, no matter what they do. The villain in the Final Destination movies is death itself, with no knife wielding middle man. Despite being based in existential terror, though, the movies are fairly lightweight and entertaining, with enough mainstream appeal to keep the franchise going for five movies.
Signs of trouble: The first three performed reasonably well with both audiences and critics, but there was a real wobble in quality around the fourth movie, which wasnt even bold enough to include a number at the end.
Shouldve given up: There are rumours of a sixth Final Destination movie, and as long as theyve come up with an interesting disaster to kick things off, theres no reason it shouldnt be both watchable and profitable. Keep em coming!
