Final Destination: Bloodlines ended up being one of the biggest theatrical release hits of 2025’s summer movie season, and now it’s finding even more success on HBO Max. Even if adjusted for inflation, Bloodlines is the highest-grossing installment of the Final Destination saga, which is no small accomplishment for a sixth film in a franchise. On one hand, horror is probably the most reliable genre in theaters right now. On the other hand, Bloodlines is a fantastic addition to the canon, with game performances, deaths as elaborate as one might expect, and characters who are compelling more often than not.
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All in all, there’s a strong argument to be made that Bloodlines is the most effective of the whole series. And, after watching it, you may very well be in the mood for more. What follows are all worthy additions on double feature night, from a movie by the same pair of directors and other installments of the franchise to a Stephen King adaptation that is quite similar in terms of elongated death sequences and a dark, blood-soaked sense of humor.
7) Freaks (2018)
Unrelated to the 1932 film by the same name, Freaks follows Chloe, a seven-year-old girl whose father, Henry, has never allowed her out of their home. He warns of “Bad men,” which in reality is the government’s Abnormal Defense Force. The ADF hunts down civilians who possess special abilities, and it turns out they would hunt her down, too. Chloe can manipulate people’s minds, while her father can manipulate time, and from time to time she gets flashes of a vision where a woman is being held in a closet. Chloe learns that woman is her mother, Mary, and along with her father and grandfather (Bruce Dern), she seeks to break into the government facility holding her on a rescue mission.
Looking at the poster for Freaks, one would assume it’s a horror movie. And it certainly has its tense moments, not unlike Final Destination: Bloodlines. But what it really serves as is an even better version of Stephen King’s Firestarter than either actual adaptation of Firestarter. This film was directed by Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky, who did a similarly excellent job on Bloodlines, but the real star of the show is Lexy Kolker, who delivers genuinely phenomenal work as Chloe.
Stream Freaks on Peacock.
6) It Follows
It Follows has a sequel on the way, which makes sense considering it netted 23 times its budget, has developed a devoted cult following, scored pretty fantastic reviews, and made a star of Maika Monroe. And that sequel, They Follow, is likely to be excellent. But this film would also function just fine if it never received a continuation.
David Robert Mitchell’s movie has a pretty central hook: an entity pursues an individual once they have lost their virginity. It takes the appearance of a regular, everyday person who walks slowly towards the intended target. But this everyday person can’t be stopped, can’t be killed, and just keeps on coming. Not unlike Death from the Final Destination franchise. Tonally, they’re different films, but there’s enough of a connection to make it a natural addition to double feature night.
Stream It Follows on HBO Max.
5) Night of the Living Dead (1990)
One of the best horror franchise movies of the ’90s, Tom Savini’s Night of the Living Dead is an underrated remake. It verges on being too much of a carbon copy of the original, but when the original is as great as George A. Romero’s, that’s perfectly fine.
There is also a director’s cut somewhere out there that is supposedly on its way to finally being seen by fans. This cut is closer to Savini’s original intent of differentiating his version from the first zombie masterpiece. But, even if we never get that cut, this version is a breezy, fun horror delight. It also has the late Tony Todd in the role of Ben. This was pre-Candyman, and thus his true debut in horror. While Todd has a few more posthumous projects due for release, Bloodlines will really be the project that fans look back on as their goodbye to the actor, so why not watch the beginning and end of his time in the genre.
Rent Night of the Living Dead (1990) on Apple TV.
4) The Cabin in the Woods
Like Final Destination, The Cabin in the Woods has us follow a group of characters whose fate is entirely out of their control. It’s just that, in this case, the characters’ final moments aren’t some dragged-out, convoluted part of Death’s design, but rather the products of human-crafted intervention.
The Cabin in the Woods tosses some major curveballs at the audience and it’s amazing that every last one of them works. It was a very fun movie to experience on the big screen back in 2012 and, much to its credit, it still holds up. It also has a grim sense of humor (with some less grim humor peppered in when we’re following Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford’s characters), just like the Final Destination films. In terms of its connection to Bloodlines as opposed to the Final Destination franchise as a whole, Bloodlines has arguably the most all-around likable group of central characters. The same goes for The Cabin in the Woods. Kristen Connolly’s Dana, Jesse Williams’ Holden, Chris Hemsworth’s Curt, Anna Hutchison’s Jules, and Frank Kranz’s Marty are all likable characters, and it’s tough to watch them all die.
Stream The Cabin in the Woods with a MovieSphere+ Amazon Channel subscription.
3) Candyman (1992)
Some horror movies should kick off franchises, but don’t. Then there’s Candyman, a horror classic that kicked off a franchise even when it really shouldn’t have (though Nia DaCosta’s 2021 reboot-sequel was solid). But as weak as Candyman 3: Day of the Dead is, Tony Todd really does elevate it whenever he’s actually on screen (which is not enough).
Todd could do anything, be it play an overzealous mercenary in The Rock to a cruel gangster’s right-hand man in The Crow, but he will always be most inextricably linked to the horror genre. Part of this is due, of course, to his work as Daniel Robitaille in Candyman, but he also starred in the most Final Destination movies of anyone. He played the macabre coroner William Bludworth in the first, second, fifth, and sixth films and had a vocal cameo (as an animatronic devil) in the third. He was, essentially, the heart of Final Destination, and his loss was a notable one in the horror community.
Rent Candyman on Amazon Video.
2) The Monkey
If there’s any movie that is extremely similar to Final Destination, it’s The Monkey. Or, rather, Final Destination is similar to Stephen King’s short story, “The Monkey” (it’s also similar to an episode of The Twilight Zone). Just swap out avoiding a tragedy and replace it with being around a cursed toy chimp with drums and they are sibling films. Like Zach Cregger, Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett), Mike Flanagan, Robert Eggers, Ari Aster and the like, Osgood Perkins is a preeminent voice in modern horror. He had a big hit with Longlegs, and The Monkey didn’t do so bad for itself, either, but they’re impressively quite different films.
And, between those two specific films, The Monkey is undoubtedly the one to watch after Bloodlines. Not just because it has elaborate, drawn-out demises of its characters, but because it has a morbid sense of humor. Final Destination has always, to a slight extent, possessed a certain grim tongue placed against cheek. Oftentimes, the characters go out via something they once enjoyed (e.g. the tanning beds in Final Destination 3) or, more often, has been alluded to in a bizarre way. Death in and of itself is, of course, not funny, but it’s clear the Death of Final Destination (and The Monkey) has a sick sense of humor only it enjoys.
Stream The Monkey on Hulu.
1) Final Destination
Even if Bloodlines is the best of the franchise, there are still several other installments that give it a run for its quality money. Specifically, the one that started it all, Final Destination 2, and Final Destination 5. Any one of those would be a worthy addition to the 2025 film on double feature night.
The original Final Destination gave horror a bit of a shot in the arm in 2000. Scream was a massive hit, and is a genuine classic to this day. But the downside to its success, as is the case with most hit movies, is that it led to a ton of projects that tried to replicate its success. Some of them are serviceable meta-horror man in a mask movies like Urban Legend, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Most of them, however, drove that period of horror into the ground, such as the immediate sequels to all three of those and Valentine. The genre needed a shake-up, and having Death serve as the antagonist ended up being the optimal curveball to throw.
Stream Final Destination on HBO Max.
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