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Death always finds a way.

This was the central conceit of “Final Destination,” a 2000 horror movie, released just past the slasher movie renaissance that began with “Scream” in 1995, that went on to have a uniquely satisfying run all its own. Each movie starts with a group of strangers narrowly avoiding calamity, with the rest of the runtime filled with death eagerly hunting them through ingenious accidents. The latest film, “Final Destination Bloodlines,” was originally earmarked for a streaming debut but has mercifully shifted into a theatrical event – the kind of movie that you laugh and scream along with a packed auditorium full of similarly anxious strangers.

In honor of “Final Destination Bloodlines” and in celebration of one of the most creative horror franchises of all time, we’re going through the entire series – ranking the movies from the worst to the bloody best.

New Line Cinema 6. “The Final Destination” (2009)

“The Final Destination,...

This article contains spoilers for the "Final Destination" franchise, including "Bloodlines."

One of the highlights of 2000's "Final Destination" is how Glen Morgan and James Wong reconfigured Jeffrey Reddick's premise about a boy helping himself and others escape their fate after having a premonition of a deadly airplane accident into a slasher film where the killer is literally Death. Not only did this mean that Death was never personified or ever really seen in the movie, but it also allowed for Morgan and Wong (the latter also being the director) to present each kill scene as a series of escalating mishaps and accidents, essentially turning each setpiece into a Rube Goldberg-esque machine of mayhem. When "Final Destination 2" was made just a few years later, the filmmakers could've simply written a sequel that repeated the premise of the first film, and ostensibly, they did. It's a formula that would work,...

Idle Hands, House on Haunted Hill, Dawson’s Creek, American Pie — these are some of the projects that you’d likely have spotted the cast of the original Final Destination in before the franchise-starting movie had its date with destiny in 2000. And, while Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, and Seann William Scott were all recognizable faces at the turn of the millennium, they weren’t quite as huge as, say, Kirsten Dunst or Courteney Cox — and that was the point. During an exciting live installment of Collider Ladies Night with Perri Nemiroff, which was preceded by a screening of Final Destination: Bloodlines, longtime franchise producer Sheila Hanahan Taylor spoke about the first casting decisions that allowed the movie to be not just entertaining but terrifyingly relatable.

When beginning to visualize and craft the harrowing story of Final Destination from script to screen, co-scribes Glen Morgan and James Wong already had...

For 25 years, the Final Destination franchise has shown audiences some of their worst fears realized. What most folks probably don’t notice is that in every movie, including the newest entry, Final Destination Bloodlines, there is some form of gastro-related death.

You’re probably wondering what I’m even talking about and why it’s relevant. Let’s start with the basics: gastro horror is horror that’s based around food, kitchens, restaurants, etc. You might think it’s all killer food like tomatoes or donuts, but it goes beyond that. Food in horror plays with the idea that not only is the boogeyman out to get us, but also our own kitchen. Eating is a necessity for survival, so what do you do when most means of food preparation can kill you when you’re trying to sustain yourself?

I asked the series creator Jeffrey Reddick how he felt...

After sitting out the sequel Final Destination 2, original Final Destination director/co-writer James Wong and co-writer Glen Morgan returned for the series’ roller coaster of a third installment, Final Destination 3. This time, the sequel would operate as a standalone set six years after the first film.

Final Destination 3 may feel smaller in scale based on the catastrophe that sets Death’s design in motion, but Wong and Morgan inject new ideas and slight twists to the well-established formula. That includes how high school student Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) picks up on Death’s clues and the kill order through photographs she took on the ill-fated day.

Final Destination 3 also escalates the stakes in the grand finale with a second full-blown mass casualty event, one that hits closer to home for many compared to the memorable amusement park opening. The third installment is also the first...

The Warner Bros wave at the box office continues this weekend with New Line’s Final Destination Bloodlines, the first sequel in 14 years in the 25-year-old horror franchise. It is eyeing a series -ecord start between $35 million-$40 million at 3,400 locations.

The global outlook for Bloodlines is $70M, with 74 territories going with the U.S.-Canada debut.

The R-rated Zach Lipovsky- and Adam B. Stein-directed feature is very strong with women under 25 both in unaided awareness and first choice, followed by guys under 25. The best Final Destination opening to date belongs to 2009’s The Final Destination, which posted a $27.4M three-day total. Through five movies, the Final Destination titles have minted north of $666M worldwide.

The first installment in the series was based on a story by Jeffrey Reddick that was intended to be an X-Files episode, but was flipped into a screenplay by Glen Morgan & James Wong and Reddick.

With its latest sequel in cinemas, we look back at the dark concept that has turned Final Destination into a 25-year-old franchise.

Nb: The following contains spoilers for Final Destination (2000).

There’s a scene early in Final Destination where protagonist Alex (Devon Sawa) gets on a busy plane to Paris, and his best friend Todd (Chad Donella) looks around at the other passengers. In a misguided attempt to ease Alex’s fear of flying, Todd nods to a baby and says something to the effect of, “That’s a good sign – the younger the better. It’d be a fucked-up God to take down this plane.”

It’s a disposable-sounding line that, in retrospect, sums up the terrifying universe that Final Destination has built up over its 25 years as a film franchise. From the earliest scenes in director James Wong’s horror, released in 2000, it establishes a plane of existence...

You know how this is going to go. Someone has a premonition of a ghastly, freakish chain of events that results in mass casualty, a vision of such tactility that it feels realer than real — and then they come to, mere moments before the real thing begins. Yet, after saving several lives, the survivors begin to die anyway, one by one: also in ghastly fashion, also in freakish, Rube Goldberg machine-like sequences. Death doesn’t like it when you cheat.

It’s an ingenious recipe James Wong introduced with co-writers Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick in 2000, and with each subsequent sequel, there hasn’t been a ton of variation on the theme. Just more and more inventive ways to kill off a character. Final Destination Bloodlines offers everything fans of the franchise have come to expect: a bawdy mix of slapstick humor and gruesome, kinetically charged deaths. But directors Zach Lipovsky...

Twenty five years ago, a new horror franchise was born with 2000’s Final Destination, a supernatural horror film that made Death an unstoppable slasher villain that employed Rube Goldberg machine-like tactics to reclaim the lives of those who evaded his grasp.

Final Destination, directed by James Wong and written by Wong, Jeffrey Reddick, and Glen Morgan, featured a clever setup that presented no shortage of creativity when it comes to delivering over-the-top kills and breathless, nail-biting suspense thanks to the elaborate series of events that would result in a gnarly and sometimes comically complex death sequences.

The series, now six entries deep thanks to this week’s release of Final Destination Bloodlines, offers some of horror’s most unforgettable kills, so much so that we’ve ranked the entire franchise (so far) by Death’s Designs.

In anticipation of the sixth installment, we’re retracing Death’s steps to examine the established lore,...

Did a real tragedy inspire The Final Destination? ( Photo Credit – YouTube )

What if skipping a flight could spark a billion-dollar horror franchise? That’s exactly what happened—sort of Final Destination, the now-iconic supernatural thriller, wasn’t just a twisted brainchild cooked up in Hollywood. It was inspired by a real-life story that still gives people goosebumps.

Jeffrey Reddick, the mastermind behind the franchise, looked back at how it all began during a promo chat for his movie Til Death Do Us Part (via Collider). While catching up with fans, Reddick dropped a fun little behind-the-scenes fact: Final Destination was born from an eerie article he read while flying home to Kentucky.

“I read an article about a woman who was on a flight… her mom told her not to take it because she had a bad feeling. She switched planes, and the one she was supposed to be on crashed,...

Final Destination Bloodlines co-director Zach Lipovsky says the upcoming horror sequel will be different from the previous five movies in the supernatural film franchise. The film marks Lipovsky’s third directorial collaboration with Emmy-nominated Adam Stein.

During a recent interview with SFX Magazine, Lipovsky hinted at what fans can expect from Bloodlines, teasing the new elements they’ve added to the story. "For this film, the first premonition takes place in 1969," he shared. "There are lots of deaths during the premonition, which is what normally happens in the opening sequence of a Final Destination movie, but we then come out of the eye of a different person in the modern day. That's new."

"For a lot of fans, I think that's going to immediately throw them for a loop. It's going to make them lean forward to try and figure out what's going on," Lipovsky continued. "As moviegoers, we love...

This article contains spoilers for the first five "Final Destination" movies.

A good hook in a horror sequel can lure audiences in with the promise of a shakeup to the formula, whether it be adding a supernatural twist, ramping up the gore effects, or adopting a different tone altogether. You don't want a cool idea to get stale. One of the greatest strengths of "Final Destination" as a franchise is that each new film has mostly been able to sell itself by demolishing the sanctity of our everyday routines. James Wong, Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick redefined the fear of flying for an entire generation. The series has since made it its mission to cast doubt over the little things — and the many ways they can kill us.

This is why "Final Destination" has maintained its cultural stronghold over the past 25 years, despite the last installment coming out nearly a decade and a half ago.

BearManor Media has published Escaping Death: The Unauthorized Story Behind the Final Destination Movies in hardcover and paperback.

Written by Padraic Maroney (It All Began with a Scream), the 422-page book chronicles the making of the Final Destination franchise with over 50 exclusive interviews from cast and crew members spanning all six films.

Readers will discover the origin of the innovative franchise, firsthand stories from the sets, never-before-seen behind-the-scenes photos, insight into how some of the series’ biggest set pieces were created, and a tease of the next installment.

Interview subjects include actors Tony Todd, A. J. Cook, Nicholas D’Agosto, Kerr Smith, Amanda Detmer, Emma Bell, and Crystal Lowe; director James Wong; writers Jeffrey Reddick, Glen Morgan, Guy Busick, and Lori Evans Taylor; producers Craig Perry, Sheila Hanahan-Taylor, and Jon Watts; notable fan John Waters; and more.

Escaping Death is a great way to immerse yourself in the Final Destination saga...

Final Destination is one of horror history's most successful franchises, set to have another sequel coming out 25 years after the original movie's release. There's been a lot of money that's been made with the past installments of the movie series, though there could have been much more if not for one fatal flaw with the concept of an unseen "Death" as the killer.

While the types of tragedies differ, the concept of every Final Destination movie is the same: a group of would-be victims narrowly escape certain death thanks to the warning of one person who has a premonition of the event moments before it happens. However, Death doesn't like to be cheated, and an invisible force works to kill the survivors by manipulating their surrounding environments. There's no telling when and how Death might come for the characters, which adds to the suspense, though it also meant missing out on major merchandise revenue.

Can you feel it? The air is getting warmer, the days are growing longer, and we’re officially halfway to Halloween! That’s right—April marks the midpoint to everyone’s favorite spooky holiday, and what better way to celebrate than with a curated list of horror films on Fawesome?

April may feel far from October, but horror is a year-round obsession for true fans. As we count down the months to Halloween, let these movies remind you why we love the genre: the thrills, the chills, and the sheer joy of being terrified. So, whether you’re watching alone in the dark or hosting a halfway-to-Halloween movie night, these picks are sure to keep the spooky spirit alive. After all, why should October have all the fun?

1. The Mist (dir. Frank Darabont)

Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden

The entire town is wrapped with an eerie fog following a massive thunderstorm.

When the general public looks back on The X-Files, they picture a dark and serious 1990s show about aliens and government conspiracies. But die-hard fans know that some of the series’ best episodes were a laugh riot.

The show began to churn out a few episodes per season with a comic bent, beginning with the circus freaks episode “Humbug” in Season Two. And “Humbug” writer Darin Morgan, who also wrote a few funny episodes in Season Three, is generally credited with the comedic relief of the early seasons. Morgan, however, only wrote for the show for two seasons (although he returned in 2016 when the show was briefly revived). The writer responsible for the later funny episodes was Vince Gilligan.

Gilligan’s first largely comedic episode was “Small Potatoes,” a caper in which a pathetic man with a tail named Eddie Van Blundht impregnates several women in town by morphing into exact duplicates of their husbands.

Late actor Tony Todd is giving fans his final onscreen role with the highly-anticipated “Final Destination Bloodlines.” Todd played William Bludworth across 25 years of the “Final Destination” franchise; “Bloodlines” is the sixth installment of the beloved horror films.

“Final Destination Bloodlines” stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, and Brec Bassinger alongside Todd. While the plot remains just as mysterious as the reason for the predetermined deaths, we do know that the feature will be getting an IMAX release.

Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky co-direct from a screenplay by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor. The story is by Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”), Busick, and Evans Taylor. “Final Destination Bloodlines” is based on characters created by Jeffrey Reddick.

The tagline reads: “The newest chapter in New Line Cinema’s bloody successful franchise takes audiences back to the very beginning of Death’s twisted sense of justice.

The Final Destination franchise is thriving with a sixth installment about to release. Director James Wong credits this success to the films' recurring premise, which subverts the trope of the serial antagonist.

Director James Wong recalled Final Destination's reception, 25 years after its theatrical release. He said he sensed even then that the film had the potential to spawn a thriving series. "When Final Destination came out, the critical reaction wasn't over the moon or anything, but it just kept on," he told Bloody Disgusting. "Generally a movie goes out of the top 10 within the first three weeks, and ours just stayed up there for a long time."

The film was massively successful, earning nearly $113 million against its $23 million budget. A sequel was immediately given the green light. Wong directed two out of five films in the series, with a sixth installment releasing this year. Musing over the franchise's success,...

The Final Destination franchise is filled with many memorable death scenes, though there are some that stand out as the most iconic of them all. Among them is the unforgettable bus hit in the first film, and it was thanks to a last-minute editing trick that it worked out so well.

Looking back at the film in honor of its 25th anniversary, director James Wong and co-writer Glen Morgan shared some behind-the-scenes stories about Final Destination in a new interview with Variety. They addressed the famous scene in which Terry (Amanda Detmer) tells the other survivors that they can "drop f***ing dead" just before she's immediately smashed into by a speeding bus. Morgan shared how the scene was actually inspired by a close call he'd witnessed in real life that always stuck with him.

"For the bus hit, I had been one summer to the Hollywood Bowl, and I...

Before “Final Destination,” cheating death never seemed so fun.

Directed by James Wong from a screenplay he wrote with Glen Morgan, based on a story by Jeffrey Reddick, the film came out of nowhere on March 17, 2000, to hit moviegoers like a bus. Based around its characters dying from an intricate but outwardly mundane sequence of events, its premise would quickly become cultural shorthand for dangerous, naturally occurring Rube Goldberg scenarios and spawn a beloved horror franchise whose sixth installment, “Final Destination Bloodlines,” arrives in theaters May 16.

Yet even before “The X-Files” executive producers Wong and Morgan got involved with the project, “Final Destination” would never have existed without the science fiction television show. It was Reddick’s favorite at the time, and he wrote the original story as a spec script for the show to land a TV agent before producer Chris Bender recommended he develop it as a feature.

Audiences learned that cheating death comes at a price when Final Destination opened in theaters 25 years ago today.

“Everybody experiences close calls, and everyone knows that, at some point, they’re going to die. Hopefully you die in a quiet, gentle way, but it happens. You have to understand that it’s going to happen to you,” director/co-writer James Wong tells Bloody Disgusting.

“When Final Destination came out, the critical reaction wasn’t over the moon or anything, but it just kept on. Generally a movie goes out of the top 10 within the first three weeks, and ours just stayed up there for a long time.”

Before spawning a franchise that changed the way we look at seemingly innocuous things like logging trucks and tanning beds, Final Destination began its life an “X-Files” spec script by Jeffrey Reddick that was later rewritten by Wong and his then-partner, Glen Morgan.

Nearly 30 years ago, The X-Files aired an episode so controversial that it not only became infamous for its disturbing content but also left a permanent scar on a generation of viewers. Premiering in 1993, the series became a cultural phenomenon, offering viewers a chance to explore the unexplained alongside FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. From monsters to aliens the show has delved all.

The X-Files | Image via Fox

However, one episode stood out for being more disturbing than ever. What made it so disturbing its that it pushed all the boundaries of what was acceptable for primetime TV. Today, it is still considered the most disturbing episode of The X-Files, earning the title of “banned” from reruns for years.

The X-Files episode, Home, still haunts many people of the generation even after 30 years

First broadcast on October 11, 1996, The X-Files episode, Home told a chilling tale that left viewers traumatized.

Before Stranger Things catapulted actor Millie Bobby Brown to global stardom, she delivered an exceptional performance in her first major TV role at just 10 years old in the 2014 seriesIntruders. Based on Michael Marshall Smith’s novel, the series follows a secret society seeking immortality by taking over others' bodies, spanning genres from police procedural to the supernatural. Created by The X-Files veteran Glen Morgan, who wrote alongside his frequent collaborators, brother Darin Morgan, and wife Kristen Cloke, Intruders stands out with its eerie atmosphere and gripping storytelling, further elevated by strong performances from its talented cast.

This article contains spoilers for "The Monkey."

Although it's still possible to get into the weeds when discussing auteur theory, it's generally become accepted that directors, especially if they're also acting as their own screenwriters, have a large degree of creative control over their films. As such, it's possible to find common threads that connect a certain filmmaker's work, whether those threads are thematic, stylistic, or some combination of the two. For example, think of the Stanley "Kubrick stare," the Spike Lee floating dolly shot, Alfred Hitchcock and voyeurism, Steven Spielberg and father figures, and so on. Some directors may seem easier to clock than others, of course, especially if they exclusively or generally work within a particular genre. Yet even those who remain in one genre can contain as much artistic diversity as those who attack a wide range of subject matter.

Take, for instance, Osgood Perkins. As a filmmaker,...

With 11 seasons, two movies, and a plethora of spin-off material, there's no denying that The X-Files is a hit. Not only did it transform the modern sci-fi genre, but it also altered how fans see romance arcs as well as female characters. Even after three decades, fans still adore Mulder and Scully.

But with so much content on offer, it makes sense that not every episode will be as successful as others. However, the show is known for being a tad experimental at times, producing a wealth of strange arcs and plot twists. As such, even though fans love this show, there are some episodes that fans find too awful to rewatch.

A Set of Doppelgängers Wreak Havoc Together Season 7, Episode 20, "Fight Club"

It's very rare for an episode to receive mostly negative reviews, but "Fight Club" somehow managed it. The story starts out in Kansas, where two seemingly identical...

It's been nothing but good news for Final Destination fans lately. Not only has the long-awaited sequel, Final Destination: Bloodlines, been in the news this week thanks to the recently released teaser that has everyone pumped, but to top it all off, the entire series was recently added to streaming, and has been dominating the Top 10 charts ever since.

Per Max, the Final Destination franchise has taken over its Top 10 movie chart at the time of this writing, with the original 2000 classic sitting at #4, Final Destination 2 at #6, Final Destination 3 at #9, and Final Destination 5 at #10. Absent is 2009's The Final Destination (a.k.a. Final Destination 4), but we're sure that it'll eventually make its way there as the week progresses. It's no surprise, really, as after 14 years of radio silence, horror fans are eager to either watch the series for the first time, or just indulge in...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on the trend of exploring an ambitious concept in its movies with the “Multiverse.” It started in some of the original comic stories, but now it’s really been used to capitalize on a bevy of crowd-pleasing moments. Other movies, such as Everything Everywhere All at Once, also use the multiverse to explore the different branches of life created by a single act. Even properties like Mortal Kombat are getting in on the game. While the “parallel universe” plot device has been used in many sci-fi stories in the past, back in 2001, a little action movie attempted to introduce the idea of the “multiverse” to a mainstream movie audience. Today, we take a look at Jet Li’s The One and see how it holds up with its own take on the concept.

Ok, so let me start this off by being real. The One...

Final Destination fans can look forward to catching (parts of) their favorite franchise on a new streaming platform.

Per Max, more than half of the Final Destination feature film franchise will be available for streaming on the platform beginning February 1. Unfortunately for fans, this only includes Final Destination 2, Final Destination 3, and Final Destination 5, leaving the first and fourth films to be found elsewhere by those looking for a complete Final Destination viewing experience.

Related Peyton List's Supernatural Teen Drama With 90% Audience Score Gets Season 2 Trailer

The latest hit supernatural teen drama from Paramount+ gets a surprisingly ominous new trailer ahead of the premiere of its second season.

The Final Destination began with the film of the same name released in 2000. Based on an unproduced spec script written by Jeffrey Reddick for The X-Files, Final Destination was directed by James Wong from a script by himself, Reddick,...

This week on the Film Stories Podcast Network: Gothic monsters, award ceremonies, rubber-nippled heroes and more. Here’s what we’ve been up to…

At the Movies in the 90s

Get some drive thru and join A. J. Black and Mark McManus as the third season of their 90s podcast launches with a kitsch 1995 favourite, Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever…

Reel Talk

Sam Stokes bids you welcome to his coverage of the film on everyone’s lips – Robert Eggers’ remake of Nosferatu. In what could be some kind of contractual break, there is not a Vampire Videos host in sight, however, as Sam is joined by guests Ashley Thomas and Baz Greenland to bite into this one…

CineHistorians

Returning after a festive break, the New Wave focused first season of the podcast reaches strange proportions as Carl Sweeney and Raquel Stecher tackle 2009’s Dogtooth as they look at the Greek Weird Wave…...

Quick Links The 'Black Christmas' Remake Is Guilty Pleasure Fun The 'Black Christmas' Remake Has Great Characters

Sometimes, it takes time and space away from a movie to appreciate it for what it is. When the 2006 remake of Black Christmas was released, it was met with negative reviews and less-than-desirable box office. Fans of the 1974 original, expertly directed by Bob Clark and considered a classic by many horror movie aficionados, thought the remake got everything wrong. The film leads with gore and senseless violence, while the original is a pure exercise in atmosphere and suspense.

With 1974's Black Christmas, it was clear that Clark believed less was more, and the minds behind the remake insisted on beating the audience over the head with too much information and backstory, essentially diluting its mystery. However, once one gets over the fact that the remake won't touch the supremacy of the original movie,...

It’s time for a new episode of the Real Slashers video series – and since the release of this one coincides with Christmas, we are, of course, taking a look at a Christmas horror movie! Many genre fans watch the 1974 classic Black Christmas every December, and while the film’s first remake wasn’t very well received when it was first released in 2006, as the years have gone by, it has gained a strong cult following of its own. So with this episode of Real Slashers, we’re digging into Black Christmas 2006. You can hear all about it in the video embedded above.

Written and directed by Glen Morgan, the 2006 version of Black Christmas has the following synopsis: The holiday season turns deadly for a group of sorority sisters who are stranded at their campus house during a snowstorm. These coeds better watch out, for a vicious killer is on the loose,...

There are enough celebrities who are currently vying (if unofficially) for the title of Christmas Queen that Lucy van Pelt has some serious competition. In terms of sheer cultural ubiquitousness, Mariah Carey seems to be the frontrunner on the strength alone of her 1994 multi-Platinum single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Hot on her heels are some other pop divas, including Kelly Clarkson, Ariana Grande, and Sabrina Carpenter, who've all had a holiday hit that has remained popular for years afterward. While that's all happening in the music world, things seem a little more clear-cut in Christmas movie land. Sure, numerous actors have been in huge holiday films that are watched year after year, but it's hard to think of another actor who's been in more Christmas movies then Lacey Chabert.

Chabert may not be the Christmas Queen per se, but she is certainly the queen of Hallmark movies,...

Thanks to the MCU, the concept of the cinematic multiverse is now everywhere. But action superstars Jet Li and Jason Statham got there long before the likes of Doctor Strange with this panned science fiction outing. And it’s all set to stream for free. Released back in 2001, and in a post-Matrix world, The One introduces audiences to a multiverse-hopping serial killer who, when he kills each version of himself, gains their strength, speed, and knowledge. Yes, that is the greatest action sci-fi concept you’ve read.

Directed by James Wong of Final Destination, and, erm, Dragonball Evolution fame, and written by Wong and Glen Morgan, The One stars Jet Li in dual roles as both hero and villain alongside Jason Statham, Delroy Lindo, and Carla Gugino. Featuring fight choreography by the late, great Corey Yuen, The One is all set to stream for free on Tubi from December 1. You...

For those who missed out on Red Shirt Pictures and Synapse Films’ Trick or Treat limited edition 4K Uhd — which sold out of all 6,666 copies in record time — a standard edition is coming on March 11, 2025.

It’s been newly restored in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative, approved by director of photography Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood), with Dolby Vision. Lossless DTS-hd Master Audio of the original 2.0 theatrical mix and an all-new 5.1 surround sound mix are included.

Marc Price and Tony Fields star in the 1986 Halloween slasher with special appearances by heavy metal icons Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne.

Charles Martin Smith (Air Bud) directs from a script written by Michael S. Murphey, Joel Soisson (Dracula 2000), and Rhet Topham (976-Evil).

Special Features include:

Audio commentary with director Charles Martin Smith, moderated by filmmaker Mark Savage Rock & Shock: The Making of Trick or Treat – New retrospective with director Charles Martin Smith,...

We found out last year that the 1986 rock ‘n roll horror film Trick or Treat, one of my all-time favorite movies, would be getting a Blu-ray and 4K Uhd release from Synapse Films. They were originally aiming for a Halloween 2023 release, but since they missed that month they ended up giving the movie a limited edition release last month. Those 6,666 units sold out so fast, with fans crashing the Synapse Films website along the way, that the company has now wisely decided to put together a standard edition of the Blu-ray and 4K Uhd release as well. Today, they announced that the street date for the standard edition is March 11th.

Directed by Charles Martin Smith from a screenplay by Rhet Topham, Joel Soisson, and Michael S. Murphey (with an uncredited polish from the Final Destination duo of James Wong and Glen Morgan), Trick or Treat has the following synopsis:...

After a generic DVD run and Blu-rays released outside the U.S. market under the name Ragman, Synapse Films has answered the prayers of many horror-metal fans with the recent 4K release of 1986’s Trick or Treat. Having “No Wimps” and “No False Metal,” this film is considered by many to be the quintessential heavy metal horror flick, partially thanks to a perfectly apropos soundtrack provided by the band Fastway.

After constantly being harassed by the cool kids at his high school, Eddie Weinbauer aka “Ragman” finds solace in listening to the music of his idol Sammi Curr to get through the abuse. Not only is he a famous heavy metal star, but Curr is also an alum at Eddie’s high school where he became an outcast-made-good into metal stardom. And this is why Eddie feels a faux bond and extreme idolization for Curr since he believes they share the same origin story,...

One of the earliest episodes of The X-Files season 1, episode 8, Ice was a sly remake of John Carpenter's sci-fi horror masterpiece The Thing. A lot of The X-Files classic standalone Monster-of-the-Week episodes were influenced by iconic horror films. Season 4, episode 2, Home, is a slasher about a murderous family inspired by The Hills Have Eyes and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Season 6, episode 7, Terms of Endearment, subverts the story of Rosemarys Baby with its tale of a demon snatching an unborn child from its mothers womb.

The series premise of two agents working in the FBIs underground supernatural affairs division gave the writers the freedom to explore every horror trope and subgenre under the sun. The X-Files even did an episode parodying Cops with a werewolf on the loose: season 7, episode 12, X-Cops. The X-Files was taking inspiration from horror cinema from the very beginning. In just its first season, the...

Remakes and reboots can be extremely controversial, particularly when theyre adapting a film thats already good in its own right, but theres always space for new takes on classic stories in todays cinematic climate. Some of the most interesting and innovative horror movies in recent memory have been remakes of existing stories, but this doesnt prevent them from still being amazing stories on their own. The best horror remakes are those that change the original in some way, giving them a level of credibility beyond merely retelling the story.

But in addition to these great reboots, there are also several horror remakes that never should have been made, which can give the entire concept a fairly bad reputation. Viewers begin to associate remakes with cheap retellings of already good stories, but thats not the truth in most cases. The majority of remakes exist for a reason, whether thats to introduce...

Trick Or Treat Limited Edition 4K Uhd + Blu-ray: "From the early days of DVD, one movie more than any other has been requested by horror fans and metal heads all over: Charles Martin Smith’s heavy metal horror classic Trick Or Treat. A box office disappointment that found a wide following on home video and cable in the 80s and 90s, it’s been curiously out of reach to fans, who would rely on dubious DVDs and imports to get their Halloween heavy horror treat. Now, Red Shirt Pictures and Synapse Films are finally bringing the much-anticipated Trick Or Treat to your door in a definitive Limited Edition 4K Uhd/Blu-ray that will make every day Halloween for horror fanatics and headbangers!

Rock ‘n’ roll will never die, in this 1980s cult favorite that stars Marc Price (Family Ties) as Eddie Weinbauer, a teenage outcast who idolizes Sammi Curr (Tony Fields), a heavy metal superstar.

We found out last year that the 1986 rock ‘n roll horror film Trick or Treat, one of my all-time favorite movies, will be getting a Blu-ray and 4K Uhd release from Synapse Films. They were originally aiming for a Halloween 2023 release, but since they missed that month they’re bringing this gift to the world this month instead. Pre-orders can now be made through the Synapse Films website, DiabolikDVD, and Orbit DVD – and copies are expected to start shipping out next week! This release is limited to just 6,666 units with a suggested retail price of $66.66, and as of right now there are no plans for a standard edition release.

Synapse will not be shipping outside of North America, but DiabolikDVD and Orbit DVD will accept international orders.

Directed by Charles Martin Smith from a screenplay by Rhet Topham, Joel Soisson, and Michael S. Murphey (with an uncredited polish from the...

Rock ‘n’ roll never dies. Sometimes, it even gets a second life. At least that’s the case for 1986 cult horror favorite Trick or Treat, as Synapse Films has delivered a surprise Halloween treat by launching preorders for the horror film’s 4K world premiere.

The limited special edition 4K release of Trick or Treat is strictly limited to a total of 6666 units!

The good news is that preorders are open now, with the release shipping as soon as next week, October 27.

The first feature from award-winning filmmaker Charles Martin Smith (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), the film featured a cast of soon to be household names including Marc Price (“Family Ties”) and Doug Savant (“Melrose Place”). Alongside rock icons Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne, Trick or Treat blends the best of the 1980s metal scene with the decade’s tongue and cheek take on the genre.

If you’ve never...

When “The X-Files” premiered on Sept. 10, 1993 on Fox, viewers had no idea how incredibly bizarre the cases tackled by FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) would be.

Anything that was deemed paranormal, supernatural or unexplainable was called an “X-File” — the cases that no one else in the agency wanted to touch.

In the show’s 11 seasons, they dealt with more than just aliens and shadowy government conspiracies. Their cases involved demons, ghosts, serial killers, sea monsters and even vampires. Here are the episodes with the scariest villains and killer creatures.

Fox

7. Home

Season 4, Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, directed by Kim Manners

Perhaps this disturbing episode — which was banned for three years after its initial showing — is more creepy and unsettling than scary, but it certainly left an impression on viewers when it debuted in 1996. Mulder and Scully are called in after the...

If there’s one thing horror fans and filmmakers love to do, it’s compare notes on their favourite facets of the genre. About movies, about influences, about giant creepy-crawlies. And most of all, about the different driving trends of the many eras; what we were scared of, and how that bled so openly into the defining genre cinema of the time. From the atomic fallout of the 1950s and the creature features that followed, to the rise of exploitation, and the real-world killers behind the eventual slasher boom of the ’80s, it’s the subtext that an entire community is built on.

So there’s something particularly warm and comforting about Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott’s similarly-tinged doc Generation Terror, which seeks to unravel the real-world fears behind the particularly grisly output of the 2000s. An era often characterised by iffy remakes and gnarly extremity which made for...

Few episodes of The X-Files stick into the back of our minds like Season 4's "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man." This potentially biographical account of the history of William B. Davis' Cigarette Smoking Man gave us a look behind the curtain as the character grew beyond his usual shadowy shtick. Though Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are largely absent from the episode, the peculiar focus on the show's foremost villain manages to tug at a few heartstrings. In fact, it might've tugged on a few more had writer Glen Morgan and director James Wong been allowed to stick to their original ending, which would've seen the death of one of the infamous Lone Gunmen.

Exclusive: Writer Jeffrey Reddick, creator of the long-running Final Destination horror franchise, is teaming with producer Todd Slater and more on Bloody Mary: Origins, a chilling new take on the classic urban legend.

Hailing from Slater’s Convoke Media, Vast Entertainment and DreamPunk Entertainment, the film is based on the New York Times bestseller Mary: The Summoning by Hillary Monahan. The story focuses on a group of teenage girls who discover an ancient spell that conjures the real Bloody Mary. When the terrifying entity pulls one of the girls through the mirror, she becomes trapped in the past living out the real Mary Worth’s last days. With time running out, the others must discover a way to save their friend in the past while vanquishing a terrorizing Bloody Mary in the present.

Reddick wrote the script with John Stancari, who passed away in 2018 after a long battle with cancer.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, starring as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, respectively, captured the popular imagination with their stints in The X-Files. The duo’s contradicting nature with the former a believer of paranormality and extraterrestrial happenings and the latter, a skeptic, laid bare a gripping plot that as they investigated cases that for long carried the labels of being unsolvable due to the inexplicable chain of events attached to them.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in The X-Files | Fox

A major chunk of the series threw a tense and eerie atmosphere, captivating viewers to explore the unknown, giving the show a major boost as a cult favorite. Along similar lines, the Final Destination franchise also involves unexplained premonitions of the exact unfolding of incoming omens with no mentions as to who or why gave those visions. Clad in uncertainty, it should come as no surprise that...

We found out last year that the 1986 rock ‘n roll horror film Trick or Treat, one of my all-time favorite movies, will be getting a Blu-ray and 4K Uhd release from Synapse Films. They were originally aiming for a Halloween 2023 release, but since they missed that month they’re now aiming to get the Blu-ray and 4K out into the world by Halloween 2024 – and things are looking promising, as the case art and list of special features have now revealed!

The case art images come our way from Dawn of the Discs:

Slip art for the upcoming Synapse Films/Red Shirt Pictures 4K/Blu-ray release of Trick or Treat #FilmTwitter #Bluray #Horror #HorrorCommunity #4KUltraHD #4K pic.twitter.com/h7MmWMefCP

— Dawn of The Discs (@dawnofthediscs) May 31, 2024

And the list of special features was announced on a Spooky Picture Show livestream. Here’s what fans have to look forward to seeing...

The hit and miss nature of both early 2000s horror and the premise are quite obvious in today’s selection. While the original Willard and its sequel Ben are known entities, it’s not like they are the heaviest of hitters in terms of horror property. In fact, Willard is Exactly the type of property that I will always argue needs a remake. Well, needs is a strong word, but it lends itself better to a remake than something as perfect as the first Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Willard is a solid movie but underseen by today’s audience and would have maybe been more attractive to the audiences of 21 years ago who maybe grew up with the original. Sadly, that didn’t happen as it was arguably one of 2003’s biggest flops and that’s a huge bummer because not only is the movie fun with great, mostly practical effects,...

In 1993, The X-Files perfected the "monster of the week" formula, expertly combining sci-fi and procedural cop elements. Other shows brazenly attempted to mimic The X-Files but failed for numerous reasons, usually unable to forge a unique personality to stand out. The surge of conspiratorial TV shows post-x-Files fizzled out. Ultimately, quality nor interest could be sustained even by the X-FiIes writers themselves.

Borrowing your rival network's homework for viable formulas to tap for easy ratings is a tale as old as TV itself. Yet, regardless of many, many efforts to replicate the magic of The X-Files (1993 version), no one ever came close. That includes the network, Fox, and the creator of the show, Chris Carter.

The X-Files overcame its confinement on the lowliest network, in the screw-you slot of Friday night. It built a cult following as it elbowed its way to the marquee Sunday night spot in Fox's schedule...

Sawa explains his absence in Final Destination 2, revealing that it simply "didn't work out" due to taking time away from the business. Co-star Ali Larter led a new cast in the sequel, as Sawa's character's fate was explained to have died between the two films. Sawa hopes for a return to the franchise's more psychological thriller roots rather than focusing solely on elaborate CGI deaths.

Devon Sawa has given an insight into why his character did not appear in Final Destination 2, despite looking death in the eye and making it of the original movie unscathed. 2000's Final Destination became a hit upon release, and spawned a very lucrative horror franchise. Final Destination 2 followed three years later, and it seemed only natural for him to appear in the sequel, but that honor, instead, went to his co-star Ali Larter. Now, as the first film approaches its 25th anniversary next year,...