10 Best Horror Movie Prequels

7. Final Destination 5

Ouija Origin of Evil
Warner Bros. Pictures

Oh, Final Destination 5, you cheeky, cheeky scamp...

This fifth entry in the Final Destination franchise is absolutely 100% a prequel, yet the film doesn't actually let you in on that fact until its final few minutes.

Marketed as a straight-up sequel affair, this 2011 picture has Final Destination 'things' happening in your usual Final Destination way.

This time out, it's Nicholas D'Agosto's Sam Lawton having opening act premonitions about a huge bridge collapsing and killing a whole bunch of people. From there, it's very much lather, rinse, repeat as the Grim Reaper comes calling for those who Sam had managed to warn and save during said opening act.

As Final Destination 5 draws to a close, it looks as if Sam and his beau Molly (Emma Bell) have managed to somehow evade the grip of Death. Casually boarding a flight to Paris for some vacation time, it's here that the penny drops that this is the one and the same doomed Volée Airlines Flight 180 that kickstarted the entire Final Destination series.

Without any sense of hyperbole, seeing Final Destination 5 dovetail straight into the opening of Final Destination is nothing short of genius.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.