15 More Dumb Movies Which Are Secretly Smart

8. The Final Destination Series

Shrek Forever After
New Line Cinema

In the first half-hour of Final Destination (2000), if you look closely pretty much every single event from the rest of the film is directly foreshadowed.

Tod (Chad Donella) mimes strangling himself on the plane - he's later strangled to death by a clothesline.

Terry (Amanda Detmer) has a picture of a bus behind her at the airport - she is later hit by a bus.

Billy (Seann William Scott) watches the plane take off and in the reflection, you can see the plane fly in a horizontal line across his face - he is later decapitated from this point upward by a piece of debris.

The same goes for the rest of the film and for the sequels too. These movies are filled to the brim with neat little details that secretly let you know everything that's going to happen, and few horror films reward repeat viewings more.

These movies are quite silly in certain ways but they are smarter than they're often given credit for. Aside from their brilliant use of foreshadowing, they also serve as an interesting exploration of mortality and the paranoia of everyday life while never leaving good old-fashioned fun out of the equation.

OK, fine, the fourth instalment from 2009 is a bit rubbish, but the other four films are pretty awesome, and they're wonderful examples of B-Movies with brains. Hopefully, the long-overdue sixth film, which is coming soon, won't break this trend.

 
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Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.