FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES (2025)

The Deadly Horror Franchise Returns.

Grade: A

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Final Destination remains the only horror movie franchise this reviewer has seen in its entirety. The setup for each entry is the same: a young protagonist has a terrifying premonition of him/herself and several other people dying in a major disaster (just how they are getting these visions in the first place never explained). They intervene and manage to save many lives before the incident actually occurs. But Death doesn’t like to be cheated. And as each movie progresses, the survivors are dispatched one by one in a series of gory, Rube Goldberg-type set pieces. These tragedies range from downright horrific, such as the infamous tanning salon scene in Final Destination 3 (2006), to goofy and cartoonish, as is the case with pretty much every death in 2009’s The Final Destination. The newest entry, Bloodlines, is a cleverly written and well-acted thrill ride, making it arguably the best Final Destination movie to date.

It opens the same way as its predecessors, as young Iris (Brec Bassinger) is accompanying her boyfriend Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) to attend the grand opening of the Space Needle-like Skyview building in 1968. Small occurrences, such as a penny and a piece of chandelier, contribute to building collapsing and exploding, killing everyone inside. But then there’s a twist: after the premonition, instead of cutting back to before the disaster, the movie cuts forward fifty-seven years, to the point-of-view of Iris’s granddaughter Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), who is reliving this disaster in her dreams. Desperate to get to the bottom of these nightmares, she tracks down an elderly Iris and learns that she had saved every single life in that building, giving rise to generations of people who were never supposed to exist. Since then, Death has been picking off every survivor and their descendants-and Iris’s family is next.

            None of the Final Destination are particularly high art, since they exist mostly to show people dying in grisly and creative ways, as well as exploiting the phobias of the audiences. Thanks to Final Destination 2 (2003), for example, how many people today aren’t at least slightly nervous when driving behind a log truck? Bloodlines continues this trend as Death uses a variety of everyday items such as a soccer ball, a shard of glass, and a lawn mower to claim its victims. But the audience is kept in suspense as each incident begins; we are given many clues, but we are never certain how the victim is going to die until after it happens. In the process, many false starts and red herrings are thrown at us, allowing the movie to do what all great horror films of this type do: surprise us. And when the actual chain reaction does start, the results are always shocking and gruesome.

            Many horror movie franchises are infamous for having characters who are either hugely unlikeable or devoid of personality, existing solely to be killed. Some of the previous Final Destination movies are guilty of this-the fourth one especially, in which most of the people are stupid, horny, or both. This time, however, the script and the performances of the cast enable Bloodlines to buck this trend. While many of the characters are only on-screen for a short amount of time before they are killed, we are allowed to bond with most of them, and they all eventually take the situation seriously. Stefani’s cousin, Erik (Richard Harmon), goes from being bitter and hostile to genuinely concerned as his relatives are killed, and he eventually resorts to extreme measures to save those who are left.

            But the best character-and performance-in the film comes with the late Tony Todd in his final big-screen appearance, reprising his role as the sinister undertaker William Bludworth, who appeared in the first, second and fifth entries. In less than five minutes of screen time, he displays more warmth and personality than he ever did in any of the earlier films (before, he was merely creepy), and a touching backstory is even added. Apparently, Todd had been diagnosed with stomach cancer before filming began, and the filmmakers allowed him to improvise his lines. The result is a bittersweet sendoff to one of the most iconic actors in the history of horror cinema.

            When a studio stretches out a franchise longer than is apparently necessary, it is often because they are desperate for money. Final Destination Bloodlines proves this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if it is evident on screen that those involved genuinely wanted to make a good film. Sometimes a series just needs to lay dormant for a while, allowing a new set of writers to do something different and fresh with the property, so when we finally see it, even those of us who had watched every movie before can be genuinely shocked and moved by what we see now.

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Director: Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein

Screenplay: Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor (Based on characters created by Jeffrey Reddick)

Producers: Craig Perry, Sheila Hanahan Taylor, Jon Watts, Diane McGunigle, Toby Emmerich

Cast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana (Stefani Reyes), Teo Briones (Charlie Reyes), Richard Harmon (Erik Campbell), Owen Patrick Joyner (Bobby Campbell), Rya Kihstedt (Darlene Campbell), Anna Lore (Julia Campbell), Tinpo Lee (Marty Reyes), April Telek (Brenda Campbell), Alex Zahara (Howard Campbell), Brec Bassinger (Young Iris) Max Lloyd-Jones (Paul Campbell), Tony Todd (William Bludworth

Rated: R (for strong, violent/gruesome accidents, and language)