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Final Destination: Bloodlines (R)

Cast: Brec Bassinger, Teo Briones, Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Richard Harmon

Release Date: May 16, 2025

Runtime: 1 hr. 50 mins.

Genre: Horror, Thriller

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—“Final Destination Bloodlines.”Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.

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Review

The Final Destination movies represent a kind of comfort food for horror fans. Although it has been 14 years since Final Destination 5, the newest franchise entry, Final Destination: Bloodlines, picks up right where its predecessor left off with its mix of black comedy, Rube Goldberg project-inspired deaths, red herrings, extreme gore (to the point of being laugh-out-loud funny), and existential ponderings. Where Ingmar Bergman depicted Death playing chess, the game of choice in the Final Destination films is "chicken" and we all know how that ends.

Since most of the characters featured in the first five Final Destination movies have by now shuffled off this mortal coil (with one exception), Bloodlines introduces a new cast of characters. It's the same universe - there are references to previous films and the late, great Tony Todd is on hand to reprise his character of William Bludworth. This is Todd's fourth (and final) appearance. In his previous outings, he was used primarily for exposition. Here, he's woven more tightly into the narrative, even getting a backstory. Todd filmed his scene while dying from cancer - his body is emaciated but his voice retains its timbre - and that aspect of his reality bleeds into what's happening on screen. Many of his lines carry a double-meaning: this is not only Bludworth offering sage wisdom but Todd giving a farewell to those fans who have enjoyed his performances through the years.

Bloodlines opens with the best "disaster escape" of the venerable series - a 20-minute short that is good enough to stand on its own. (It could be called "Bad Penny.") Transpiring in the 1960s, it focuses on a 20-something woman named Iris (Brec Bassinger), who is about to have the night of her life. Not only does she acknowledge her pregnancy and accept a proposal from her devoted boyfriend, but she is at the center of a disaster atop a high-rise Space Needle-type structure. It's a corker of an opening, replete with nods to fate and chance and with plenty of the gruesome, gory humor that is bult into the franchise's DNA.

The main story transpires in a modern-day suburb some 60 years later. College student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is forced to take a break from her studies because sleep deprivation is ruining her concentration. Every night, she has a dream about the high-rise disaster. She learns that Iris is her grandmother, a notorious hermit who lives off-the-grid and has been disowned by her family. Needing answers, Stefani visits Iris, who lays out the situation for her: Death is talking the entire Campbell family. Not only was Iris supposed to die in the disaster but her progeny - who never should have existed in the first place - are on the chopping block. That means that Stefani; her younger brother, Charlie (Teo Briones); her estranged mother, Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt); her uncle, Howard (Alex Zahara); and her three cousins (Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore) are Dead People Walking. In true Final Destination fashion, the movie begins the process of culling the group, following a proscribed order that Stefani discerns. It takes a few deaths before the survivors buy in.

Bloodlines doesn't try to re-invent the wheel. It hews close to the established template, brightening it up a little for newcomers while providing enough familiar touchstones that older viewers will feel at home. The movies have always done a good job of refreshing the cast. (Aside from Bludworth, the only character to recur was Ali Larter's Clear Rivers) This approach keeps audiences from expecting return appearances from past favorites (primarily because they're dead). Although none of the death scenes are overly convoluted, they are suitably graphic. And the rule applies that if the camera lingers on something - anything (no matter how seemingly innocuous) - for more than a half-second, it's going to become an instrument of death. However, when it comes to inventive eviscerations, I'd give preference to Osgood Perkins' The Monkey over Bloodlines. (The two share some similarities.)

It remains to be seen whether Bloodlines represents an opportunity for the franchise to re-start or whether this is just a one-time opportunity for fans to reconnect. Regardless, in large part because of a great beginning and a solid ending, this is one of the better entries into the series, at least on par with Final Destination 3 and 5 and far and away better than the others.

© 2025 James Berardinelli

Synopsis

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—“Final Destination Bloodlines.”Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.