Final Destination: Bloodlines Review
The Final Destination movies have always been something of a guilty pleasure franchise. Modern audiences have an appetite for watching people die in gruesomely over-the-top fashion. It’s why splatter-horror films like Saw and Escape Room have spawned multiple movies. But Final Destination still stands as the longest-running franchise in this turn-of-the-century subgenre of elaborate wacky death horrors. The release of Final Destination: Bloodlines marks the 25th birthday of the franchise.
But whileSaw has churned out sequel after sequel, the Final Destination franchise has been lying dormant since 2011, waiting for the right script and right directors to come along and reinvigorate the series for a new generation. Like Death coming back for those who cheated him, this franchise is back and is bigger, better and bloodier than ever before.
Since the original 2000 film, there has been a tried and tested formula. Each film begins with a horrific accident: a plane crash, a freeway pileup, a bridge collapse, etc. Only for the central character to have a premonition of the catastrophe mere minutes before it happens. They panic and manage to remove themselves and a few others from the unfolding events. The lucky survivors think they’re safe, but death soon comes back for them and picks them all off in calculated and excessively gory ways. Each sequel has been a rinse and repeat of this narrative pattern.
They say “if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it”. But with Bloodlines, rather than playing it safe and following the recipe, co-directors Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein have cherry-picked the best details from the older films and given the series a much-needed shakeup – even adding in some unexpected sentimentality to the mix.
Lipovsky and Stein are clearly fans of what came before, peppering the story with numerous subtle nods and references to the earlier entries. After five films, they know what conclusions savvy fans will jump to in certain deadly scenarios. So they’ve taken our preexisting knowledge of these films and exploited it in the best possible way. They’ve twisted the rules to their advantage and relished in toying and subverting with the audience’s expectations. Just when you think you know what’s coming, they throw another lore-defying curveball at you. The result is a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek and relentlessly fun outing, which will have you continuously squirming and wincing in your seat but also keep you guessing.
For starters, the opening disaster isn’t as straightforward as fans may expect. Set in 1975 at the grand opening of the 494ft tall Skyview restaurant, we see a young woman named Iris (Brec Bassinger) foresee the chain of events that will lead to the collapse of the building and ultimately her death. But when she snaps out of the premonition, we find ourselves not with Iris but her granddaughter Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), having just awoke from the recurrently vivid nightmare she has been having of her grandmother, which seemingly took place 50 years ago.
As the title Final Destination: Bloodlines suggests, death is on the prowl for Stefani’s family tree. After learning her grandmother was never meant to survive that fateful night, she realises death is now coming to collect the souls of the entire Reyes lineage, including her younger brother Charlie (Teo Briones), her absent mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt) and several of her cousins. Having this film revolve around a family makes the stakes feel so much more personal. At one point, Stefani traumatically witnesses a loved one screaming out in anguish as their head pops like a grape right in front of her, only for co-directors Lipovsky and Stein to immediately crash-cut to a kettle screeching on a hob. It’s both downright cruel and a sadistically hilarious cut.
But extravagantly gnarly kills are the norm in this franchise. What isn’t common is finding yourself emotionally moved – unless that emotion is disgust. But in an oddly poignant final scene, from recurring staple character William John Bludworth, played by the late Tony Todd. The grimacing mortician fittingly reminds the survivors to make the most of what precious time they’ve got. This stop-and-smell-the-roses syrupiness isn’t something you typically associate with a franchise that has established a brand for itself as splat, skewer and crush. But Todd delivering this sage advice about appreciating life (in his final ever cinematic appearance) ironically adds an unexpected level of bittersweetness that has been absent from all previous entries.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is a blood-soaked joyride which stands out as the strongest and most emotionally affecting film in its 25-year run. It delivers the signature palpable suspense and creative carnage that fans desire, but also sneaks in a few surprises to keep things feeling fresh. It’s unashamedly trashy and so gleefully nasty in its execution that it’s truly best experienced for the first time surrounded by strangers in a cinema. You’ll collectively laugh, groan, shriek, applaud and may even feel a little gooey at one point. It’s blergh-y brilliant.
★★★★
In UK cinemas from May 14th / Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Rya Kihlstedt, Anna Lore, Gabrielle Rose, Brec Bassinger ,Tony Todd / Dir: Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein / New Line Cinema / 15
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