REVIEW: ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Feels Like A Fitting End To A 25 Year Long Franchise
- Christopher Mills
- May 13
- 5 min read
It’s no shock to anyone that every production company wants to make a grand return to the big screen with an IP that was huge many years ago and brought them money via the box office. There has been a wave of horror films returning, from Halloween to The Strangers and much more. Final Destination now makes its return after 11 years to terrify audiences once more into watching their every step as they worry about what misstep could probably take their life. We’ve left the era of production studios ensuring that every release capitalized off using 3D technology; thankfully, Warner Bros. dropped that for Final Destination: Bloodlines, which is one less thing that prevents the movie from looking tacky.
Final Destination is a film series where the premise is set around a group of people who cheat death after one individual has a sudden premonition, warning them about their brutal death. After avoiding what the premonition foretold, the survivors are later killed in the order they died in the vision, in outrageous and bizarre accidents caused by an unseen force, Death. Final Destination: Bloodlines is the sixth installment in the franchise and follows Stefani Lewis (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), a college student who begins to dream of her grandmother Iris’s (Gabrielle Rose) premonition from decades ago, which then becomes the eventual cause of Death returning to take the life of a family that shouldn’t have even existed in the first place.
Final Destination has followed a formula for 25 years that has somewhat worked for them and has not broken away from that formula. The movie opens with our main character receiving a premonition of their death. They prevent it; Death comes after them, and they try to avoid Death, and in the process, we might learn something new about how to cheat Death once more, and eventually it ends with everyone dying in brutal unforeseen ways or with at least one survivor. This would usually sum up a Final Destination movie, but Final Destination: Bloodlines takes some different approaches, from how it handles its premonition scene to the focus of the film being on a family rather than a group of friends or random survivors who are bundled up together.
Stefani dreams of Iris's premonition, one that she prevented, which led to hundreds of people who were supposed to be dead being alive. Death always comes for everyone that was supposed to die within a premonition and works in order of how they died, with so many people having survived, Death has been working for decades, taking down many people and families, with Stefani's family finally being next up in line. Final Destination is a franchise that peaked as early as Final Destination 2, and from then, the only way they were able to keep their franchise fresh was to integrate new rules on how to avoid Death's plan.
With Final Destination: Bloodlines focusing itself on family, we get to witness dynamics that haven't played out in the franchise before. This is a family that has been haunted by the thought of Death coming after them, breaking their family apart, but also bringing them together when it all begins to get very real for them. There are moments of revelation that can feel as shocking as the gruesome deaths that came before and that come after. It provides a fresh take on the Final Destination franchise, allowing it to tell a story that follows the same beat as every film that came before and showcases it through a different lens that provides a touching and captivating story on family that Jon Watts, Guy Busick, and Lori Evans Taylor were able to meticulously craft, making Final Destination: Bloodlines stand out in a line of repetitive movies.
What would Final Destination be without its zany, outrageous, agonizing, and excruciating kills? It wouldn't be the franchise that it is today, and Final Destination: Bloodlines brings a lot of that to the table. This is a film that's best watched with a large crowd, as you'll get reactions that will sound quite similar to Tom's scream from Tom and Jerry. While every kill provides an audible reaction from the crowd, that doesn't necessarily mean that these kills are considered creative when compared to what the previous films had to offer.
The opening scene is as interesting as it gets for this film until its final moments, as we witness the Sky Tower come crashing down, seeing people get burnt alive, fall to their death, or even the sight of a kid getting crushed by a grand piano. In comparison to previous films, it ranks above the racetrack opener but still doesn't top the likes of the bridge collapse, rollercoaster malfunction or plane crash, which instilled real fear into their viewers. With that being said, it does make you want to avoid the "Dinner in the Sky" attraction in real life.
Final Destination: Bloodlines plays around with the idea of Death stalking and teasing this family, and directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein do a great job of creating this tension surrounding moments where death seems intimate and creating a hollow feeling in the chest for the viewers. It creates these great moments of tension but then also leaves the film lacking in kills that leave a lasting effect on the viewer. The barbecue scene plays around with who might die and the many looming threats of what may kill them, only for it to end in a rather lackluster and uninteresting way.
Another scene falls victim to this, and unfortunately both scenes are used in the bulk of the marketing to bring audiences to the cinema, so it's a shame to see that they're the worst parts of this film. There are still some great deaths that do stick with you that come during the second act and the final minutes of the film, but frankly, that isn't enough to justify this as a Final Destination movie with "creative" kills.
What keeps Final Destination: Bloodlines in high regard is that it's a film that connects all the films together through one singular character, William Bludworth, played by the late, talented and iconic Tony Todd. How he connects through all the films, besides appearing in most of them, is something that you must witness yourself, but it is a moment that gives Tony Todd his best performance in the franchise that feels like a genuine and respectable send-off for Tony Todd, William Bludworth and, overall, the Final Destination franchise. It's not confirmed yet whether there will be a sequel to this movie, but if Warner Bros. has respect for their actors and their legacy, this would be the best-fitting end for the Final Destination franchise.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is a hilarious showcase of some of the worst possible ways to lose your life. It revitalizes the franchise by bringing fresh new dynamics with a strong focus on family as its core theme. The kills aren't the most creative of the franchise and still have poor CGI affecting them, but they're still bound to create fears within a new generation of Final Destination viewers. It's the perfect way to bring the franchise to a close (even if it isn't the best film in the franchise), as it ties together 25 years of "storytelling" and sends off its most iconic character and actor, Tony Todd, who delivers one last great performance.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
About Final Destination: Bloodlines
Release Date: May 16, 2025
Directors: Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein
Writers: Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor
Production: New Line Cinema, Pratical Pictures, Freshman Year and Fireside Films
Distribution: Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Gabrielle Rose, Brec Bassinger, Rya Kihlstedt, Alex Zahara, April Telek, Tinpo Lee, Max Lloyd-Jones and Tony Todd
Synopsis: A college student experiencing a recurring nightmare that foretells her family's demise returns home to find the person who can prevent it.
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