FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES REVIEW
“The most well-realized installment of the franchise with even more replay value than ever.”
Every once in a while, a movie comes along that you’ve been anticipating and excited about for so long you go into it with so many advance expectations. In the case of Final Destination Bloodlines, I’ve been waiting 14 long years for the next installment after Final Destination 5, and I couldn’t be any more excited for it to finally see the light of day. Since I successfully managed to avoid the trailer for the movie before seeing it (which I highly recommend), I’ll keep spoilers to a minimum and just talk about the movie in regards to the earlier films in the series. Bloodlines is the sixth movie in the series, but it acts as a standalone that you can enjoy without seeing other movies, and yet, it also connects to the entire franchise in quite a brilliant way that you’ll have to figure out for yourself.
The film opens in the early ‘60s as a young couple is on a date to the opening of the exclusive Skyview Restaurant, a complex not unlike the Space Needle in Seattle or Toronto’s CN Tower. We learn that Iris (Brec Bassinger) is pregnant and her boyfriend (Max Lloyd-Jones) is about to propose marriage, but because this is a “Final Destination” movie, you can sense that something bad is going to happen. Eventually, it does, but Iris has a premonition that saves everyone, but anyone who has seen a “Final Destination” knows about Death’s design. In this case, there’s no way anyone can be prepared for the amount of absolute and wanton chaos created by Iris’ actions, but the movie cuts forward sixty years, and we meet Kaitlyn Santa Juana’s Stefani and her dysfunctional family, who have been divided for years due to the behavior by her mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), which in turn is due to the craziness exhibited by her mother Iris (Gabrielle Rose). That’s right. Iris survived the incident at the Skyview while saving the lives of hundreds of people who would go on to have kids and grandkids. But you can’t cheat Death, and by having families, they ended up putting all their lives into danger as well.
In that sense, Bloodlines takes a different approach from previous movies where we’re not watching the survivors of the opening “accident,” as much as we’re seeing how their relatives contend with Death’s design decades later. It’s a rather clever premise that originated from Jon Watts of Cop Car and the most recent Spider-Man films and is beautifully realized by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein of the low-budget 2018 indie film, Freaks.
Probably one of the biggest complaints I heard about the “Final Destination” movies is that “they’re all the same,” and Bloodlines makes it so that no one can say that. Bloodlines masters the franchise’s misdirect by offering some of the best red herrings of the entire franchise where there are people you are expecting to die, and you’re watching the set-up for that to happen, and yet… Unlikes past installments where the biggest jerks are killed off in the most brutal way, there are many people in this one you like too much to want them to be killed at all. In that sense, it’s the first installment where you’re watching a movie where not everyone is just there to be fodder for Death’s design.
A real stand-out amongst the cast is Richard Harmon as Erik, one of Stefani’s cousins, the obligatory guy in the movie who is being so obnoxious about evading Death that when he finally buys it, it might be one of the most disturbing and uncomfortable kills in the entire franchise. The writing is a little wonky at times, but the cast and the fact that having the characters be related does a lot to elevate the material over some of the earlier installments.
Tony Todd’s return as coroner Bloodworth has a much larger impact in Bloodlines than anyone could possibly expect, mainly since the actor died from stomach cancer after filming his scenes last year. Todd and Bloodworth are going to be severely missed, but he’s given such a great send-off that it will make fans of these movies and Todd really happy to see it.
I’ve often thought that Music Supervision is such an important role in filmmaking deserving of an Oscar category, and Final Destination Bloodlines’ Andrea von Foerster should definitely be considered by the Guild of Music Supervisors for her work finding some of the most clever and funniest songs to play at just the right time. That’s also been a staple of the franchise, but the needle drops in Bloodlines are next level in terms of getting even more laughs out of what would normally be a very dark movie. In that sense, this installment gleefully accepts its place as a horror-comedy even when the subject of death would normally be quite grim
Listen, I love this franchise, and Bloodlines is among the best examples of what can be done to put a twist on the general premise to take things even further into even more interesting directions. Everything in Bloodlines is pushed even further than ever, both in terms of the gore but also with the characters, and because of that, it might be the best-realized installment of the franchise, with even more replay value than ever.
Rating: 8/10