It’s been 14 years since the last Final Destination film was released, the fifth and seemingly conclusive installment to the franchise. Each film, which opens with a premonition of a gruesome disaster including plane crashes, highway collisions, and roller coaster derailments, follows the survivors of said disasters as Death picks them off one by one. It’s a formula that has clearly captured audiences and for good reason- it’s a horror movie where the main antagonist is just the concept of dying. After 14 years and a few creative shake ups, Final Destination Bloodlines has delivered another compliation of blood and guts, but this time, with a bit of heart and soul.

The new film follows Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), who, instead of having the premonition that is the catalyst of each film, is having dreams of her grandmother dying at the grand opening of a Space Needle style restaurant in the 1950’s. After hesitation from her family, she tracks down her recluse grandmother and discovers that she was the one with the premonition. Instead of Death killing the people who survived the disaster, it’s now after anyone under that family tree. That diviation is a welcome addition to the lore of how Death works in these movies and immediately makes Bloodlines stand out from the rest. The movie opens with the collapse of the restaurant building in the 1950’s, which features all of the classic Final Destination tropes you love to see- close ups of glass panels cracking, a radio antenna, a faulty elevator that’s at capacity. It’s refreshing seeing this series of events play out just like you know it’s going to, but in a different time period. Even in the sixth installment of a long running series, there’s still room for exploration.

Though the specific sub-genre of horror comedy is relegated to overt comedies with horror elements like the Happy Death Day movies or even something like Zombieland, the Final Destination films should be included in the conversation, especially Bloodlines. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein understand they’re working in a world where close-ups of a rake under a trampoline, or a piece of glass in an ice box is the set up to a punchline we already know. Playing with that attention to detail is what this film gets right. During the opening in the 1950’s Skyview restaurant, the glass starts to crack under the dancefloor, but no one notices except for the audience. In an ordinary horror film, the cracking would be exaggerated and played for horror, but Bloodlines throws it in your face by having the band in the restaurant play “Shout!” by the Isley Brothers, a song that is guaranteed to have you bouncing up and down to your impending doom. That doubling down on the set-up is what makes the punchline all the more satisfying. It’s what makes the death of a child something that the audience laughs at. 

The screenplay by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor also deserves acclaim. The titualar bloodlines is what makes this film stand out from the rest of the series. Instead of following a group of young college or high school students, we follow a family with fractured complex dynamics. Stefani is estranged from her mother and since moving away for college, has become distant to her brothers and cousins who are all very close. It isn’t until she goes to see her agoraphobic grandmother (who survived the premonition) that the events of the film get set into motion. It’s actually astonishing how the writers and directors are able to dance on the line of having us be invested in a family we all know is about to die, but still laugh when it happens. The death scene involving a garbage truck is a masterclass of misdirection. Perhaps they’re able to do this because the characters are rather one-note and shallow, but the family dynamic is what keeps the audience engaged. 

This, of course, is still a Final Destination film so no matter how absorbed you are by the Stefani’s family, they will all eventually be transformed into CGI meat chunks. The Rube Goldberg style kills in this film are satisfying like any other film in the series. Another satisfying tie to the series is the inclusion of the late Tony Todd, in his final film appearance, reprising his role from previous films. His cameo works as a way to tie this movie into the previous five, but most importantly, as a moving eulogy to a horror icon. 

4 out of 5 stars

Final Destination Bloodlines is a wonderfully, gorey addition to an outrageous series of films, but also serves as a good entry point for anyone entering this universe for the first time. It’s a little long at almost 2 hours, but there’s plenty of fun to be had.