Final Destination Bloodlines Review: Death Takes Center Stage in Mediocre Franchise Revival

It’s been 14 years since the Final Destination franchise toyed with audiences and the deadly implications of everyday life. The horror series has made everything from tanning beds to roller coasters into horrifying traps, turning the films into fan favorites for years, and the wait for a new installment has been a long one. With Final Destination Bloodlines, New Line Cinema has confirmed that there is still gas in the tank for this wild horror series, at least with what fans have come to expect from its Rube Goldberg death machines. Though satisfaction can be found in the creative ways the new movie kills off its characters, Final Destination Bloodlines never quite captures the magic of the best entries.

The opening accident premonition that fans have come to expect is a wild case of explosive carnage in a sky-high restaurant set in the 1960s, revealing itself to not just be a vision from one character at that time, but a recurring dream for Kaitlyn Santa Juana’s Stefani in the present day. The trouble is that the dream is ruining her life, forcing her to dig into her family’s past and discover their place in death’s design. After discovering that her dream was the premonition that her reclusive grandmother had decades ago, where she saved dozens of lives that have since spawned families of their own, the film kicks itself into gear with expected mayhem.

Directed by the filmmaking team of Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, Final Destination Bloodlines can rest its laurels on the fact that its intricate and grisly ways of killing its characters are done with a careful amount of suspense and hilarious ideas. There is something to be said for how frequently the filmmakers subvert the expectations of the audience in terms of not only who will die, but how they will ultimately be knocked off. An argument could perhaps be made that the film goes out of its way to pull at the taffy of suspense in each moment a little too long, making the setup for all of the deaths extend well beyond what any other Final Destination movie has done. However, the ingenious concepts behind the many, many deaths on screen will no doubt elicit cheers and screams, no matter how long the audience has to wait.

Credit where it’s due, Final Destination Bloodlines also has a clever route toward making a new movie in the franchise work. It would have been easy to pick up the formula and have a new batch of young actors take part in the same steps you’re expecting, but through a 2025 lens. Instead, Bloodlines has a slightly more thoughtful approach, using the rules of the franchise to paint a bigger picture that ties into every other movie in the series in a unique way. The trouble that this creates, however, is twofold; the opening sequence is not only the best stuff in the entire movie, but it ends up giving the film an extended prologue that makes it stand out from the rest of the series by a major degree. The 110-minute run time for Bloodlines is excruciating by the end as it clocks in 20 minutes longer than almost every other entry, and nearly 30 minutes longer than the franchise’s shortest installment. 

The bloated run time of Bloodlines is at least partially to blame on the scenes between deaths, where the characters come together. These sequences not only lack any kind of finesse or nuance, but the material at hand isn’t made any more interesting by the performances. One exception to this is, of course, the required cameo by the late Tony Todd, reprising his role of William Bludworth. Todd delivers yet another poignant sequence, one that feels tailored for his actual real-life death, which also grants him a graceful exit from the series as a whole. If it wasn’t clear that some of the acting in the movie leaves something to be desired, Todd enters the film for one moment and drops a clinic on his scene partners.

By the expectations of the sixth movie in a horror franchise, Final Destination Bloodlines lands about where you would think in terms of the cast and their capabilities. Kaitlyn Santa Juana’s Stefani Reyes is front and center, but she’s far from the most captivating screen presence. Instead, Richard Harmon’s Erik, who is central to the tattoo parlor-set teaser trailer for the film, is easily the movie’s most interesting character and the best performer. Anna Lore also brings a fun energy as Erik’s sister Julia, delivering perhaps the best scream in the entire movie. The best character in the entire movie, however, is Iris Campbell, Stefani’s grandmother, but exclusively the younger version confined to the flashbacks as played by Brec Bassinger. It should be a win that there are a handful of performers in a Final Destination movie that are able to leave an impression at all, but, given that they’re all supporting roles without a major focus, it does draw attention to the film’s larger weaknesses.

There’s a perverse satisfaction to be found in seeing someone sliced in half by an elevator or being immolated as a comically clumsy chef runs through a crowded restaurant holding a flaming pan. To that end, Final Destination Bloodlines delivers on what you expect from the franchise. Where the movie struggles is in the connectivity between these R-rated cartoon moments, which take up most of the screen time in a movie that is already way too long. Franchise fans may very well come away from Bloodlines satisfied by the resurrection of the formula, but true to form, it will be because three scenes in the entire movie are actually captivating and interesting, while the rest feel hollow and lifeless.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Final Destination Bloodlines hits theaters on May 16th.