Final Destination Bloodlines Becomes Best-Reviewed Entry on Rotten Tomatoes

Final Destination has defied death once again. The iconic horror franchise is back from the grave with Final Destination Bloodlines, the first installment since Final Destination 5 brought the saga full circle in 2011. (A last-minute twist revealed that the fifth and seemingly final chapter was actually a prequel, and that the survivors who successfully managed to cheat Death’s design ended up passengers on the ill-fated Flight 180 from the 2000 original).

In another twist no premonition saw coming, the sixth movie in the 25-year-old franchise is the best-reviewed Final Destination yet: Bloodlines debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with 91% approval from critics (based on 48 reviews counted thus far). Until now, Final Destination 5 was the only installment to receive a “fresh” score on the review aggregator with 63%.

The other entries are all “rotten,” with 2009’s The Final Destination (a.k.a. Final Destination 4) the lowest-rated installment at 28%. The first Final Destination has the second-lowest score at 40%, while 2006’s Final Destination 3 has a 44% and 2003’s Final Destination 2 logs a 52%.

RELATED: Final Destination 6 Features a Nod to Alternate Alex Fate

The revival — which also marks the final film role of the late Tony Todd, who has played mysterious mortician William Bludworth since the 2000 original — “takes audiences back to the very beginning of Death’s twisted sense of justice,” per the logline. “Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.”

Here are excerpts from the first Final Destination Bloodlines reviews from around the web:

Variety: “If the defining tone of the most successful Final Destination films can be boiled down to ‘unsettling, but silly,’ Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein’s Final Destination Bloodlines maintains that balance as well as any installment before it … In an age of interconnected cinematic universes, it only took six films and 25 years to bring together this horror franchise — ironically, one where causality is a cornerstone of its mythology. Clever, unpredictable and fun, Final Destination Bloodlines offers the series a transfusion of creativity that virtually guarantees that it will live to kill again.”

The Hollywood Reporter: “The Grim Reaper should garner a new generation of fans with the sixth entry in the venerable horror film series that died, I mean was born, a quarter-century ago. Arriving 14 years after the last installment — an eternity by franchise standards — Final Destination Bloodlines gives its audiences exactly what they expect. Namely, a series of ingeniously designed, diabolical Rube Goldberg-style fatalities that are mostly so within the realm of possibility that you’ll find yourself crossing the street very carefully after you leave the theater.”

Bloody Disgusting: “The aura of supernatural mystery behind Bludworth gets unceremoniously but tenderly dispelled, but it’s Tony Todd himself who brings affecting poignancy to his brief appearance. Todd’s monologue, mostly improvised and from the heart, serves as a heartfelt goodbye, the first genuine tearjerker moment of the entire film series. It’s a momentous scene that also captures the film’s unevenness. The highs of creative kills and Tony Todd’s poignant final bow are offset by an underdeveloped story that struggles beyond its solid concept.”

Empire Magazine: “Entertaining as it is, the Final Destination franchise was getting tired when it was laid to rest in 2011 — there are only so many times you can rinse and repeat before the Grim Reaper’s scythe gets rusted. This reboot, then, offers a tweak to the format, with the group in peril being not pals and a rando or two, but a family. … Laugh as you barf. This fun reboot is crammed with affectionate nods and grisly kills as it bids a fond farewell to Tony Todd. Might it have been called ‘Ultimate Destination’?”

Time Out: “The deaths aren’t repulsive in a Saw way, but amusingly repellent. [Directors] Lipovsky and Stein enjoy themselves lingering on all sorts of mundane objects – a trampoline, a beer bottle, a leaf blower – challenging you to work out how they might all come together to turn someone to pulp. It never happens in the way you expect. This movie does exactly what a horror reboot should, taking the best bits of the original and heading in a smart, inventive new direction. There’s minimal reliance on nostalgia. It’s daft as hell and a heck of a good time.”

AV Club: “A little meta and unrepentantly silly, the horror franchise reboot boasts big kills and little else. … These movies are built to be splattery supercuts showcasing the warped imaginations of horror filmmakers and special effects professionals, exploiting the call of the void that everyday objects can sound throughout our lives. Bloodlines does so playfully and lightly, without getting bogged down by franchise lore or pesky cinematic tropes like ‘characters.’ The long gap between series entries means the film doesn’t need to subvert expectations, but merely play into them—in doing so, it’s a success as simple as its death traps are convoluted.”

IndieWire: “Silly, delicate, sharp, and mean, Bloodlines has its flaws but nevertheless confirms Death’s Design as a force worthy of its own special place in the horror hall of fame. A flawless goodbye for Tony Todd, whose enduring affection for the genre community oozes from the screen like a warm hug, Bloodlines should appear high on any list of the Candyman’s most enchanting performances regardless of when he passed. As the sun sets on William Bludworth, the latest and greatest Final Destination looks to the horizon in a rapidly expanding world that Todd helped build into an institution as big as his presence.”

Final Destination Bloodlines — starring Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, with Brec Bassinger and Tony Todd — is only in theaters May 16.