“Don’t f**k with Death!”
The first new entry in the Final Destination franchise in nearly fifteen years brings some changes to the formula, while still giving fans what they want — gruesome Rube Goldberg-style death traps that play out elaborately.
Unlike the other five films in the series, this one opens with a character dreaming about a previous mention of another member in their family. Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) has been having a recurring dream, which is the moment when her grandmother, Iris (Brec Bassinger), sees the terrible deaths of hundreds in a rooftop restaurant. The film’s opening fifteen minutes introduce us to Iris, but when the franchise would usually whip back in time to show how they save the day, we jump forward a couple of generations to Stefani waking up in her dorm room. We quickly learn that death is coming for Stefani’s family after it’s spent years cleaning up the others her grandmother helped save that night, and now it’s coming to finish the list off.
Writers Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor and Jon Watts, and directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, ensure you’re left guessing as death is more cunning in this film than any of the previous. And if you thought those trailers gave away too much, you will be dead wrong. But most impressive is how, even at the sixth film, the kills are still as elaborate, painstakingly put together and bloody in their finish. Final Destination: Bloodlines has some of the most brutal and gruesome deaths in the franchise’s history, as it appears no one’s face is safe from being squashed, bashed, blown up, or demolished in undescribable ways.
Where Final Destination: Bloodlines falls apart is in its characters, as the supporting cast is much more engaging than the leads. Kaitlyn Santa Juanna isn’t particularly likable as Stefani. The film goes to lengths to show her tension in relationships with brother Teo (Charlie Reyes), mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), and extended family, cousins Erik (Richard Harmon), Julia (Anna Lore), Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner), alongside their parents, Uncle Howard (Alex Zahara) and Aunt Brenda (April Telek). Stefani and Charlie’s father, Marty (Tinpo Lee), is quickly moved out of the film’s core group and is never seen again. The standout in the movie is Harmon as Erik, someone with a clear personality and love for those in his family, and is even challenged in his commitment to it in ways the rest of the group isn’t. The 1960s Iris, played by Brec Bassinger, is also shown to be a much more engaging lead, leaving me even more disappointed that we had to spend the film with Stefani and Charlie in the lead roles, who were easily the most boring of this cast of characters.
In a poignant moment in which the film could have easily leaned into more if it had chosen to, Tony Todd reprises his role as the franchise’s only recurring character, William John Bludworth, and the actor is visibly in rough shape while filming the role. At the time, he was battling stomach cancer before he died in late 2024. Offering some sage advice for the group of characters in the film and sitting in the cinema, Todd’s presence in the movie, even for a couple of minutes, is as strong as ever.
