‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Review: Death Strikes Again

After a 14-year hiatus, ‘Death’ strikes again in the Final Destination franchise. The new installment is back and is now more gruesome and deadlier than ever—returning with a vengeance. Final Destination: Bloodlines doesn’t just resurrect the franchise —it injects it with high-octane terror, sleek visual finesse, and a surprising amount of lore expansion. Jon Watts’ decision to revive the franchise with his experience in big-budget films is showcased in Bloodlines as the technical aspects of the film vastly improved, especially in cinematography, directing, and VFX. The bar might be low, but Final Destination: Bloodlines proved to be the best and narratively ambitious entry in the franchise.

This article contains spoilers for Final Destination: Bloodlines.

The film opens with a traditional Final Destination gimmick, where the audience sees Iris Campbell’s (Brec Bassinger) premonition in the Skyview Restaurant Tower back in the 1960s. The opening scene featured a chaotic and gruesome premonition scene. The whole sequence may be the most realistic amongst the other Final Destination films thanks to modern VFX techniques and stunts —stuck and killed by a falling elevator, killed by a falling piano, or setting the oldest person on fire, among others. 

But same with other modern blockbuster films like Wicked: Part One, Bloodlines also suffered lighting issues where some scenes were horribly lit in some scenes in the opening scene. The whole premonition sequence in the Skyview Tower is so poorly executed that it didn’t quite compare to others like the highway death sequence of Final Destination 2 or the bridge death sequence of Final Destination 5. And as the scene ends with Iris dying in the premonition, the camera directly cuts to Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) instead of Iris’ —which we found out to be Stefani’s grandmother, citing a new rule in the franchise —expanding the lore further.

After being haunted for weeks by the premonition, Stefani goes back to her hometown to find some answers about their family. We were then introduced to her family members; her brother, Charlie (Theo Briones), her cousins, Erik (Richard Harmon), Julia (Anna Lore), and Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner). After a confrontation with his uncle, Howard (Alex Zahara), Stefani goes to a secluded place where her grandmother lived for years in order to escape and cheat Death. Iris tells Stefani that she prevented the Skyview Restaurant incident and saved all the lives that should’ve been taken by Death, and after years of taking the lives of those people and the families it created —it is now coming after theirs.

This shocking revelation further enriches the Final Destination lore, as we found out that the established rule in Final Destination 2 —where it was stated that if Isabella Hudson, the pregnant survivor, had her baby would stop Death, isn’t true. Final Destination: Bloodlines explains that children born to people who should have died should not exist and that is why Death tries to correct the lifeline. The scene also shows that like what Clear Rivers did in Final Destination 2, you can survive Death for a time being. But what’s different with Iris is that she can actually predict Death’s traps to the point where Death himself almost gave up on killing her in a horrible manner —giving Iris a cancer instead.

Horrified by the story, Stefani doesn’t believe her grandma and rushes out of the house. As Iris realizes she didn’t have much time anyway, she gives her book to Stefani which contains all information and clues to survive the unstoppable curse and she then offers herself to Death to prove that all of it is true.

Now that Iris is dead, Death is now on its way to claim the Campbell family, starting with Howard. What I really like about Howard’s death is that the whole sequence also felt like a murder mystery. Death created so many ‘traps’ that it leaves us, the audience on guessing which character dies next —is it Stefani’s father, Marty (Andrew Tinpo Lee) choking to death by a glass on his drink? Is it Erik dying by stepping a rake under the trampoline? Or is it Howard’s wife, Brenda dying in a sudden burst of fire on the barbecue stand? But it turns out that the aforementioned traps are actually the pieces for Howard to be killed by a lawnmower in a horrifying manner. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein made a perfectly coordinated sequence that you can appreciate how it perfectly sets up the building tension; telling you that nobody in this film is safe from dying.

After Howard’s death, Stefani realizes that what Iris told her is true and proceeds to inform and warn their family. We found out that Death takes Howard because he is the eldest son of Iris, therefore, their branch of the family will be taken first which means Erik is next, followed by Julia and Bobby. After taking Howard’s branch, he will then take Darlene’s (Rya Kihlstedt), then Stefani, and finally ending with Charlie.

Erik ignored the whole thing and thinks that Stefani is just in distress by the shocking deaths of Howard and their grandma and goes to work. As soon as Erik was left all alone on the tattoo shop listening to Air Supply’s “Without You” while tattooing his arm with the word ‘Dad’, Death doesn’t waste any time to take his victims and starts to set up his traps and sets the shop on fire. Stefani was worried the following day, looking for Erik, but a shocking thing happened as we see that Erik survived Death’s traps earlier that night.

Stefani and Charlie are still wary about Erik and are very protective of him, predicting that their surroundings —a leaf blower blowing a soccer ball and hitting his face might still kill him. Erik shoves off the siblings away as they encounter Julia on her way to jog. Moments later, Stefani’s prediction happens, but instead of Eri,k it is Julia who is hit by the soccer ball, resulting in her being thrown out of the garbage truck, resulting in her death.

Stefani predicting what can or may happen, stating that “it’s just mat,h” is a very crucial information in this franchise as it proves that these characters have a chance to survive their incoming deaths. Unfortunately for Bloodlines, it didn’t explore this minor detail throughout the film, because the idea that Death, a supernatural entity, can be prevented using mathematics and solving probabilities can go so hard and make an interesting plot. I hope the future films of this franchise incorporate this detail as a central plot.

Another shocking revelation emerges as the reason Erik survived and Julia dies is because he is not Harold’s son. The whole sequence earlier in the tattoo shop now felt somewhat disappointing with this reveal. Now that Bobby is next, Stefani, Charlie, Darlene, Erik, and Bobby go to find J.B. when they discover that he has found someone who survived the curse. It is then revealed that J.B. is Tony Todd’s character William Bludworth from earlier Final Destination films—who is revealed to be the little boy who died last in Iris’ premonition.

J.B. told the Campbells that there are only two ways to survive against Death. It’s either you take someone’s life in exchange of yours, like what we saw in Final Destination 5 where Nathan kills Roy —or you die for a time being like what Clear Rivers did in Final Destination 2.

The late Candyman actor’s final performance is portrayed in a beautiful, somber moment. Todd’s line about thanking Iris for saving him in the Skyview Restaurant and isolating herself in order to have a longer life is simply touching. And his monologue about him already living his life long enough and wanting to spend the remaining moments of his life to the fullest is heartwarming but heartbreaking at the same time, considering he’s in a bad condition while filming the movie. His dedication to appear in the movie just shows how much he loved this franchise—because Final Destination isn’t what it is without Tony Todd.

After hearing that J.B. wouldn’t help them, Erik became desperate to save his brother by killing him with his peanut allergy, and revive him afterwards. But Death proves to be a relentless son of a b*tch and doesn’t like it when someone messes with his plans. So even though Erik is exempted from his list, he still took his life for trying to save Bobby —another idea that is new in the franchise. After killing Erik in the most gruesome way a person can imagine when they’re sucked in the CT scan machine, Death wastes no time immediately took Bobby’s life –taking both brothers’ life within minutes from each other.

Bloodline‘s third act is definitely the weakest part of the film. Now that Death is coming to Darlene’s family, she plans to isolate herself in Iris’ house for years to protect her children. But Death is clever this time and prevents her from entering the house. By targeting her children, Darlene is distracted which resulted to her death. Meanwhile, Stefani was drowning and almost died but was revived by her brother. The film ended with the siblings thinking it was all over, but they found out that Stefani didn’t technically ‘die’ when she drowned and out of nowhere, a train crashed the neighborhood and killed the both of them. The whole sequence felt rushed and lazy.

What I like most about Final Destination: Bloodlines is the playfulness and comedic timing of its soundtrack. As a fan of 80’s rock and roll music, hearing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” as bodies fall from the Skyview Restaurant or when “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” plays when the Campbell’s had barbecue as if saying to escape their incoming deaths cleverly juxtaposes upbeat classics with scenes of horror. These song choices elevate the tone and keep the film from being too self-serious and masterfully play as an allegory of its environment and characters’ deaths.

While it is undeniably the most gory, realistic, and gruesome Final Destination entry, some of its death sequences felt lazy, boring, and uninspired. The film didn’t reach the height of creativeness and playfulness of the prior films—such as the whole NASCAR race crash’s over-the-top goofiness and outdated effects—which its bizarre flair fans loved, is clearly missing. Still, the upgraded production, fresh mythology, and nostalgic callbacks make it a compelling, if imperfect, addition to the franchise.

From a technical standpoint, this is definitely the best entry in the franchise. The difference in concept, directing, and visual effects vastly improved. Like Neon’s The Monkey, Bloodlines is subtly funny, which I think is starting to be a trend in the horror genre. But Bloodlines isn’t a perfect movie, and it has its fair share of flaws. The pacing of this film is way too quick, then it slows down for no particular reason. It seems like it couldn’t find the right tempo and felt rushed, which is very evident in the third act of the film.

Overall, Final Destination: Bloodlines marks a bold, blood-soaked return for the franchise, which had lain dormant for so long. It has the best visuals and most coherent mythology of any Final Destination movie made to date. While it falters in its third act and fails to capitalize on several rich possibilities, most notably around its intriguing “math vs. Death” premise—it deserves its status as a worthy sequel. With a tighter script and more assured pacing, this new installment could have been a horror classic. Instead, it falls somewhere between a nostalgia-driven plot and uneven execution. But if Bloodlines teaches us anything, it’s that Death still has a few tricks up its sleeve —and this franchise isn’t ready to die just yet.

Final Destination: Bloodlines is directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein. The film stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, and more. Final Destination: Bloodlines is coming to cinemas near you on May 16th.

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