Final Destination: Bloodlines: a lot of people died, I loved it, go see it. The End.

My editor has informed me that this is insufficient for a review. Before I go any further into why I particularly enjoyed this installment and some of the issues I had, there will be spoilers. It’s kind of unavoidable for this one.

• Directed by: Zach Lipovsky Adam B. Stein
• Written by: Guy Busick. Lori Evans Taylor. Jon Watts
• Starring: Kaitlyn Santa Juana. Teo Briones. Rya Kihlstedt

The Set Up.

Decades after Iris has a premonition that saves the lives of everyone in a sky tower restaurant, her granddaughter Stephani discovers that Death has returned for Iris and a bloodline that never should have existed.

As the sixth movie in the franchise, this might seem like an intimidating place for new viewers to start. However, with a script that covers all the basics and firmly establishes the rules of Death, it’s surprisingly newbie-friendly. H³ would still hate it though, thanks to a well-timed weathervane.

Final Destination: Bloodlines has plenty of easter eggs and callbacks to the previous installments. If this is your first experience with the franchise, you won’t feel like you’re missing anything.   It is nice to see the long-dormant series acknowledge all the fantastic kills that came before.  A lot of practical and CG effects went into those sequences, and they are one of the reasons fans keep coming back for more.

The Kills

It’s fortunate then that Bloodlines has some fantastic kills. One of the long-established traits of this version of Death is their tendency to use elaborate set-ups to kill their victims.  Or just run someone over with a truck. Both styles are represented here, although the long game kills are more heavily featured.

This time around, Death also goes for the fake out. There are a couple nice near misses that in the end only reinforce the theme that tempting fate, or Death, is a bad idea.  It also ups the humor of the movie. Dark comedy has always been present in Final Destination and Bloodlines is no exception. When most of your cast isn’t going to make it to the credits, adding some levity is a smart move.  This does largely rely on your sense of humor being a touch on the darker side.  Otherwise, you may find yourself once again being the only person laughing when the brattiest kid in recent movie history gets flattened by a piano. Trust me, he deserved it, and the timing was hilarious.

The Characters

Other than the above-mentioned kid, most of the characters weren’t ones I particularly wanted to see die. This cast features a family dealing with complicated dynamics caused by the grandmother, Iris, and her trauma from her premonition. They’re all likeable and very relatable. As the family members are being stalked by Death, they are also working to repair their broken bonds.

Death doesn’t care about any of that, since none of these people should exist. Their estrangements, infidelity, and family ties don’t matter much either.  It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that as their interpersonal drama gets resolved, Death will show up to remind them of its inevitability.

Tony Todd.

It’s impossible to talk about characters without discussing William John Bludworth. Played by Tony Todd in many of the previous installments, Bludworth would advise the doomed cast of Death’s grand design. Fans had long speculated about who or what Bludworth really was, and how he came across his knowledge of Death. Bloodlines finally answers those questions. It’s much simpler than many of the fan theories. That’s not a bad thing.  Bludworth was one of the survivors of Iris’s premonition. He’s befriended her and tracked Death’s actions as over the years it hunted down and killed everyone who should have died that night.  He knows so much because he’s seen so many people fail.

This was Tony Todd’s last major film role. His impact on horror and genre movies and television cannot be overstated. I had the opportunity to meet him once at Days of the Dead in Charlotte, NC.  While “never meet your heroes” may be true for other industries, I’ve not found it to be the case in horror (with a few exceptions). Tony Todd was fantastic to talk with about horror and his love of theater.  He will always be one of my favorite actors, from any genre.

No matter how I felt about the trailer, or storyline of Bloodlines, I was going to see it because it was his last movie.  While Bludworth’s story ended earlier than any of us wanted, it ended well.

The Complaint

Final Destination: Bloodlines is not a perfect movie. There are some standard quibbles: dialogue that’s a little clunky, a character that just exists to doubt everything, and another that oddly vanishes before the third act. 

None of those really bothered me as much as the MRI thing.  Intellectually, I’m sure I understand why they probably went this direction. MRIs are thought to behave in a specific way, and it’s easier to lean into that than correct the assumption or try to explain a sophisticated machine. However, as cool as the dual MRI deaths were, and they were very cool, they are in fact, impossible.  For several reasons, in fact; starting with basic machine operations and ending with layout of rooms.  This scene would not have bothered me if years ago I had not spent months developing MRI certification courses for an online educator. Ever since that summer, I’ve had the phrase “The magnet is always on” burned into my brain.  Yes, MRIs are dangerous. They can kill people. They just can’t do it like this.

The Final Result

Final Destination: Bloodlines offers up more of what viewers love from the franchise. Although it’s been given a slightly new premise, it doesn’t take too long to return to the formula. That’s not a complaint. It’s a decent mix of the familiar from a new perspective. Death is still playing by its same rules. It likes to kill people in a specific order and punish those who try to cheat.   None of the family have had a premonition themselves; they’re learning second-hand how to spot Death’s approach.  This doesn’t put them at any specific disadvantage, compared to the others, since no one ever believes that death is after them until it knocks off a couple of people anyway. 

Final Thoughts

There’s not a lot to dislike about Bloodlines. I think the lingering question will be if it moves the franchise ahead enough. For being the first movie released in about 10 years, this feels like the right move. The next installment should push the lore more and dive into the origin of the premonitions or give us something that builds on this concept of Death. For now, just reintroducing the world to its rules in a fun and gory way is enough for me.

Final Destination: Bloodlines is in theaters now