Movie Review: Final Destination: Bloodlines

There are some movies for which assigning a star rating proves particularly difficult. Usually, this is because they have some pretty glaring flaws but still seem to accomplish what they set out to do and are satisfying in a way that leaves me wondering if the missteps even matter. Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth installment in the franchise which has arrived 14 years after its predecessor, is one such film. In many ways it ranks as one of the series’ best, but in others it perpetuates the problems that worsened as the series went on. So, what to rate it?

The core plot is more or less the same as every other one of these movies. Our main character, in this case Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) finds herself and those close to her being stalked by Death after avoiding dying in a major catastrophe due to a premonition. The twist this time, and it’s an interesting one, is that Stefani isn’t the one who actually foresaw a disaster (though she is now having recurring nightmares about it), but rather her grandmother Iris (Gabrielle Rose & Brec Bassinger) back in 1968, who prevented scores of people perishing in the complete structural failure of the newly opened Skyview Restaurant Tower. Due to the sheer number of people who were otherwise fated to die in the incident, Death has taken a long time to work through the list and “correct” things by killing the survivors off in freakish accidents, which has allowed Iris to start a family, with two children and five grandchildren, though she has long been estranged from them. Death has finally come for her and her next of kin (who shouldn’t exist since she shouldn’t have been alive to create them), and Stefani must try and convince her relatives of the danger they’re in before it’s too late.

It seems like a lot, but it really boils down to Stefani having to convince everyone to be extra cautious about everything around them while looking out for “signs” that Death might be about to make a move, just with some added metaphors for inherited trauma thrown into the mix. All the characters are pretty one dimensional, but people watch these movies for death not depth. That said, the cast of relative unknowns all do their best, making sure we are at least a little invested in their fates. It can be difficult to generate suspense around the potential demise of characters without any real emotional involvement, but this movie, as was the case in the prior five, instead gets us on edge by exposing and exaggerating the dangers of the world around us. By bombarding the viewer with a string of minor mishaps that all seem to teeter on the edge of becoming fatal, it leaves us to tensely guess about what will ultimately lead to their demise. Sure, it sometimes strains credulity or defies the laws of physics, but it still proves a reliable way to scare most of us and will have many leaving the theater more trepidatiously than they might have otherwise.

The death sequences themselves are once again elaborate, Rube-Goldbergian machinations that end violently, with this installment getting particularly grisly. Writers Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor, and Jon Watts have dreamt up some particularly elaborate and memorable set pieces, while the directing duo of Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein execute them well, showing a real knack for the franchise’s very specific brand of mayhem. As usual with these movies, the special effects during the larger scale disasters aren’t always the best, but they work well enough that few are likely to care. It’s a welcome return for a relatively formulaic but reliably thrilling series, with slightly more on its mind for a change and a fresh streak of morbid humor running throughout.

If Final Destination 2 instilled a lifelong fear of logging trucks in a generation of moviegoers, I guess Bloodlines aims to do the same for grand openings? Or perhaps it’s propaganda to drum up support for discontinuing the penny? Whatever the aim, it’s a blast of sick fun that allows us to deal with our fears of death in a safe, often cartoonishly over-the-top way while also making us look askance at the perils awaiting us in our everyday lives. As for ranking it, the aforementioned issues easily cost it a star, but it achieved everything it set out to do and was wildly entertaining while it did, which feels like it’s worth a solid four. ★★★★