Final Destination: Bloodlines review

FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES: 

GUARANTEED GORY FUN THE SIXTH TIME AROUND! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Death Runs in the Family in Final Destination: Bloodlines

 

            Death is back with a vengeance after a near 14-year hiatus in Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth installment of the long-running Final Destination film series dating all the way back to 2000. The Final Destination movies as far as horror franchises go are a ton of fun despite the concept (A group of people survive a horrific accident after someone has a premonition about their deaths only to be killed off one by one in gruesome and outlandish ways) and even the worst installments (Final Destination 3 and 4 IMO!) still have some memorable death scenes at least. 

            They aren’t trying to be game-changing horror masterpieces, they’re just entertaining and bloody movies about people cheating Death as if it’s a literal slasher movie villain with tons of creative and over-the-top deaths and a sick sense of humor about it. The formula worked in 2000 and it still works today in 2025. 

            Which brings us to this sixth film released nearly 14 years after 2011’s Final Destination 5 and takes the franchise formula to a new level… and by that, I mean Death going after families that weren’t supposed to exist. I don’t often talk about the Final Destination movies, but I have to say this one might actually be my favorite of the series as it focuses on the strengths of the other movies while adding a new spin to the formula. 

            The film follows Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana-The Flash), a college student who’s haunted by a recurring nightmare of a 1968 tower collapse. Turns out that wasn’t a nightmare, it was a premotion her grandmother had of her and several other people’s deaths as she saved a lot of lives that evening, but Death came back and started targeting the victims’ families for several decades. 

            Desperate for answers, Stefani, her younger brother Charlie (Newcomer, Teo Briones), her cousins Erik (Richard Harmon-The Killing, If I Had Wings, The 100), Bobby (Owen Joyner-100 Things to Do Before High School, Knight Squad, Julie and the Phantoms), and Julia Campbell (Newcomer, Anna Lore), and her estranged mother Darlene Campbell (Rya Kihlstedt-Dexter, Superman & Lois, Obi-Wan Kenobi) turn to an expert on surviving Death, William Bludworth (Tony Todd-Candyman franchise, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023 Video Game); in his final film role) in hopes of breaking the cycle and saving themselves from their inevitable grisly demise. 

            The film also stars Gabrielle Rose (The Stepfather, Timecop, Double Jeopardy) as Stefani’s grandmother Iris Campbell, Brec Bassinger (The Haunted Hallways, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, Stargirl) as Young Iris, April Telek (The Immortal, Aliens in America, Brazen) as Stefani’s aunt Brenda Campbell, and Alex Zahara (Stargate SG-1, The 13^th Warrior, 2012) as Stefani’s uncle Howard Campbell. 

            Overall, Final Destination: Bloodlines gives exactly what you want to see in this franchise, people getting brutally killed in over-the-top and ridiculous ways (Which there are plenty of here) while also expanding upon ideas that were explored throughout the earlier films and giving some of the best protagonists since probably Final Destination 2. If you’ve seen any of the previous entries then you should be familiar with the setup, what I really like about this one is that it’s not about someone having a premonition about a group of people’s deaths that’s going to happen, but rather the aftermath of a person’s premonition from 50 years ago and successfully preventing everyone’s deaths which resulted in families that weren’t supposed to exist. 

            It’s a neat take on the Final Destination premise and the film has fun with it with plenty of nods and references to the earlier films sprinkled throughout. Even the infamous Flight 180 and Log Truck get some representation here. 

The characters I wouldn’t say are deep or complex, but I gave a shit about them and wanted to see most of them prevail. Nobody here is a stock character just there to die, everyone has a fun quirk to make you invested in them whether it’s through their personalities or banter with the other leads with the sibling dynamic between Stefani and Charlie being the emotional core of the film. Even characters who if they were done in lesser hands would have been stock and obnoxious shine like the douchebag cousin who works in a tattoo parlor and hates everyone gets some good laughs and has a few touching moments. 

Enough plot and character discussing, let’s finally talk about the deaths which range from outlandishly cartoonish to wince-inducing. The opening dream/premonition of the people falling to their deaths by the collapsing sky tower is very suspenseful and tense with the occasional dash of dark humor though I doubt it will have the same cultural impact as the logs in the beginning of the second film or even the plane crash from the first, but it’s still a well shot and edited opening sequence. 

You also got the glass shard falling into the ice box and being scooped into someone’s drink that sets off a horrific domino effect and the painful-looking nose piercing getting stuck on a fan chain from the trailers which are great for different reasons. But then, you get deaths by vending machine springs and radiation machines that are so ridiculous and creative, you just can’t help but laugh. 

Final Destination: Bloodlines knows what it is and isn’t trying to be a new horror masterpiece, it’s a fun, gory ride from beginning to end that takes the franchise and its tropes to new levels with endearing lead characters to boot. It also ends with a lovely tribute to the late, Tony Todd and part of me hopes the franchise stops here because I don’t know how you could top this, I guess the box-office will be the judge of that. 

Regardless, this series of horror films continue to be watched and talked about for over the past two decades and if accident-prone deaths will be relevant for several more decades, Final Destination will truly be the franchise about people dying that will never die. I also survived the 4DX version of this movie!