Death will come for us all someday. In the Final Destination movies, death comes in the most ridiculous and goriest way possible. It is as though the Grim Reaper is Rube Goldberg, setting in motion deaths that are not only comedic, but also bound to instill a new fears: driving behind trucks holding log cabins, tanning beds, laser eye surgery, the drain in a public pool, what have you. This “Oh my God, they killed Kenny” horror franchise is peak entertainment. In Bloodlines, the first installment in 14 years, death is out to get an entire family lineage and marks its long-awaited return with Final Destination’s most gruesome and crowd-pleasing entry to date.
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MPA Rating: R (strong violent/grisly accidents, and language.)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 50 Minutes
Production Companies: New Line Cinema, Practical Pictures, Freshman Year, Fireside Films
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Directors: Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein
Writers: Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor
Cast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Rya Kihlstedt, Anna Lore, Brec Bassinger, Tony Todd
Release Date: May 16, 2025
In 1968, Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger) had a fatal premonition that allowed her to prevent the collapse of a Skyline restaurant. Years later, her granddaughter Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is plagued by visions of what could have happened. Unable to concentrate on college, she goes home to look into why she keeps seeing things from the past. But things are tense within the Reyes-Campbell family tree. Her mom Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt) walked out on the family when Stefani was a child. Stefani’s younger brother Charlie (Teo Briones) is icy towards her, preferring to bond with his cousins — eccentric body-art artist Erik (Richard Harmon), timid Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner), and stuck-up Julia (Anna Lore). Through her uncle Howard, Stefani finds out the truth about why nobody discusses or sees Grandma Iris.
She soon finds Iris (Gabrielle Rose), now a recluse living in a fortified bunker. Iris reveals that death has been angry and pursuing every survivor of the 1968 Skyline incident—and their descendants—because no one should have lived. Fearing death’s retribution, Iris has stayed indoors for decades, traumatizing her children. When tragedy strikes and Iris’s fears prove real, it’s up to Stefani to protect the Reyes-Campbell family and break death’s pattern before it claims them all.
Since 2000, the Final Destination movie has adhered to a strict formula. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Only the settings and creative ways people die (or are tortured, since some of them have subversive fake outs) differ. Bloodlines gives it a fresh face by applying the familiar psychic protagonist template to a story of generational trauma.
This installment is basically an Encanto AU. Imagine Alma had Bruno’s abilities and wound up kicking off a cycle of generational trauma, leading her family not to speak of her just as they did with Bruno. Then, when Mirabel starts to have those psychic abilities, she has to wrangle her family, fix their problems, and evade death. It may sound like a joke but that’s the plot.
Considering the scope of the series so far — every protagonist has That’s So Raven visions and ends up having to save friends or strangers — Bloodline’s focus on family is a refreshing and inspired change. Despite the characters’ broad strokes, cheesy dialogue, and the not-so-subtle sense that everyone is doomed, you still care about this family’s fate. This is mostly thanks to the brother-sister dynamic between Kaitlyn Santa Juana and Teo Briones as Stefanie and Charlie, which makes you genuinely root for them to survive this deadly game.
Also I must mention the late Tony Todd’s Bloodworth, who makes his final appearance. Man, what a legend. He is as essential to this series as its premise. For this being his final appearance, it serves as a perfect and heartfelt swan song, giving him the character depth that none of the previous entries did. RIP to the GOAT.
Listen, this is a Final Destination movie. We’re here for the set pieces and the gory money shots, and this is the most grotesque yet visually satisfying they’ve ever been. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein (Freaks) pour their love for the series into crafty and meticulous set pieces that emphasize the use of practical effects, including explosions. It’s a huge departure from the franchise’s gradual decline into close-up reaction shots and inserts during the 2000s 3D boom. Lipovsky and Stein pour their hearts into each and every detailed, gory-ass set piece. The cold open of the Skyline is so stomach-churning and tense I had secondhand vertigo long before the first blood was drawn. Now nothing is on the same tier as the tanning bed or log cabin truck, but Bloodlines is consistently gory and overall effectively, if not delightfully, brutal. Experiencing this in a theater is such a blast, as each death has you roaring alongside an audience that has collectively unlocked a new fear. Fuck a Marvel movie, this is the crowd pleasing experience of the year.
The script, which was written by Guy Busick (Scream, Ready or Not) and Lori Evans Taylor, is characterized by a dark comedic tone that is both self-aware and silly, letting the deaths get increasingly absurd. In contrast to later movies, like The Final Destination, which veered into comedy but always fell flat to the point of making you cringe, this one is actually funny and sure of its tone. Hell, for a franchise that reads like a deadly vaudeville comedy, this is the first movie that embraces its vaudeville identity and makes it work. There is genuine comedy built from everyone’s fear of death, and the supporting cast sells the humor as well as the script. The comedic treatment of macabre themes was superior to that of comparable horror films, such as The Monkey. Even though I don’t know Lori Evans Taylor, who co-wrote this, I do know that Guy Busick is a really great dark comedy writer given his work on Ready or Not and Scream V and VI.
With that said, Bloodlines would have benefited from a pass to refine its pacing. The film is somewhat dragged down by the second act, which focuses on a comedic exchange between two goofy characters. Then, the third act is rushed. It is important to mention that this entry is the longest to date, with a runtime of 110 minutes. And you feel that runtime in the second half. It takes a long time to reach what is perhaps the greatest, most intense, and graphically bloody death in the movie.
Final Destination Bloodlines is a magnificent return to form for the iconic freak accident supernatural series. It is well-crafted, grislier than its predecessors, and surprisingly charming, making it one of the best in the franchise. Need me five more of these ASAP.
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