“If you fuck with death, things get messy.”
Final Destination Bloodlines revolves around what I consider the best scene in any of the Final Destination movies: a flashback depicting the 1969 opening of a New York restaurant tower, similar to our Tower of the Americas. Except at this tower, all the glass shatters, and the whole skyscraper is set on fire with the most insane deaths you’ll ever see happening one right after another. It’s an extremely fun and tense sequence, and I’ll never hear “Shout” again the same way the rest of my life.
The only thing is that his whole sequence is solely a premonition by a woman named Iris who manages to save everyone, but by doing so, everyone up on that tower had cheated Death. One by one over the years, Death comes to get all of those who avoided dying that day, along with their families created along the way. Now they’ve caught up to Iris’s family, with her granddaughter Stefani having that same premonition, knowing her bloodline is in Death’s way next.
This bloodline aspect is the key thing that sets this film apart from the previous ones in the franchise. Rather than following a group of friends that share a trauma from a tragedy they avoided, this is an entire family that we follow, making for a fresher and more personal angle. Parents, siblings, and cousins are all involved this way, and how they try to help each other survive adds emotional stakes, especially with Richard Harmon’s character, Erik, who I thought was the standout of the movie.
For a movie running just under two hours, the pacing and editing of this thing are fast and on point. From the opening scene to the other highlights of the film, such as one in a tattoo parlor and another involving an MRI machine, every cut builds up even more tension as you’re shown all the possible ways these characters could potentially be harmed. As an audience member, you’re then left to guess which of these ways will lead to that death, if it leads to it at all, as events happen along the way here that consistently keep these things a surprise.
Making sequences like these feel as inventive as they do is an impressive feat by directors Zack Lipovsky and Adam Stein, especially by accomplishing this six movies deep in a horror movie franchise, with this one being my favorite by far to date.
Okay, I’ve only seen the first two in their entirety and started the third one with its rollercoaster sequence and never went back to it. But I’m definitely on board with these movies now.
If you’re like me and you haven’t seen most, if not any of these movies, don’t fret. Outside of the late Tony Todd, who appears in his final role in what’s a very satisfying send-off to his character, there’s nothing much else here that connects the franchise, perfectly working as a standalone horror flick.
This is not only the best-reviewed installment of the franchise, but it’s the highest-grossing, making about $285 million worldwide. I, unfortunately, skipped out on this in theaters, but with a sequel in development, I’ll be sure not to make the same mistake again.
Final Destination Bloodlines is now streaming on HBO Max.
