Final Destination Bloodlines
The sixth entry in the gory franchise dishes up an imaginative blend of black humour and the unexpected in a tsunami of death and destruction.
A time to die
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
Death has an agenda. When your time is up it’s up. This simple premise has been the lifeblood of the Final Destination franchise, in which the survivors of some horrendous accident are later picked off in a series of freak accidents. It’s been fourteen years since the last entry, Final Destination 5 (2011), and now, in 2025, there seems to be so many more ways in which to meet one’s maker – if we don’t pay attention. There are all those body piercings, the lethal union of aurally distracted teenager and silent car, and the mounting list of deadly allergies that the new generation is prone to. And then there are the old favourites: the lawnmower, a drum of highly inflammable liquid, a shard of glass, a plummeting piano…
Final Destination Bloodlines starts off on a whole new note, opening with a spectacular set piece set in 1968. A young loved-up couple, Iris (Brec Bassinger) and Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones), arrive at the grand opening of a 494-foot-high space needle-like tower, completed four months ahead of schedule (“is that a good thing?” asks Iris tremulously). Iris is gearing up to tell Paul of her unexpected pregnancy, Paul is using the occasion to pop the question and a mischievous brat in a bowtie is determined to make trouble. First off, the brat pinches a penny from the compound’s wishing pool, a coin that takes on a life of its own, causing extraordinary damage when wedging itself in the wrong place. What follows is funny and horrifying, precisely what the filmmakers Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein were intending. The film then cuts forward to the present, where we meet Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), whose nightmares at college are threatening her sanity (not to mention her studies). In desperation, she returns home to a half-hearted welcome, where suddenly the pieces of her family’s past start to add up to something hideously improbable.
As a rollercoaster shocker, Final Destination Bloodlines works so well because of its evident glee in the elaborate disposal of its characters, but also in the ingenuity of their demise. And the sequel works on a deeper level, too. Most horror films, whether dishing up deranged psychopaths or supernatural forces, are essentially diversions in a fantasy world that tap into our subconscious, irrational fears. However, Final Destination Bloodlines asks us to confront our own mortality, an inevitability that can arrive at any time. The late Tony Todd, whose character William Bludworth has appeared in four of the series’ chapters, here makes his curtain call with chilling prescience. Tony Todd’s last words on screen are: “I intend to enjoy the time I have left. Enjoy every single second. You never know when… Good luck.” Naturally, the film is dedicated to his memory.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Rya Kihlstedt, Anna Lore, Brec Bassinger, Tony Todd, Tinpo Lee, April Amber Telek, Gabrielle Rose, Natasha Burnett.
Dir Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, Pro Craig Perry, Sheila Hanahan Taylor, Jon Watts, Dianne McGunigle and Toby Emmerich, Screenplay Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, from a story by Jon Watts, Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, Ph Christian Sebaldt, Pro Des Rachel O’Toole, Ed Sabrina Pitre, Music Tim Wynn, Costumes Michelle Hunter, Sound Jeremy Peirson.
New Line Cinema/Practical Pictures/Freshman Year/Fireside Films-Warner Bros.
109 mins. USA. 2025. UK Rel: 14 May 2025. US Rel: 16 May 2025. Cert. 15.
