‘Final Destination Bloodlines' Review: The Freak Accident Franchise Beats the Odds with Its Best Film Yet

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15-05-2025

The high-rise restaurant disaster that kicks off 'Final Destination Bloodlines' has a 'Looney Tunes' quality to it that some critics will falsely pin on a single falling piano. Yes, there is a thousand-pound string instrument that comes crashing down several stories before flattening a bratty kid in a bow tie. But that's just the cherry on top of a perfectly cartoonish opening to the best film this fiendish horror franchise from the 2000s has ever known. Delivering the most visually impressive, emotionally compelling, and quick witted 'Final Destination' to date, co-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein work wonders with a reboot that shouldn't land nearly as well as it does.
Twenty-five years since Flight 180 failed to reach Paris, New Line's freak accident series — infamous for its mass-casualty events and Rube Goldberg-inspired kill sequences — returns with an unconventional script written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans. Here, the same narrative scaffolding that brought Laurie Strode and Jamie Lee Curtis back to 'Halloween' (2018) meets the more retro side of The Conjuring Universe… but in typical 'Final Destination' fashion, there's no slasher villain in sight.
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'Bloodlines' is a prequel/sequel hybrid that introduces, torments, and revives a legacy final girl, who didn't exist at all before now, over the course of just one film playing opposite the invisible threat of Death. That might sound like a bad idea, but the blood-soaked series' triumphant sixth installment is better for the unexpected approach. Ambition trips up this highly detailed resurrection just a handful of times, leaving behind a feat of nimble comedic tone and cohesive pacing that's even more effective than the iconic time-loop twist that directly precedes it at the end of the last sequel, 'Final Destination 5.'
'Bloodlines' zips past the 2010s and the aughts to the same day as the plane crash from the original 2000 movie in the year 1968. Lovebirds Iris (Brec Bassinger) and Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) help their atypical 'Final Destination' setup take flight with a believable but still idyllic date night reminiscent of a romantic old ad for a luxury car brand. The dramatic radiance of AMC's 'Mad Men' contorts to resemble something more like the body horror in Shudder's 'Mad God' when opening night at the Skyview ends in a cataclysmic structure collapse. Screws pop loose, glass panels break, and open flames collide with panicked dancers for a chain reaction so fatally funny it could have happened to Wile E. Coyote. It's all triggered by a careless flick of the wrist and cinema's least lucky penny: a fitting new totem for 'Final Destination' that shines brightest the instant that crappy kid's piano flattening finally sticks.
You can't cheat death without seeing your fate first, and signs have always played an essential part in the 'Final Destination' universe. Still, 'Bloodlines' pushes far past its standard premonitions to explore Death's superstitious side and its complex lore more completely. The scares continue to rely on the laws of physics, creepy atmosphere, and common objects to work their magic. (If you aren't afraid of Trash Day yet, you will be.) But filmmakers Lipovsky and Stein find their groove in a unique sort of bouncy brutality. Eyes brimming with tears, reflecting back the bright teal color of her '60s party dress, Bassinger should take the following comparison — between her performance as Young Iris and that one scene with the clown shoe in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' — as a compliment of the highest order. Helping a toddler (Jayden Oniah) survive the Skyview carnage, Iris emerges as a fully formed, energized, and sympathetic horror heroine who seems like she's battled through her share of sequels before.
Following in the footsteps of fan favorite Kimberly Corman (the 'Final Destination 2' lead played by A.J. Cook, who gets a solid shout-out in 'Bloodlines'), new girl Iris Campbell seems to meet her sky-high maker when a piercing scream suddenly jolts 'Bloodlines' into the present. Waking up confused in the middle of a college lecture hall in 2025, Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) has been having recurring nightmares about her estranged grandmother for months. 'Iris.' One of several delightfully melodramatic reveals, that's the first clue this 'Final Destination' puzzle won't operate like the earlier ones did.
Soon, Stefani is speeding back to her childhood home, demanding answers about Iris and the bizarre fine-dining disaster she endured decades ago. How did Iris escape the certain doom foretold to her by that 'Shout!' needle drop? And could that terrible night have something to do with why her only daughter, Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), abandoned Stefani and her brother, Charlie (Teo Briones), years later?
After a rushed reunion with her dad, Marty (Tinpo Lee), Stefani wastes no time contacting even more of her relatives about uprooting the planet's most fucked-up family tree. Haunted by his disturbed mother and her mysterious history, Uncle Howard (Alex Zahara) doesn't want to talk about it. His wife, Aunt Brenda (April Telek), isn't related to Stefani anyway. And as for Erik (Richard Harmon), Julia (Anna Lore), and Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner) — the coolest cousins to grace a major horror sequel since Alexandra Daddario hit 'Texas Chainsaw 3D' — the siblings are mostly loyal to each other. They like their parents. They like Charlie. They even love Bobby's pet turtle, Paco. But when it comes to Stefani and her crazy theories about Grandma Iris (Gabrielle Rose), news of the Campbell family's supposed curse isn't welcome. Of course, 'Final Destination' rarely wastes time explaining itself to victims who won't listen.
The rare reboot with a decent title, 'Bloodlines' uses direct confrontation between characters who know each other intimately to revitalize a torture format typically reserved for total strangers. The core cast has an infectious chemistry that improves the film's tone immensely, and even situated in a generally good plot, there are portions of the story that wouldn't fly without their buzz. It's vastly more exciting to watch relatives as they simultaneously battle Death's Design and their petty grudges than it is to see single-trait caricatures getting repeatedly yanked through a twisted public health crisis. Better still, that familiarity between actors subtly affirms the work of the two 'Bloodlines' filmmakers — conveying faith in this story, comfort with their artistic collaboration, and authority over the 'Final Destination' fanbase.
Having loved these movies since the turn of the century, I'll debase myself with first-person references just long enough to admit that 'Bloodlines' gave me everything I could personally need. Ranking these films is a nostalgia-laden minefield that's more sensitive than most, and yet each chapter seems to serve a distinct purpose(*) in retrospect. 'Final Destination' (2000) delivers Jeffrey Reddick's original 'X-Files' spec script idea in its purest form, but 'Final Destination 2' (2003) enjoys the smartest arc of the first five films and has already gone down in history for its indelible highway disaster. The brilliant decision to cast Mary Elizabeth Winstead — and include that tanning booth scene — in 'Final Destination 3' (2006) make it the most entertaining chapter that's specific to aughts horror, while 'Final Destination 5' (2011) continues to boast the all-around strongest collection of kills with the most stable shelf life.
(*)The purpose of 'The Final Destination' (2009) is that it is the worst one. The end. (Also known as 'Final Destination 4,' that one also has the pool butt scene, which ought to count for something.)
Die-hard 'Final Destination' obsessives will find plenty to pick apart when it comes to Iris' dubious survival strategy in 'Bloodlines.' Suffice to say, Clear Rivers' padded cell has never looked smarter — and some tackier sequences near the end undercut that sparkling first impression from the Skyview. Clever enough to riff on the earlier films' spotty track record with digital effects, the newest 'Final Destination' stays a smidge too true to its era by including at least one slow-mo explosion à la Michael Bay. It's a fiery splash of nonsense that's as boring to look at now as it would have been then, but the underwhelming effect feels even more maddening in the middle of near-miss climax that needs all the help it can get.
Narrowly saved by a truly genius kicker (one that's oddly reminiscent of Sam Raimi's 'Drag Me to Hell,' by the way), 'Bloodlines' is the only 'Final Destination' that doesn't play both versions of its centerpiece emergency back-to-back. It's also the first of these philosophical kill-a-thons that feels like watching a real flesh-and-blood movie. An emotional death by a thousand darkly comic cuts, 'Bloodlines' wracks up little character wins along its way to rendering an impeccable kill featuring the best-written death in the entire series. Intertwining humor, horror, and heart into a jester's crown of thorns, the magnetic actor sacrificed at the main altar of that kill should be immediately canonized a 'Final Destination' saint.
Silly, delicate, sharp, and mean, 'Bloodlines' has its flaws but nevertheless confirms Death's Design as a force worthy of its own special place in the horror hall of fame. A flawless goodbye for Tony Todd, whose enduring affection for the genre community oozes from the screen like a warm hug, 'Bloodlines' should appear high on any list of the Candyman's most enchanting performances regardless of when he passed. As the sun sets on William Bludworth, the latest and greatest 'Final Destination' looks to the horizon in a rapidly expanding world that Todd helped build into an institution as big as his presence.
Sketched with the same boundary-pushing meticulousness 'Looney Tunes' animators once used to make Bugs and Daffy leap off the page, 'Final Destination' could have returned with the disappointing *dink* of a 2D penny. Instead, this wonderfully weird and lyrical film — a crackling ode to the perverse operatics underpinning accidents no human can explain — lands with the full weight of a frenzied jazz band. It doesn't get much better than a rude maître d' ironically denied a life-saving spot on a crowded elevator. And yet, even falling from the top of the Skyview, 'Bloodlines' will have newcomers and lifelong 'Final Destination' fans laughing about that damn piano the whole way down.
A Warner Bros. Pictures release, 'Final Destination Bloodlines' is in theaters Friday, May 16.
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