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Hindustan Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Final Destination Bloodlines movie review: The franchise's most fun film makes death entertaining, invents new phobias
The constant effort of the Final Destination franchise has been to traumatise the audience and induce newer phobias that most people have never even thought about. The franchise that made sure an entire generation would never drive behind trucks filled with logs outdoes itself in its sixth instalment. Final Destination Bloodlines is not just a good film by the franchise's standards, but a rather, enjoyable (in a schadenfreude-esque manner) film as a standalone too. It is fast-paced, fun, gory, and contains everything that made Final Destination a phenomenon. Final Destination Bloodlines opens with a premonition, as it should. The first 10 minutes show, in meticulous detail, how the Sky View restaurant, (almost) burned down, causing hundreds of deaths some 50 years ago. But Iris Campbell sees it all and saves everyone. In the present day, the premonition is appearing as a nightmare to Stefani Reyes, Iris' granddaughter. She tracks down her estranged, crazy grandma to get to the bottom of it all, only to be told that the entire clan is on Death's hit list. Iris saved herself all those years ago, which led to the birth of her children and grandchildren. And now Death wants them gone, in the most cinematically innovative ways there are. Bloodlines stays true to the tried-and-tested formula of the franchise, but still finds ways to be innovative and fresh. The third and fourth films in the franchise looked jaded and repetitive, with almost the same template being followed every single time. Bloodlines includes the family curse trope here, turning the film into something different, while still being very Final Destination. Unlike previous Final Destination films, Bloodlines invests some time in a build up. There are almost zero deaths in the first hour (discounting the opening sequence). The film takes its time to introduce us to the setting and this new dynamic, while still maintaining its pace. Not that there aren't any faults with Bloodlines. The acting, for one, is pedestrian. The dialogue delivery, for most parts, is atrocious. None of the actors seem to have spent any time making sure their characters appear as anything but placeholding caricatures. Yet, none of it matters. Bloodlines, like any Final Destination film, focuses not on the characters or their arcs, but on the manner in which they die. The butterfly effect and chain reaction that leads to each death is what the audience is in for. And in that department, the film delivers. The gore is amplified in Final Destination Bloodlines. But the challenge is tough. This film comes at a time when the average viewer is oversaturated with information. We have seen it all, felt it all. Countless short videos and copycat films have shown us the most gruesome ways to die. After all that, shocking the audience takes a fair amount of work. And Bloodline does it beautifully. It manages to make you gasp, clap, cover your mouth, and even laugh at times as body parts are cut, chopped, and sliced all over the screen. Bloodlines even manages to include subtle Easter eggs to some of the most iconic moments of the franchise, including that truck filled with logs. And it never does it in any sort of tokenistic manner. What works the most for Final Destination Bloodlines is its refusal to ever take itself seriously. The campy feel, which horror lost a decade ago, is what makes it great. From references to horror tropes to hilarious red herrings and some clever jokes, the humour of the film is macabre but never sick. Yet, you may find yourself questioning your own morality the fifth time you chuckle or marvel as a character meets a gruesome demise. But then that is the beauty of this franchise. It makes death entertaining and beautiful. And it has never looked more stunning than in Bloodlines.
The Province
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Province
Final Destination: Bloodlines burns up the screen with another trademark opening catastrophe
Like four of the other films, the latest in the Final Destination franchise was shot in Vancouver and offers up nods to the area, including the opening sequence Brec Bassinger plays the younger incarnation of Iris Campbell in Final Destination: Bloodlines. The film opens with Iris Campbell at the centre of a deadly catastrophe during the opening night of fancy seafood restaurant that sits hundreds of feet atop a tower. Photo by Eric Milner / Warner Bros. Pictures. Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. In Final Destination Bloodlines, Death is back and he's got a score to settle. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors The new horror/thriller movie, from Vancouver-based directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, opens, like other Final Destination movies, big with a 15-minute or so set piece that is wonderfully relentless in its action and tension. It's the late 1960s and the opening of the fancy Skyview Restaurant Tower. Dressed in their finest, the large crowd dines, drinks and dances — before things go horribly wrong and a chain of small events builds into a fiery crescendo of deadly mayhem. Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth in the popular film franchise, opens with a 15-minute long spectacular and mayhem filled scene set in a fancy restaurant atop a tower. The film, which opens wide on May 15, is directed by Vancouver-native Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein. Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture / Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture From there, the film flashes forward to modern times and a family facing inevitable tragedy as Death comes knocking. 'Death doesn't like it when you f— with his plans,' says Iris (Gabrielle Rose), whose premonition got in the way of Death's plans for the crowd at the restaurant all those years ago. Iris's granddaughter, college student Stefani (Vancouver's Kaitlyn Santa Juana), is struggling at school due to a recurring nightmare about her family's demise. Sleep deprived and at wit's end, she comes home looking for answers and discovers her family is in grave danger. Opening May 16, Final Destination: Bloodlines comes 14 years after the last one in the horror film franchise. This latest film also, sadly, marks the last film for Final Destination stalwart (William Bludworth) and horror movie icon, Tony Todd who died last November. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That gap, the filmmakers say, presented a challenge in the storytelling. 'It was really important to us that we find this narrow alley where we give the fans of the franchise lots of little nods and homages and things that are very much connected to the rest of the films, but never in a way where someone who has never seen a Final Destination movie feels out of touch or feels like there's a moment in the movie that isn't for them,' said Lipovsky, who grew up in Vancouver's West End. 'There's never this moment of someone feel like an outsider, if they haven't seen one.' The gap between Final Destination 5 and No. 6, says Lipovsky, is likely a facility of trends in moviemaking. 'I do think that there's been a really interesting shift in horror over that time. If you think back to 14 or 15 years ago, there was bigger and more spectacle kind of horror,' said Lipovsky. 'It was before the era of streaming and all that type of stuff. Then, we entered a new space of kind of the Blumhouse era, and A24 and Neon (studios) with the kind of smaller films that did incredibly well, like Get Out and those smaller types of genre fare.' Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Lipovsky says the plan for their version was to bring the smaller approach together with the spectacle that Final Destination is known for. '(We wanted) characters you actually care about,' said Lipovsky. 'Not just skipping past the talking parts to get to the death, but still actually have really good drama, while still bringing in the kind of spectacle that, to some degree, gets butts in seats in theatres.' Vancouver actor Kaitlyn Santa Juana plays Stefani Lewis the main character in Final Destination: Bloodlines. Stefani is the granddaughter of Iris Campbell the visionary who survived a tower collapse that occurred in 1969. Stefani has recurring nightmares of the premonition that Iris had all those years ago. Photo by Eric Milner / Warner Bros. Pictures This latest film, like four of the other films, was shot in Vancouver and offers up nods to the area, including the opening scene set in the seafood restaurant that sits hundreds of feet above Vancouver's H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. A further inside wink is the restaurant's logo, which is based on the 20-foot stainless steel George A. Norris crab sculpture that has sat in the reflecting pond outside of the Kits Point building for almost 60 years. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'It's such a great franchise legacy of highlighting Vancouver. The Lions Gate Bridge falls apart in Final Destination 5. And the log trucks are famous from Final Destination 2,' said Stein. The latest movie also saw a bunch of crew members from past films back on the job. 'There was sort of a family feeling,' said Stein. 'One of our stunt coordinators (Dustin Brooks) who lit a bunch of people on fire in our movie, his first job when he was 17 years old was getting yanked out of the plane in Final Destination 1. He missed his high school graduation to get yanked out of the plane. 'The talent that's here, I think it would be really hard to make this movie somewhere else, because just the talent in horror and sci-fi that's been nurtured here over the decades is really needed to create the kind of spectacle that this movie is,' added Stein. Lipovsky and Stein nailed it, while also offering their own twist. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'We really wanted to take the formula that the audience is expecting and change it almost right out of the gate,' said Lipovsky. '(The premonitions) usually they pull out of the eye of someone a few minutes before the disaster. In our case, we pull out of the eye of someone in modern day, some other person completely. Right away, that tells the audience we're playing with the form here a bit … We want to keep you on your toes, make you lean forward, so that you realize you don't know what's going to happen next.' Aside from the memorable opening scenes, these films are also noted for the way in which people die. Each death is like a Rube Goldberg machine where a series of actions/events leads to a disastrous outcome. In these films, the seemingly innocuous actions are the oh-my-god this-might-go-horribly-wrong tension builders. 'We always said that our goal here was to make a movie that you have to watch through your fingers, while still having a great smile on your face,' said Stein. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Friends for 18 years, Final Destination: Bloodlines directors Adam Stein and Vancouver's Zach Lipovsky say their partnership is a rewarding way to make ideas better. Photo by Eric Milner / Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Both Stein and Lipovsky agree that getting to build these multi-step deadly outcomes is a challenge — but a very fun and rewarding one. 'One of the most special things about Final Destination is that the villain isn't personified. The monster is basically the filmmaking. It's a shot of the wind. It's the close-up of a beer bottle. It's soccer,' said Lipovsky. 'There's just the way that you shoot and edit and string it all together, and put in music, that creates the tension. And that's what creates the feeling of a presence.' The film saw three years of planning before a camera even rolled on the movie. Instead of storyboards for the opening scene, an animated version was created as a template. 'By seeing it and watching it and editing it, we learn a lot of how to improve it before we shoot it. So that we're constantly making each thing better and better and better,' said Lipovsky. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Lipovsky and Stein, who have worked on many projects together including 2018's Freaks, met 18 years ago when they were both on the Steven Spielberg-produced reality competition show On the Lot. 'We were competitors and we just became best friends,' said Stein, who moved here from Los Angeles and now holds permanent resident status. 'Over the years, even as we started our careers directing separately, we kept coming together to collaborate on stuff and found it such a rewarding way to make the ideas better.' Once the collaborative idea is agreed upon, Lipovsky and Stein go to work with that singular vision. 'We work things out so much before we get to set that, by the time we get to set, that we're both advocates of this new idea that we've come up with together, that people often think we're telepathic,' said Stein. 'You get to work with your best friend, to whisper to each other, how do we fix this?' said Stein. 'It's kind of a directing superpower.' Dgee@ Vancouver Canucks Local News NHL World CFL
