There is No Excuse for ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’

The collection of talent, good faith of the previous sequels, and lasting effect of the Final Destination franchise should have made the newest installment a winner, but it’s unfortunately squandered by some mystery killer. The original Final Destination innovated by turning the slasher villain from a killer in a mask into an unseen force of nature. Through elaborate Rube Goldberg machine-style events, characters were slaughtered by a supernatural force alluded to as a manifestation of death. Here, death is not just a concept but an active participant in picking souls off the earth. Through the five previous installments, the lore of death’s rules is expanded, and it’s pleasing to see this sixth film continue the thread (even with a questionable turn for Bludworth that at least gives us a beautiful visit from Tony Todd), however it suffers from “legacy sequel” syndrome by trying to rehash the best kills of the series without bringing much by way of innovation.

The Final Destination: Bloodlines cold open has Iris (Brec Bassinger) experiencing what should be a magical evening atop the newly opened “Skyview” through the lens of a jarring premonition. A rogue penny and a delicate glass floor leave the diners and dancers falling to their gruesome deaths from atop the glamorous skyscraper. But this ’50s era premonition doesn’t immediately end with Iris snapping out of it as we’d been trained to expect; it’s now the nightmare of Iris’ granddaughter, Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana). Stefani and her family are estranged from her mother and grandmother because of their overbearing and overprotective ways, but desperate to find out why she can’t shake her nightmare, Stefani hunts down the reclusive Iris for answers. Iris, who now lives like an aging Strode in a “safe” cabin covered in spikes and fences, warns Stefani that death is coming for their family, a family that never should have existed because Iris was supposed to die at the Skyview. With this new information and a shred of reluctance, Stefani tries to convince her remaining living cousins that death is out to get them so she can protect them from the inevitable and hopefully get those horrific images out of her head.

Aside from the cold open dream, we never see Stefani experiencing those horrible images via premonition. In fact, most of her clairvoyance comes by way of some catastrophizing we might expect from an anxious person who fears their days are numbered. It renders her not only helpless, but pointless as the center of the film when she’s contributing nothing to the story beyond being the first one to believe. One might appreciate how the film moves from literal premonitions to a more blatant exploration of anxiety and agoraphobia, but it seems to be a more on-the-nose attempt at exploring nervousness instead of the supernatural slasher we’d want from one of these movies.

A lacking story and a strange twist on the premonitions aside, what we’re all really here for are the deaths. The canon is so full of “eek” inducing long death scenes that tense you up with all the possible ways your household objects could introduce you to your maker. So are these ones good? They’re not. There’s one really excellent scene in the tattoo parlor that was showcased in a trailer and convinced me that this movie would magically feel true to its legacy. And while there’s no taking away from how stellar, dynamic, terrifying, and suspenseful that scene is, the best moments start and end there. The rest of the deaths are cheap, drenched in CGI, and sprayed with floating orange blood that’s the wrong kind of uncanny. Yes, there are some solid comedic elements to all of it, but this is not a horror comedy, and the silly cartoony-looking deaths do not fit.

If it sounds harsh, it’s perhaps because I know what these movies are capable of (and I also know what the directors did with the criminally underrated Freaks). Sure, not every Final Destination installment was flawless, but each one innovated, added some lore, and still connected to the canon while doing something new. After the banger that was Final Destination 5, I’m disappointed to see such a backslide. That installment’s surprise ending winks at the original film in a way that makes it tough to then branch out somewhere without doing something fresh. Legacy sequels are tough, it’s something we’ve seen shot at with Scream (which shares writer Guy Busick) and expect more of with I Know What You Did Last Summer. There’s an important balance required to make something new and fresh that feels true to the original series. Final Destination: Bloodlines strength is being a lot like the original, and its weakness is in not evolving at all from it.

Final Destination: Bloodlines hits theaters May 16, 2025