Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)

★★★★ Boasting some of his most inventive kills yet, Death is back with a vengeance as the long dormant horror franchise returns better than ever as it fully embraces the ridiculousness of its fate-driven conceit

Watch May 23, 2025 0 3 Add to Reading List

Dir: Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein

Cast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Brec Bassinger, Tony Todd

Boasting some of his most inventive kills yet, Death is back with a vengeance as the long-dormant horror franchise returns better than ever as it fully embraces the ridiculousness of its fate-driven conceit

Over the past decade or so, the once simple horror genre has undergone a major resurgence, with the dubiously dubbed “elevated horror” sub-genre exploring deeper philosophical themes, looking to exploit potentially squeamish cinemagoers on a more psychological level. As much as I adore some of these more character-driven, arthouse horrors, such as Jennifer Kent‘s “The Babadook” (2014)or anything Robert Eggers has conjured up so far, there is a simplistic giddiness to be had by witnessing unsuspecting, and largely unlikeable victims, as they meet their grizzly and untimely demise. For decades, countless teens were gruesomely dispatched by relentless and unyielding serial killers, such as Leatherface (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”), Michael Myers (“Halloween”), and Jason Vorhees (“Friday the 13th”).

However, in the year 2000, horror fans were introduced to the most prolific killer in both cinema, and more terrifyingly in real life, “Death” itself. While they may not seem particularly deep, or meaningful, the “Final Destination” franchise exploits our biggest fears, death and karma. By following Death’s plan as he gradually eliminates all of those who have cheated him, we start to question times we may have narrowly avoided him ourselves, and how every little decision we make may or may not see us meet our demise. As everyone knows by this point, with the franchise being a quarter of a century old, the “Final Destination” films open up with a central protagonist foreseeing an impending disaster, resulting in the horrific deaths of several people, including the protagonist themself. Having cheated death, our protagonist and the other survivors are subsequently killed off one by one following increasingly elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque set pieces, to bloody and often hilarious effect.

While the franchise did get increasingly whacky over the years, there are a handful of moments that had a massive impact on me as a child, some of which still influence decisions I make to this very day. The two that still remain in the forefront of my mind over twenty years later are the opening premonitions of the franchise’s first two instalments, with the plane explosion from the first film partly contributing to my minor fear of flying, and the sensationally executed car pile-up of “Final Destination 2” forever implementing in me a fear of log trucks. Having seemingly scraped the bottom of the barrel with the abysmal, 3D nightmare that was “The Final Destination” in 2009, the franchise managed to bounce back a couple of years later with the criminally underrated “Final Destination 5”, and now, another fourteen years down the line, “Death” is back once again for “Final Destination Bloodlines”.

“Final Destination Bloodlines” Trailer | Warner Bros.

Like its predecessors, “Bloodlines” opens with a tragic and bloody disaster, seemingly resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people only for the events to be revealed to be the premonition of our central protagonist. However, instead of taking place in the modern day, we are introduced to our unwilling psychic and would-be victim, Iris (Brec Bassinger), in 1968, as she attends the grand opening of the vertigo-inducing restaurant, Skyview, with her fiancé Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones). An excellently crafted and tense opening sequence culminates in the Skyview collapsing, with Iris being the last victim of death’s twisted design. In a unique twist for the franchise, it is revealed that the premonition is not experienced by Iris, but by her granddaughter, Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), in the present day.

Having linked the Iris in her “nightmare” to her reclusive grandparent, Stefani returns home from college to seek answers from her family. Upon questioning her Uncle Howard (Alex Zahara) about Iris, he explains how Iris subjected both Howard and Stefani’s estranged mother, Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), to an overprotective upbringing, causing Darlene to abandon her family. Despite her family’s protestations, Stefani finds a now elderly, and terminally ill Iris (Gabrielle Rose) in a fortified cabin, protected from Death’s attempts to kill her having prevented the Skyview’s collapse decades prior. Iris informs Stefani that the hundreds who survived the accident went on to die in freak accidents, along with their respective descendants, who were never meant to exist. Now aware of her family’s imminent fate, Stefani has to convince her brother Charlie (Teo Briones), and cousins Erik (Richard Harmon), Julia (Anna Lore), and Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner) of death’s plans before it’s too late.

While they may not have been the most celebrated horror films since the turn of the new millennium, the “Final Destination” franchise has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and I am sure countless other horror fans. Very few franchises manage to balance silliness with the genuinely horrific quite so well, and while the ridiculousness of it all can be quite comedic, it is still traumatic to see Death’s victims die in various creative ways that will have you looking at common household products and appliances very differently for the rest of your life. The levels of tension and satisfyingly gory payoffs present throughout many of the franchise’s set pieces have made for great popcorn cinema over the years, which has always left me irked that the only previous entry I had seen on the big screen was by far and away the worst one. Luckily for me, “Final Destination Bloodlines” more than made up for this, as the long-dormant franchise returns with its most ambitious, hilarious, and blood-soaked outing to date.

Having noted the extremely positive early reviews, I remained sceptical as I went into my opening night screening of this eagerly awaited sixth instalment, partly due to the straight-to-VHS sounding subtitle, “Bloodlines”, but mostly because I really wanted this to be a success, so I guess part of me kept expectations low to avoid them being crushed, just like poor Timmy was by that pane of glass in “Final Destination 2”. I found myself immediately reassured however, following an opening premonition, that not only takes the crown as the franchise’s best to date but should also go down in cinematic history as one of the bloodiest, funniest, and most breath-taking building collapses to be ever put to film. Everything from the period 1960s setting, to a snot-nosed little kid who deservedly gets crushed by a falling piano, is wonderfully executed to great comedic and horrific effect, which genuinely had me invested in the recently engaged Iris, who I wish we got to spend more time with as DC’s “Stargirl”, Brec Bassinger, absolutely nails her brief but memorable role.

The modern-day ensemble brings fresh familial chemistry to proceedings, which results in genuine heartbreak when a family member falls victim to one of Death’s lethal chain reactions. As the only family member who does not dismiss her grandmother as a senile kook, Stefani becomes increasingly frustrated and anxious knowing that her family is in danger, but the immense knowledge she has of Death having heeded Iris’ advice slowly wins them over. It was pretty refreshing to have someone in the franchise successfully predict Death’s every move, all the way down to the details leading up to someone’s death. I also found it original, and hilarious, when the would-be next victim of the family is protected by the others who act like a human shield, because despite the ludicrousness of it all, if this was a genuine impending threat, this is exactly how we would act. In all of the franchise’s previous entries, characters who are well aware of Death’s presence act carelessly as they continue to ignore surrounding hazards, so while they may die anyway in “Bloodlines” at least our latest victims try their very best to avoid Death at all costs.

One of the more sentimental moments in “Final Destination Bloodlines” for horror films will undoubtedly be the reappearance of genre legend Tony Todd. Best known for his work as the titular “Candyman” since 1992, Todd has become a staple of the “Final Destination” franchise, appearing in all but the fourth instalment in some capacity. His character, William Bludworth, is a mysterious coroner/mortician who has been sought out by survivors in the first, second, and fifth films in the franchise due to his suspiciously concerning knowledge of Death and how he operates. Despite appearing in only one scene in “Bloodlines”, Todd’s iconic character is given a backstory that explains his relationship with Death, nicely tying all six entries together. It’s a bittersweet moment, as a visually gaunt Todd delivers improvised words of advice to the audience, before bowing out for good having lost his own battle with Death in 2024, having succumbed to stomach cancer.

Verdict:

Having been psychologically scarred by the more high-brow and artistic horrors of modern cinema, it is a nice change of pace to have a film like “Final Destination Bloodlines” do the simple things exceptionally well. Gloriously bloody, surprisingly investing, and often hilarious, this sixth instalment breathes new life into the franchise, even improving on the dark and twisted formula set by Osgood Perkins “The Monkey” only a couple of months ago…..easily the best of the franchise to date.

Final Destination Bloodlines is now showing in UK Cinemas