Final Destination: Bloodlines
I know it's a pretty low bar, but the latest Final Destination is actually be the best Final Destination film. We kick things off with an extended 60s sequence centered around young lovers Iris (Brec Bassinger) and Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) at the grand opening of the Skyview Restaurant Tower which ends in the spectacular deaths of dozens of people. Big kudos to co-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein as both in terms of the period look, and in the complicated sequence of events. There's a craft to Final Destination: Bloodlines that sets it apart from the earlier films.
And here's where the film's big conceit comes into play, so big in fact that the script actually has a character shrug and say "who knows" when attempting to make sense of it. We jump decades into the future with Iris' granddaughter Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) who is having recurring vivid nightmares of that night from the perspective of the grandmother she never met. And so she returns home to dredge up bad feelings among her extended family (who include Teo Briones, Owen Patrick Joyner, Rya Kihlstedt, and Anna Lore) and eventually come face-to-face with her crazy granny (Gabrielle Rose) who informs Stefani that Iris' premonition saved lives that night but Death has been slowly reclaiming them (and their descendants) over the years and it's now finally their family's turn to pay up.
Along with some pretty weak acting and storytelling, the previous couple of films had also gotten lazy in terms of laying out the Mouse Trap-style death sequences the franchise made its calling card. There's some fun this time around as we watch the dominoes begin to fall (including some enjoyable misdirection and twists prior to the seeing the deaths unfold). The sixth film also reinjects some needed humor back into the franchise. The result gives us Stefani attempting to protect her disbelieving family who start to come around after they begin to die in a myriad of odd ways including a rather gruesome sequence in the hospital.
A Final Destination movie is never going to be high art, but this one is at least well-made and offers the kind of fun desperately missing from the franchise over the last 20 years. The use of the familial ties and nightmares of a premonition (rather than the actual events) is a fun new wrinkle. Despite never attempting to explain why Stefani is the one receiving the nightmares, the story still makes as much sense as you could expect from one of these sequels while providing a nod to the previous films, and, of course, plenty of death and dismemberment. The film is dedicated to Tony Todd (who died shortly after finishing his scene for the film) who reprises his role of William Bludworth one last time as the film uses his appearance for more than just a cameo, tying his story into that of Stefani's family as well.
Watch the trailer- Title: Final Destination: Bloodlines
- IMDb: link
