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Quick Jab: Is Final Destination: Bloodlines worth seeing? Yes, unlike some of the franchise’s sequels, Final Destination Bloodlines is a brutally gory blast packed with clever and gruesome kills.
Final Destination: Bloodlines resurrects the franchise with a brutally gory and satisfyingly merciless entry full of death and mayhem. It’s the best Final Destination movie of the franchise.
Bloodlines takes a slightly different approach than its predecessors: most of the victims here haven’t survived a horrific accident, but rather their grandmother did long ago—meaning none of them would exist if not for her cheating death well before they were born. As such, directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein spend just under two hours wiping an entire family off the face of the planet.
And it is glorious.
Opening with a prolonged sequence involving a Space Needle-esque tower, a glass dance floor, and one asshole kid with a penny, Final Destination: Bloodlines delivers some of the nastiest kills of the year, rivaled only by the sheer maliciousness of The Monkey. The opening sequence lays waste to scores of people and depicts their final seconds in vivid detail. From flesh-dripping fire to explosive body splatter, Lopovsky and Stein do not hold back.
The gory deaths just continue from there as Capital-D Death progresses down his list, relying on the complex Rube Goldberg machinations you’ve come to expect to reclaim the souls so callously stolen from him. Whether it’s lawnmowers to the face or nose rings (and penis rings) gone wrong, anything (including garbage trucks) and everyone (including everyone) is fair game.
A sequence involving an MRI is particularly gnarly.
Deaths aside, Final Destination: Bloodlines operates pretty much like every other in the franchise, with success or failure due to the execution and actors involved. Thankfully, Lopovsky/Stein neither take the story for granted–this isn’t a mail it home entry by any means–nor do they attempt to do too much. Even franchise regular Tony Todd is done repeating the same warnings; he effectively tells the leads they are f**ked.
Speaking of the leads, Bloodlines has a good cast. Kaitlyn Santa Juana gives a solid and emotion-filled performance as protagonist Stefani, who is burdened with convincing everyone around her they are marked for death. The rest of the cast play their roles effectively, which is all that really needs to be said for actors who, in their contract, are committed to being less memorable than the way they are eliminated from the game of Life.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is a grimly entertaining and fast-paced piece of gore-fueled lineage destruction. If you had understandably tired of the franchise, it’s an inspiring return to top form–and if you’re a newbie… well, just prepare to be paranoid about everyday items for the rest of your life.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.