I finally caught Final Destination Bloodlines after hearing all the hype about it being the best one since the original and the wait was worth it, even though it took them 14 damn years to get this thing made. This sixth entry in the franchise manages to do something I didn't think was possible anymore, it actually feels fresh while still giving us all the gory death sequences we have been craving since 2011. The movie opens with this insane 1968 sequence at some fancy restaurant tower that's basically the Space Needle but not quite, where our grandmother character Iris has this vision of the whole place collapsing in the most brutal way possible. What I loved about this opening is how they took their time building up the tension, showing you all these little details that are gonna go wrong, the penny getting stuck in the fan, the gas leak, people jumping around on glass floors like idiots. The kills in this opening sequence are absolutely savage too, we're talking people getting split in half by elevators, crushed by pianos and falling hundreds of feet onto spikes, all rendered with some pretty decent CGI that doesn't look as cheap as I expected, but here is where it gets interesting, this isn't just another group of random teenagers getting picked off one by one, instead we are following an entire family bloodline that was never supposed to exist because grandma saved everyone that night.
Rottentomatoes Rating
The family theme is what really sets this apart from the other sequels because when you are watching cousins, brothers, uncles and moms trying to protect each other from death's design, you actually start giving a shit about these people instead of just waiting for them to die in creative ways. Stephanie is our main protagonist, she is having nightmares about her grandmother's vision even though she never met the old lady and when she finally tracks down Iris living in this ridiculous fortress house covered in spikes and razor wire, that's when things get real. The explanation they give for why death is coming after this whole family makes perfect sense within the franchise's logic, basically if you save people who were supposed to die, their kids and grandkids become targets too because they were never meant to be born. Eric is hands down the standout character here, he got all the best lines and actually made me laugh multiple times, which is rare for a horror movie that isn't trying to be a straight comedy. The guy covered in piercings and tattoos but he is also the most caring member of the family, especially when he is trying to save his younger brother from getting killed. His death scene in the MRI machine is probably one of the most cringe worthy things I have seen in any Final Destination movie, watching those piercings get ripped out by the magnetic field while he is folding in half backwards made me physically uncomfortable, got to say the movie does a great job of misdirection too, setting up obvious death traps and then shifting gears at the last second to catch you off guard.
The family theme is what really sets this apart from the other sequels because when you are watching cousins, brothers, uncles and moms trying to protect each other from death's design, you actually start giving a shit about these people instead of just waiting for them to die in creative ways. Stephanie is our main protagonist, she is having nightmares about her grandmother's vision even though she never met the old lady and when she finally tracks down Iris living in this ridiculous fortress house covered in spikes and razor wire, that's when things get real. The explanation they give for why death is coming after this whole family makes perfect sense within the franchise's logic, basically if you save people who were supposed to die, their kids and grandkids become targets too because they were never meant to be born. Eric is hands down the standout character here, he got all the best lines and actually made me laugh multiple times, which is rare for a horror movie that isn't trying to be a straight comedy. The guy covered in piercings and tattoos but he is also the most caring member of the family, especially when he is trying to save his younger brother from getting killed. His death scene in the MRI machine is probably one of the most cringe worthy things I have seen in any Final Destination movie, watching those piercings get ripped out by the magnetic field while he is folding in half backwards made me physically uncomfortable, got to say the movie does a great job of misdirection too, setting up obvious death traps and then shifting gears at the last second to catch you off guard.
The second half is where things get a bit messy though, the whole sequence at the fortified house feels rushed and the explosion that kills the mom doesn't make much sense and I say this probably because of the timing. They also do this thing where they make you think the cycle is broken when Charlie revives Stephanie after she drowns but then the movie pulls its classic Final Destination ending where death gets everyone anyway, this was predictable for me because I saw the other movies but after so long I know will caught off guard many. The train derailment finale is visually impressive but feels like they were just trying to top the log truck scene from the second movie and honestly it works even if it is completely over the top. That final shot of the logs flying through the air and taking out our last two survivors is brutal as hell and perfectly captures the franchise's "death always wins" mentality. The CGI during the movie felt more of a hit or miss, some of the practical effects look great but when they rely too heavily on digital blood and gore it starts to look a bit cartoony. The performances are mostly solid for this type of movie, nobody gonna win any awards but everyone commits to the material and sells the fear and desperation their characters are feeling, same goes for the script that has some clunky moments where characters have to explain the rules of death's design but that is pretty standard for these movies and it doesn't drag things down too much, almost like mansplaining tbh jajaja.
Final Destination Bloodlines isn't gonna revolutionize horror or anything like that but it's exactly what fans like have been waiting from the franchise after that terrible fourth entry nearly killed the series, I thought it was done but since 2023 doing sequels or reboots is trending then why not. The movie delivers on all the things that make these kind of movie work, creative death sequences, good build up and tension, characters you can actually care about and that dark sense of humor that keeps things from getting too serious and fall into the scary tension type of movie. The family angle really does make a difference in how depp you fall in the story, watching these people try to protect each other adds emotional weight that was missing from some of the earlier sequels. On the flop side, the dialogue can be cheesy and some of the death setups require characters to make incredibly stupid decisions but that's part of the charm with these movies. The Tony Todd tribute aspect gives the whole thing a bittersweet quality that elevates it above just being another gore fest, his final scene moved me and serves as a perfect sendoff for the character and the actor. The movie also does a good job of honoring the franchise's legacy while adding new elements to keep things interesting, the bloodline concept opens up possibilities for future sequels without just repeating the same formula over and over, an aspect I think clearly resonating with critics and audiences after watching the scores of the movie and basically me be on the same page and I can see why because it feels like the creators actually cared about making a good movie instead of just cashing in on the brand name. If you are a fan of the franchise this is definitely worth watching, I'm giving Final Destination Bloodlines a solid 8/10, it's not perfect but it's a hell of a return to form for a series that I thought was dead and buried.
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