Directors: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
Writers: Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor
Cast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Brec Bassinger, Charlie Reyes, Richard Harmon, Rya Kihlstedt, Owen Patrick Joyner, Alex Zahara, April Telek, Anna Lore, Tinpo Lee, Gabrielle Rose, Tony Todd

“Don’t fuck with death” really ought to be the official tagline of this franchise, as they seem to keep trying to put it to bed (or in its grave), but it just keeps coming back for more, unstoppable, much like death itself… or himself, as the personification goes within the series. Since the year 2000, the Final Destination movies have had millions of people on the edge of their seats, millennials in particular, but now, after a 14-year hiatus, the franchise returns to fuck up a whole new generation. The problem is, the franchise always followed the same formula, rarely straying from its structure and thus making all the post-2000 films too predictable and boring at times. Does this new instalment finally make way for some fresh ideas, or is it time the franchise was killed off?

College student Stefani (Santa Juana) begins having nightmares involving her estranged grandmother Iris (Bassinger) dying in a disaster on an epic scale. As she delves into her family history, a history her own family are reluctant to discuss, she discovers her nightmare was a premonition, or rather the premonition her grandmother had had before she was able to avert the disaster. As Stefani comes to find that now-reclusive Iris (Rose) actually messed with Death’s Design and that none of them should exist, she must convince her relatives of the truth behind Iris’s obsession with Death and race to avert Death coming for their entire bloodline.

As mentioned, the previous FD films very much followed a set formula in which someone (usually a teen or young adult) had a premonition of a huge disaster in which many die, and so they avoid it, but then Death begins to come for them all in the order in which they should have died in the disaster. Bloodlines takes the same basic premise, but gawd bless the writers, they actually decided to mess with the structure a little and make it a little more twisty and a little less predictable. It doesn’t go entirely off the rails, which is probably a good thing (don’t want to upset the fans and go too far), but it at least reorders the first act and dissects the premonition a little differently. It also doesn’t focus on one particular generation; we have teens, young adults and older adults to cater to a variety of audiences that are likely to want to see this film. It reinforces the ‘bloodline’ aspect as well, which was a good and interesting angle to take within the series, something that should probably have been done ten years ago (apparently, they were going to take more of this angle post-Final Destination [2000] but ended up going a different route).

Something else this film managed to get right was the tongue-in-cheek aspect and the balance of dark humour and pathos. Perhaps this is producer Jon Watts’s influence (see the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies for reference), while co-writers Busick and Evans Taylor have their own backgrounds in horror. The death scenes are well-paced so we’re not constantly having them thrown at us, superbly directed and designed, and are sometimes very funny while being disgusting and horrifying. Although Death is not really anthropomorphised precisely, he is always personified, and audiences can always feel a looming presence, particularly in those scenes where it appears Death has a dark sense of humour. We can almost feel when he’s having a laugh, getting bored, or becoming absolutely livid at these pesky humans and their attempts to thwart him. He really is nearly a character in the film. Speaking of which, it was a pleasure to see Tony Todd cameoing in his final film role, though bittersweet due to his death, certainly looking quite ill during filming.

(I would also like to point out that as of writing this review and by the end of this last paragraph, Microsoft Word showed me, by complete coincidence, that I have reached 666 words. I’m genuinely a little freaked out, as any Instagram followers may have seen.)

This film also boasts better performances than most others in the franchise. Kaitlyn Santa Juana does a great job shouldering the film, keeping Stefani from being too cringe and keeping her performance straightlaced in front of some fairly silly moments (think Michael Caine with the Muppets). Her performance is part of what keeps that humour/pathos balance. On the other side of this is Richard Harmon’s enjoyable performance. Much of the humorous moments surround him, and his character Erik is able to go with the flow and lean into much of it, something the past films struggled to get right. Charlie Reyes, Owen Patrick Joyner and Anna Lore round out the teen/young adults with unique characters that each add their own flair to the story, and the older adult actors put in good performances, drawing us in well to the family dynamic. The family as a whole gives a Halloween (2018) vibe, particularly with Gabrielle Rose’s older Iris being holed up in a well-fortified cabin due to the outside threat on her life.

Final Destination Bloodlines really feels like the film we’ve been waiting for since 2000’s Final Destination. It even edges it a little in how the writers and directors decided to frame and structure it but still feature the trademark shock and gore that we’ve all come to despise and love. It can easily draw in a new audience to the franchise while satisfying older fans, particularly with a handful of Easter Eggs (though they could have afforded to go a little further with that, just for funsies). It was a risk to bring back this series, but it was a risk that paid off. Whether there will be further instalments is yet to be seen, but if they can be done to this calibre (unlikely, but we’re hopeful), then we could be in for another ride over the next decade. In the meantime, don’t fuck with death, because things tend to get… messy.

(A quick final note – I have always wondered, and still do, how and why these characters are getting premonitions and feelings pertaining to these fatal disasters. What is the driving force behind it? Something *else* is trying to thwart death on behalf of these humans and it’s been driving me MAD for YEARS. I’m getting desperate for a film that explains or at least explores this!)

Want to know more? Check out DOTT’s Final Destination Film Club!