Year of Release: 2025
Director: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
Starring: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Alex Zahara, April Telek, Tinpo Lee, Tony Todd, Brec Bassinger, Gabrielle Rose, Max Lloyd-Jones, Brenna Llewellyn, Natasha Burnett, Jayden Oniah, Mark Brandon, Yvette Ferguson
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein made a name for themselves with the solid but sadly a bit sidelined "Freaks" which premiered in 2018. They have partnered on this most recent installment of the "Final Destination" franchise, with the writing team comprised of Guy Busick (who has been a writer on the most recent chapters of the "Scream" franchise, but also "Abigail" and the show "Castle Rock"), Lori Evans Taylor, and Jon Watts (who has been one of the creative forces behind the revitalizing of the most recent "Spider Man" series of films). This chapter of the franchise starts by introducing Iris Campbell and her boyfriend Paul, who in 1968 are going to the grand opening of the Sky View, a fancy high-rise restaurant tower. Iris has a premonition that all will collapse and there will be multiple fatalities. She warns people of the impending doom, and manages to save many. 57 years later Iris and Paul's maternal granddaughter, Stefani, is a college student, haunted by these recurring nightmares of the averted accident that Iris experienced. She decides to investigate more about what's happening to her, since these nightmares are also impacting her ability to stay focused in school, have good grades, and she's about ready to flunk. Upon returning home, Stefani is met with surprise from her father and brother, as she has rarely kept in touch. She decides to investigate more about Iris, asking her uncle about it, who confides in her that his mother had serious mental issues, which impacted his and his sister's upbringing (Stefani's mom who after giving birth to her and her brothers, one day decided to leave the family household and never returned). Stefani eventually discovers where Iris lives, an isolated and fortified space, and while initially Iris discourages her from coming in, she eventually agrees and tells Stefani what she thinks is happening. Iris has documented every aftermath of what has happened since the events of the Sky View, in the hopes of keeping her family safe. Stefani finds the story impossible, and Iris decides to come outside her safe space, sacrificing herself in the process, so Stefani believes what she just described. Stefani realizes that her family is all on the path for death to collect them all, and frantically goes after every one of them in the hopes of saving them.
The "Final Destination" series always abides to a consistent formula where a central character has a prediction about a fatal event, which he/she then avoids, alongside a few others who believe the prediction, only for all of them to become targets for a series of fatal accidents. This formula is on display once again with "Final Destination: Bloodlines", with a slight imaginative difference/departure. This narrative goes back in time to illustrate how Death haunts this generational enclave and how it crosses time in order to achieve its sinister intent. While the characters fail to have much dimension to them, the family dynamics are nonetheless fairly well established, in the sense that there's a certain amount of friction and tension between them all, something that this threat seems to change and eventually dissolve, nearly bringing them together, including the leading character's long lost mother. This attempt at stopping Death's sinister plan turns out to be the glue this fractured family needed to find a common ground. For all its shortcomings in terms of giving these characters something more substantial that makes them more authentic, the film moves surprisingly swiftly, and while its gory premise remains intact, the film isn't solely focused on this aspect, allowing for the narrative to feel fluid and sensical (something that the prior films at times battled with). It's a slick and polished B-movie at its best. The cast, particularly Brec Bassinger, Rya Kihlstedt, and Gabrielle Rose bring their characters to life with conviction, while the production team is solid, featuring some great production design work from Rachel O'Toole (the period elements at the beginning of the feature and the Mad Max inspired compound are inspired). It's an entertaining, even if at times gruesome, addition to the series.
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