With the big recent resurgence of horror in cinemas it is not surprising that producers have decided that it is time to re-boot one of the most lucrative horror franchises of all time – Final Destination.
This franchise started with a film aimed at teenagers with a very simple plotline. A group of teenagers who survive a plane crash after their friend’s premonition suddenly find themselves being hunted by death itself. To be honest most people probably went to see the original due to the popularity of the cast at the time. Seann William Scott was at the height of his American Pie fame while Kerr Smith was adored by Dawson’s Creek fans right around the world. And while people may have came for the teen heart-throbs what they got was a well thought out horror film from one of the minds behind the The X-Files – James Wong.
From there the franchise just took flight and after one more serious film eventually became a series of films full of characters played by no name actors who people just wanted to see die in interesting ways. For producers the lack of start power meant the films were cheap to make but made bank at the box office.
Now the big tests for Final Destination: Bloodlines are will audiences in 2025 still embrace a Final Destination film and do the creative team behind have the skills to keep the film true to the franchise while making it relevant in today’s market. I’m happy to stay that the latter certainly happens.
Directed by Zach Lipovsky (Freaks) and Adam B Stein (Mech-X4) Bloodlines begins in 1968 when a young Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger – Stargirl) saves a group of people’s lives after having a premonition of a newly opened sky-high restaurant collapsing.
Flash forward to 2025 and college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana – The Flash) is haunted by the premonitions that Iris (her Grandmother) had. She is so affected by them that she is not sleeping which is having a huge impact on her grades.
In a bid to work out what is happening she comes home to her father (Tinpo Lee – The Curse Of La Llorona) and brother (Teo Briones – Wind River) where she learns about a dark family secret from her Uncle Howard (Alex Zahara – Horns). The now older Iris (Gabrielle Rose – The Sweet Hereafter) ha subjected the family to what he calls ‘nonsense’ – being over-protective because she believes the family is being hunted by death because of her premonitions. It is in fact the reason why Stefani’s mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt – Deep Impact) abandoned their family.
Determined to dig deeper Stefani goes to visit Iris and learns that Death does in fact have a plan for their family and that the reason she is having the nightmares she is having now is because Death’s plan is now about to start.
To it’s credit Bloodlines not only holds up to the other Final Destination movies it is actually far superior to many of them and takes its mantle alongside the brilliant early movies in the franchise. In fact it’s epic opening scenes are a refreshing journey back to the big disaster films that filled cinemas in the 1990s and early 2000s.
From there it soon becomes very obvious that screenwriters Guy Busick (Ready or Not) and Lori Evans Taylor (Cellar Door) are not going to rest on their laurels and allow the epic opening to be the main focal point of the film. From there they are allow this to become a film of well-established characters, a fairly decent plot and of course what everybody is looking forward to – creative deaths.
Busick and Taylor also manage to throw some brilliant twists into the film as well – twists so unexpected and creative that even the most hardened horror fans will not see them coming. That mixed with the genuine suspense that the film generates makes it hard to fathom anybody being disappointed by Bloodlines.
Having said that though there is one weird issue with the film that I just haven’t been able to get out of my mind. Supposedly, Iris has built herself a compound that is death proof. However, even a brief glance at it shows you that the compound that the set designers have built is anything but death proof. There are logs with sharp edges everywhere you look and a small pond full of dirty water just for starters. You have to wonder who messed up here – was Iris not as careful as she said or did the team behind the set-building just not read the script carefully enough.
Still Final Destination: Bloodlines does more than enough to satisfy any fan of the series. Bring well-developed characters back to the mix means that the audience becomes more closely invested in what is happening on the screen and while some of the cast here are not well-known everyone puts in some brilliant performances – again lifting the film to another level. Bloodlines is easily one of the best Final Destination films and hopefully leads the series in a great new direction.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is currently screening in cinemas.