A One Mann’s Movies review of “Final Destination: Bloodlines” (2025).
I must admit that I haven’t been an avid follower of the “Final Destination” films of which this is the sixth in the official franchise, although I’ve seen the original and one or two of the others. The characters have been cheating death – or not – since the year 2000 and you would have thought that the opportunities for killing people in innovative ways have been exhausted. But no!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Final Destination: Bloodlines” Plot:
Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) experiences a terrifying recurring nightmare of a young woman, Iris (Brec Bassinger) and her fiance Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) dying horribly along with a whole high-rise restaurant full of customers many decades ago. She finds that the woman Iris is actually her reclusive grandmother (Gabrielle Rose) who has a surprising and terrifying story to tell her.
Certification:
UK:Â 15;Â US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong horror, gore, language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Brec Bassinger, Max Lloyd-Jones, Gabrielle Rose, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Alex Zahara, April Telek, Tinpo Lee, Tony Todd, Noah Bromley.
Directed by: Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein.
Written by: Guy Busick, & Lori Evans Taylor. (From a story by Jon Watts, Guy Busick & Lori Evans Taylor and characters created by Jeffrey Reddick.)
Running Time: 1h 50m.
“Final Destination: Bloodlines” Summary:
Positives:
- High production values for a horror film: the opening sequence punches above its weight.
- Entertainingly gory deaths which is what we were expecting!
- A fun twist on the story which has some nicely executed misdirections at times.
Negatives:
- Six films into the series and – once we get past the twist – it is pretty predictable stuff.
- Some of the acting is a bit ropy.
Review of “Final Destination: Bloodlines”:
High-class gory fun.
These films are not designed to win mainstream awards, but they are designed to delight with comically gory shocks and in this regard “Bloodlines” delivers. The film is at its most entertaining when the ‘targets’ are aware of what is going on and then they are undergoing advanced risk assessment of everything they are doing. This of course doesn’t save them! As the audience, we are doing that too, trying to determine what ridiculous set of circumstances will result in the next gory demise. The film cleverly plays with your expectations though, with a few nice misdirections thrown in.
A change to the storyline.
In the ‘traditional’ Final Destination canon, death stalks the intended victims in the order that they should have died. But what if someone puts a spanner in those works, and that spanner stays there for decades? This is the intriguing twist in this story adding a historical background and a generational impact. I know some of my film-reviewing colleagues have thought that this aspect “stretched the concept too far”. But I thought it to be a clever twist, albeit that once the ‘spanner’ was removed, the film lamely returned to being the usual formulaic fare.
An impressive opening.
These films always start with a disaster through which death is cheated. In this film, the 60’s setting allowed for there to be some money spent on costume design and period production design that really made it feel a much bigger and better movie than you would expect it to be. The destruction of the restaurant felt ridiculous and far-fetched, but it was great fun at the same time. And it was deliciously satisfying that one of the most obnoxious little kids to appear on screen for some time (the ‘penny kid’, nicely played by Noah Bromley, who I’m sure is a little poppet in real life!) met with a suitably messy end!
Brec Bassinger, who plays Iris in this opening section, delivers one of the most winning performances in the whole film and I was actually a little disappointed when we left the 60’s setting and returned to the ‘present day’.
Variable acting.
Elsewhere, this is not a cast list full of very familiar names… in fact there’s only one (see below) that I recognised. As such, some of the acting felt a bit wooden, but it was never atrocious.
The name I did recognise was Tony Todd. Todd was in the original “Final Destination” film from 2000 as the creepy mortician Bludworth, and he has appeared in all but one of them (“The Final Destination”, effectively ‘FD4’, in 2009) since then. It is fitting then that he should have a small role in this film before arriving at his own final destination. Todd died of stomach cancer in November last year and he was allowed to improvise his last lines in the film as a touching goodbye to the audience. The film is dedicated to him.
Summary Thoughts on “Final Destination: Bloodlines”
People often ask me “how do you watch all of these horror films and not have nightmares?” And my answer is that, almost regardless of the film, I never take the movie away with me, firmly distinguishing the fiction from real life. I don’t watch “Warfare” and expect to be shot by a sniper on Salisbury high-street. I don’t watch “Flow” and expect to be washed away by a flood. But, I tell you, there is something a bit insidious in this film in making you hyper-aware of the multitude of risks of death and injury that lurk around every corner. I made extra sure on my walk back to the car park that I was careful crossing the roads. And was hyper-careful when driving home of other pedestrians or drivers doing unexpectedly stupid things. So this film effectively managed to wheedle itself into my brain somehow!
But it’s a really enjoyable popcorn comedy-horror flick that I really had a lot of fun with. If you enjoy gory fun like “Cocaine Bear“, then this is one to go and enjoy with your friends and have a good squirming “oooh, no!” and a good laugh with.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Final Destination: Bloodlines”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEgc23QhneU.
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