'Final Destination: Bloodlines' review: Death comes knocking again in bloody sequel

Courtesy of New Line Cinema/Warner Bros.

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Six movies in, and the “Final Destination” franchise is still finding ingenious and outlandish ways to dispatch its victims. That’s the beauty of these films: plotting be damned. “Bloodlines” aims to subvert expectations of what fans have come to expect from the series that began 25 years ago, and it delivers a crafty supernatural thriller filled with twisty fake-outs, bloody dismemberments, and gnarly impalements. It’s a feast for anyone already firmly in the bag for the franchise’s signature shenanigans at death’s doorstep.

Writers Guy Busick (“Ready or Not” and the recent “Scream” films), Lori Evans Taylor, and Jon Watts (taking a break from his “Spider-Man” duties), alongside directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, are clearly fans of the franchise. They enjoy playing with audience tension, and everything they do here feels deliberate. That’s where the fun lies. Sadistic traps are teased, escalated, and then cleverly subverted, only for the filmmakers to gleefully raise the stakes in the next sequence. Trying to guess what death has in store is part of the franchise’s appeal, and that tension remains intact in “Bloodlines.”

Like previous entries, “Bloodlines” is anchored by a cast of mostly unfamiliar faces, aside from the late, great Tony Todd, who managed to film an extended cameo as the iconic mortician William Bludworth before his passing last November. This time, Bludworth gets a bit of an origin story.

In a departure from tradition, the film’s opening is not a premonition of a present-day disaster (like Flight 180 in part one, the infamous log-truck in part two, or the roller coaster accident in part three), but a flashback to the 1960s and the destruction of a restaurant suspended 500 feet in the sky. It’s a thrilling and ambitious opener, shot with IMAX cameras, that signals the filmmakers are going big.

In the present day, we meet Stefanie Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), who is plagued by nightmares linked to the past and spiraling into a mental health crisis. She soon discovers that death’s plan is more elaborate than anyone could have imagined. It’s not just individuals on the chopping block anymore, it’s entire family trees. Stefanie must convince her skeptical relatives, including her younger brother Charlie (Teo Briones), her estranged mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), and a handful of cousins, aunts, and uncles, that if they don’t act fast, they’re next.

One of the fresher angles in “Bloodlines” is that Stefanie has access to a sort of playbook, a bible on how to avoid death’s design. That adds a layer of strategy and spontaneity to the film, even though it still follows the tried-and-true formula that has powered the franchise for nearly three decades: turning ordinary, everyday objects into deranged murder weapons.

And really, that’s exactly what any fan of a good “Final Destination” movie comes to see.

Grade: B- 

FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES is now playing in theaters.