A slasher movie where the killer is the invisible force of death sounds like an idea spoken at 3 am at a frat party. How could audiences be made scared by something they can’t see? And yet, 25 years and five movies later, the Final Destination franchise has made a whopping $657 million off this very idea. Starting with 2000’s Final Destination, which many would say has yet to be topped in the series, it swapped a physical embodiment of its killer for heightened gore and atmosphere, resulting in a movie the world had never seen the likes of before. From there, the post-9/11 splatter craze of horror in the 2000s stretched its hand to the genre, and the movies became more about the insane ways one might day and just how gory it could be. A dip in quality was inevitable in the franchise, but, surprisingly, the last of the sequels, 2011’s Final Destination 5, was much better than anyone thought it would be, mainly due to its refocus on characters and that devastating twist ending. Now, 14 years since the fifth installment, the franchise returns with Final Destination Bloodlines, and out of all of the entries, none understands what type of movie it is better than this one. It’s not trying to recreate the original, nor is it a quick cash grab like the franchise’s lowest point, 2009’s The Final Destination.
After 25 years, writers Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor and directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein know exactly what audiences want from a Final Destination movie: gore, atmosphere, and insane methods to kill its characters, nothing more, nothing less. Bloodlines offers some insane death moments, turning MRI machines and garbage trucks into weapons of mass destruction. But it’s the care and time put into the buildup of these deaths that makes the movie one of the franchise’s best. Lipovsky and Stein are constantly toying with the audience, generating such an excruciating amount of tension that seeing a character get sliced in half by an elevator is a moment of cathartic relief. Will Bloodlines be considered one of horror’s greats? No, but that’s not what it wants to be. Seeing this in a full IMAX screening was one of the best cinema experiences I’ve had in a while, with the highs and lows feeling akin to a rollercoaster, one much more enjoyable than the ill-fated ride in Final Destination 3.
‘Bloodlines’ Flips the Final Destination Formula

The movie starts with the obligatory mass killing that sets everything into high gear. What sets this apart from the other openings is that it takes place in the 1960s. Iris (Brec Bassinger) attends the opening of a high-rise restaurant in a brand-new skyscraper with her boyfriend, Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones). It’s an exciting event with dancing, champagne, and a proposal from Paul, and Iris responds by telling him she’s pregnant. But, in this world, happiness is never long-lived, and even the tiniest object, like a seemingly innocent penny, can violently claim hundreds of lives. Due to poor infrastructure and a myriad of other unfortunate occurrences, all hell breaks loose, and hundreds of lives are lost, including Iris’s and her unborn child. Just when we’re expecting the film to cut back to Iris realizing she had a premonition, it cuts to the current day as our protagonist Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) wakes up screaming in her college class. She has been plagued by this very vivid dream, and goes home to get some answers.
It turns out that Iris (now played by Gabrielle Rose) is Stefani’s grandmother, from whom her entire family is estranged, as she spiraled into paranoia about death finding her and her family at any minute. Stefani believes her grandmother was right, and that death is coming to claim all of them because Iris was meant to die, therefore, none of them should have existed, but the rest of her family remains skeptical. After multiple bizarre and grisly deaths claim some of Stefani’s relatives, she, with the help of her brother, Charlie (Teo Briones), and her mother, Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), who walked out on them years ago and has now returned, and Stefani’s cousins race to try to beat death before it comes to claim them as well.
The movie does take a while to set up the inciting incident, characters, and family history, but once it gets going, it’s great to see a Final Destination movie finally reckon with its history and lore. It’s also a very welcome change to see a family at the center of the story, rather than stereotypical teenagers or college kids who you wish would quit whining and die already. While the series has had some compelling characters, with certain deaths feeling particularly devastating, none has built out a main cast as effectively as Bloodlines. It’s not just Stefani we root for, but her entire family, as the complicated dynamics between the relatives add more weight to the idea that they’ll soon all meet a gnarly death.
‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Contains Some Nasty Death Scenes

Of course, you’re not really coming to a Final Destination movie for a character study, you want to see some fucked up death methods. On that front, Bloodlines more than delivers. The opening disaster is heavily CGI’d, and it takes a minute to buy into the overly digitized destruction. You just have to remind yourself you’re here for a fun time and sit back and enjoy the digital carnage. It’s when Death starts claiming lives one at a time that the gore and violence amp up to give some of the gnarliest deaths in the franchise (although I don’t think anything could ever traumatize as much as the gymnastics scene from the fifth film).
A BBQ scene involving a rogue shard of gloss and a low trampoline, as advertised in the trailer, is a masterclass in tension and toying with the audience, with Stein and Lipovsky knowing how many fakeouts are enough to make the ultimate death land with maximum impact. Bloodlines knows exactly how a Final Destination fan thinks, and it opens up a back-and-forth between the audience that makes the movie feel like an immersive experience. Some deaths are built up to excruciatingly, and then some are immediate and blunt. It’s a movie version of the fake left go right tactic in sports, and just when you think you know where Death is and who it’s coming for, you get the carpet violently pulled out from under you.

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As mentioned, it’s also rewarding to finally see a movie in this franchise playing with its lore. More than just fun nods to deaths from movies yore — your driving behind a log truck fear isn’t going anywhere — Bloodlines feels the most thematic out of these films. Generational trauma, morality, and the conflict between fighting death or just enjoying the time you have all feel more robustly explored here. It doesn’t necessarily deliver anything overly poignant, but it does provide this movie with layers that previous installments lacked. But Bloodlines doesn’t rely too much on what came before, standing on its own as a hybrid sequel and reboot.
‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Gives Tony Todd the Perfect Farewell

Image via Warner Bros.

The Final Destination series has an abundance of bad performances, and that’s usually because they’re given corny dialogue and almost no character development. Here, the acting may not be the most believable, but they do put effort into the dynamics. Kaitlyn Santa Juana as main character Stefani actually gives one of the more disappointing performances, as if her only character note was to look shocked. She has on the exact same expression throughout the entire movie, and despite us knowing that her ramblings are real, Juana’s overly manic performance makes us even guess what we’re seeing. Richard Harmon is the main standout as Stefani’s sardonic cousin, Erik. He brings the perfect amount of levity, and despite him taking far too long to start seeing the truth, he makes his denial charismatic, and it’s a great antidote to Juana’s severely anxious performance.
One of the best scenes in the entire movie doesn’t contain death, because no amount of gore could top the scenery chewing that Tony Todd does here in his final role. It’s always nice to see directors give their cast members the respect they deserve; Stein and Lipovsky do a beautiful job of honoring the horror legend, and seeing his career end on a note that not only displays his talents but rewards his legacy. It may only be a few moments, but his scene ties together the entire franchise and its themes, while also allowing us one last goodbye to one of the genre’s greats.
If you don’t like horror movies, then don’t go see this movie. This isn’t for you! This is for the Final Destination fans who’ve waited patiently for over a decade. It’s also for those who enjoy a ride of a movie that will raise and drop your heart rate multiple times over an hour and 47 minutes. With horror franchises constantly coming back from the dead, Bloodlines is one of the freshest we’ve seen in a while. It’s the perfect blend of going back to basics and cooking up something new, drenched in blood and snapping bones.
Final Destination Bloodlines splatters into theaters on May 16.

Final Destination Bloodlines

Final Destination Bloodlines refreshes the franchise with more lore, blood, and gnarly deaths.

Release Date

May 16, 2025

Runtime

109 Minutes

Director

Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein

Writers

Lori Evans Taylor, Guy Busick, Jeffrey Reddick, Jon Watts

Kaitlyn Santa Juana

Stephanie Lewis

Teo Briones

Charlie Lewis

Pros & Cons

Stein and Lipovsky create a palpable sense of dread and tension before every kill.
The death scenes are the perfect blend of gnarly, creative, and absurd.
The movie gives a wonderful farewell to Tony Todd by honoring his legacy in his short scene.

Kaitlin Santa Juana’s performance can feel overstretched at some points.
The opening scene is heavily CGI’d which can take viewers out of the experience.