Final Destination Bloodlines Review: "Meticulous murderous mayhem"

You can't escape Death, and neither should you want to when it comes to a horror franchise installment as well-executed as Final Destination Bloodlines.

Fourteen years after we saw the fifth film in the series wrap things up in a smart bow, directors Zack Lipovsky and Adam Stein have brought elaborate carnage back to our screens with all the killer set pieces, blood-soaked spectacle and knowing nods that our pounding hearts could desire.

Evidently fans of the franchise, Lipovsky and Stein – who helmed the superb sci-fi horror film Freaks in 2018 – use all the tricks in the Final Destination book to weave an intricate thrill ride packed with jaw-dropping, gasp-inducing, laugh-out-loud moments of gory fatality. The horror hounds will be delighted with gruesome displays of crushed heads, skinned digits, torn piercings, and plenty of splatter.

The action is packaged around the now familiar premise that Death doesn't like to have his plans messed with and will stop at nothing to right the body count following a disastrous massacre averted by a timely premonition – this time taking place in the 1960s at a prematurely opened revolving restaurant: the Skyview.

Death returns

Fans will not be disappointed with what has now become a calling card for the Final Destination films – a massive opening sequence filled with more death and destruction than you can shake a dangerously pointy stick at. As ever, any inanimate object is shot with eye popping paranoid significance, and deliciously prescient cues abound, with visual prods and tons of overtly conspicuous needle drops for anyone who cares to notice.

The title Bloodlines refers to the family at the centre of the action: three generations of unlucky casualties of Death's plan, starting with the woman who had the premonition that saved the restaurant full of people, Iris (played excellently by both Brec Bassinger and Gabrielle Rose, taking on the role in the past and present). But the story goes beyond that, taking into account all the families of all the would-be-victims, and suggesting certain wide-ranging connections to events in the previous movies.

Many people come to the Final Destination franchise for their notoriously complex kill sequences involving multiple usually undeadly objects, and Bloodlines utilises everything from lawnmowers to weathervanes, chandeliers to garbage trucks, leaf blowers to MRI machines – and one very bad penny – to inflict its meticulous murderous mayhem. Set pieces taking place in a tattoo parlour, a hospital and a garbage truck all work especially well.

The ill-fated family of Bloodlines is led through the twists and turns and torn body parts by Kaitlyn Santa Juana's Stefanie, who inherits not only the death curse and foresight of her grandmother Iris, but also her book of news clippings, obituaries, clues and research into all the deaths down the years since she averted the Skyview disaster.

A very pleasant surprise in the new Final Destination film is that writers Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor have veered away from the temptation to make our cast of characters obnoxious fodder who we can't wait to see offed in some painstaking way. Stefanie's family includes her brother Charlie (Theo Briones) and cousins Erik (Richard Harmon), Julia (Anna Lore) and Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner), and they all have varying levels of unique charm, with Harmon and Joiner particularly standing out.

Elsewhere in the cast, it's a bittersweet treat to see the return of franchise regular Tony Todd; Final Destination: Bloodlines being the last movie in the horror icon's career before his sad passing last year. It's a poignant send off, knitting together the events of the present film with his character origins, and one that will undoubtedly spark emotion from fans with well placed, beautifully delivered lines from this remarkable, ailing actor about the preciousness of life.

A worthy addition

There is also plenty of humour to be had, and amongst the blood and gore a pretty sharp script and moments of violent visual comedy will have audiences chuckling and wincing in equal measure.

The smartly written moments are also accompanied in places with some utter nonsense about things like equations and maths, and cleverer, more satisfying Easter eggs and callbacks (familiar vehicles - including a genuinely stressful moment with a bus – and instances that look like they should be 3D, etc.) are mixed in with very silly stuff that, for example, uses previous characters' names to almost eye-rolling effect. It's all great fun though.

In Final Destination Bloodlines – with its solid cast, knowing but uncynical script, welcome humour, impressive editing, banging soundtrack, well crafted kills and the clearly genuine respect for its subject matter and the films that have come before – Zack Lipovsky and Adam Stein have delivered a worthy addition to a well-loved and pretty consistent horror franchise that should satisfy existing devotees, and offers plenty to garner new fans too.

The newest Final Destination film will serve as a welcome reminder that the horror genre can feel fresh and fun even when drawing on existing properties – not to mention a gentle nudge that a little caution around trampolines and flaming desserts doesn't necessarily mean that health and safety has gone mad.

Final Destination Bloodlines is out in cinemas this May 14 in the UK and US theaters this May 16. For more, see our guide to all the upcoming movies of 2025.