Final Destination Bloodlines Review

Sequels often don't do justice to the original. But some do, and some actually outdo. Final Destinations Bloodlines outdoes every movie in the franchise and sets a benchmark that's tough to match.

What made the Final Destination movies different? First, in every movie in this franchise, someone has an inkling that some people will die. The rest of the movie is about how and why. Another distinguishing feature of the movies are that they depend solely on the inventive deaths, not the sleazy stuff on which most other horror movies do. Indeed, while most horror movies are actually sleaze + horror, this one is unadulterated horror.

After a gap of 15 years from the last film in the Final Destination franchise, the latest stands out for its story, technical excellence, and the pure inventive scars and the deaths. The next one (if at all) in the series might now fail just because this one has raised the bar so much in every aspect - story, screenplay, visual effects and even humour (yes, this one has many humourous situations unlike the earlier ones).

Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) has this recurring nightmare of a young woman (Brec Bassinger), who is her old grandmother Iris (Gabrielle Rose), dying in a horrific tragedy back in the sixties. Deprived of sleep and unable to focus on her schoolwork, she asks her family about Iris, and gets to know that Iris had seen the "Death's Design" of everyone in the bloodline - they would all die. Iris had warned everyone about the accident that she foresaw, and somehow averted the crisis. However, the survivors of that accident began dying in bizarre accidents in the order that Iris saw them originally die, and then their descendants started dying too since they were never meant to even exist.

Iris is now living reclusively in a remote death-proof cabin to know the truth, and Stefani goes to meet her there, with disastrous consequences.

Final Destination: Bloodlines arrives 15 years after Final Destination 5, and stays true to the franchise's core theme, merely using the latest technology to make gore look grand. The result is a Titanic of a horror movie. Titanic in every sense: solid writing, superb execution, top-tier graphics and a star-studded ensemble cast, including Tony Todd and others reprising their roles.

Like all previous Final Destination films, this one too lets death call the shots - in the most unexpected ways. It doesn't stray far from the original formula, but it smartly refines and reimagines the details. Whether it's the grand opening where a tossed coin triggers the collapse of a 7-star romantic hotel, a young girl crushed in a garbage truck, or a cool dude getting sucked into an MRI machine - the incidents, though unlikely in real life, are made to feel convincingly plausible. The film cleverly builds a chain of events, starting with harmless triggers and snowballing into shocking fatalities, and takes you on a thrilling, macabre ride.

Beyond the horror, this is a class act. The deaths are sudden, inventive and surprisingly amusing (for fans of gore). But the non-lethal moments shine as well - the cast interactions, the suspenseful pauses and the one-liners - offering more than the typical setup-kill-repeat formula.

Performance-wise, Kaitlyn stands out as the central character. She's present throughout the film. Her reactions feel authentic, just like any girl-next-door would respond when her family members start dying left, right and centre.

Aside from Kaitlyn, most of the cast except Brec Bassinger and Gabrielle Rose appear briefly and exit after their short gigs. Rose's role as Granny Iris is brief but impactful. On the other hand, Bassinger as the young Iris has a lot on her plate: falling in love, saving others, nearly dying and eventually coming back to life.

Technically, this is certainly amongst the best horror films to date. It delivers horror on a perfect 10/10 scale - worthy of comparisons to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining or Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. Every frame is purposeful, and none can be removed without diminishing the film's impact.

Go watch this movie while you can - alone (it's definitely not family-friendly).