MOVIE SCENE CANADA
FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES
​I Warner Bros. Pictures Canada I May 16, 2025 I 110 mins. I
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94%
* As of 5/13/25
CAST:
Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Rya Kihlstedt, Anna Lore, Brec Bassinger, Tony Todd
DIRECTOR(S):
Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
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College student Stefanie (Kaitlyn Santa) has been experiencing recurring violent nightmares. These nightmares are premonitions that foretell the demise of her family members. Stefanie returns to her hometown to find the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the inevitable fate—Death—that awaits them.
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The story is connected to a woman who managed to escape Death before the events of the original Final Destination movie. This woman has since had a family, but Death is now catching up to claim the lives of those who were never meant to exist.
REVIEW BY: Darren Zakus - 5/13/25
RATING 3.5 out of 5
Final Destination: Bloodlines brings back the fan favourite horror franchise with a vengeance as Death claims a new set of victims with wild and brilliantly staged set pieces that deliver the gore, terror and shocking nature of the series in spades, but with a smart twist on the established formula that makes the latest entry both a treat for longtime fans and a great entry for newcomers.
For years, death has been terrorizing movie goers within the horror franchise, helping to create some of the most memorable moments in cinematic history, such as Lillian Crane in the shower in Psycho. But one horror franchise has been making Death the main character for a quarter of a century, simultaneously instilling irrational fears in audiences and acting as a guardian angel for anyone who has seen the franchise: Final Destination (trust me, you will never drive behind a logging truck again if possible if you’ve seen the second film). But after over a decade without a new entry, producer Jon Watts is breathing new life into the franchise with a fresh new twist on its established formula. And with directing duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein at the helm, not only is Final Destination: Bloodlines a wickedly diabolical horror film full of wonderfully staged set pieces that are guaranteed to get your heart racing, but with a good cast and an intriguing story that has an undeniable heart, makes for one of the stronger entries in the Final Destination series.
What differentiates the Final Destination series from other popular horror series, beyond the completely looney toon deaths that audiences are treated to, is Death itself. So many horror franchises feature an individual in a mask or deranged killer hunting down their victims, but Final Destination is about the finality of life with Death itself being a faceless, unstoppable force that always collects its due. Previously, it has tormented groups of friends or random individuals connected by a freak accident, but for the sixth entry in the popular horror franchise, there is a smart new twist to the formula. This time, with a family at the centre of the story, the film grapples with family secrets that they have left unspoken which has eaten them from the inside, fracturing relationships and grudges, exposing them to be more vulnerable to Death’s torment. So by the time Death shows up, despite their differences, it brings the family together as a unit, creating emotional stakes for the characters and a more meaningful story than any other film in the series. At the same time, this bonds the characters and the audience together, making the ones who perish a more traumatic event for the rest of the characters being hunted down by death and the audience feel each loss more. More so than previous entries in the series, there is strong connective tissue linking this new entry to the rest of the franchise, that smartly reinvents the formula for this entry while making Death’s actions over the entire franchise a little less random.
Though it marks a new entry in the long running franchise that hopefully will bring back the fan favourite series as a regular movie outing every couple of years, Final Destination: Bloodlines marks an ending as well: the final appearance of Tony Todd both in the series and on screen before his passing last November. Knowing that this would be Todd’s final appearance writing his role, Lipovsky, Stein and the film’s writers crafted a beautiful scene that not only explains his character’s ominous and mysterious presence in series, but a scene that gets to the heart of the franchise’s themes of death, life and mortality. Todd himself is tender in his big scene, delivering a heartfelt performance that is both reflective on his time in the franchise, as an actor and his life, that with his final line being unscripted and coming directly from his heart, gives a touching on screen sendoff to a horror legend that won’t leave a single dry eye in the audience.
When it comes to Final Destination, you don’t walk away remembering the performances of the film, as most of the characters you meet are dead pretty quickly, but the latest entry features a solid cast. Kaitlyn Santa Juana makes for an excellent lead as Stefani, bringing a resourcefulness and strength to her character as she becomes the only one able to save her family from Death’s clutches. Brec Bassinger, best known for her starring role on DC’s Stargirl, is terrific in the film’s opening sequence, helping to create both fear and compassion in the film’s biggest set piece, while Richard Harmon and Owen Patrick Joyner are a fun tag team as brothers Erik and Bobby respectively, not only voicing the audience’s internal “oh crap” track at times but delivering some laugh out loud moments of levity between the deadly set pieces. But as a whole, the ensemble cast (for as long as each individual actor is alive in the film), does a great job of creating a true sense of family amongst their characters, helping to ensure that every death in the film hurts that little bit more given the emotional connections between the characters.
But you don’t come to a Final Destination film for the story or performances. You come for the outrageous and gory death sequences, and Lipovsky and Stein have truly outdone themselves with the madness they have conjured up. Taking advantage of the expanded IMAX ratio for the kills, Lipovsky and Stein unleash a directorial tour de force as they slowly tease each death. There are long build ups to them, loaded with red herrings to misdirect viewers, allowing Lipovsky and Stein to flex their directorial style to instill fear in viewers and create suspense, before unleashing a bloody array of deaths. From the grand opening sequence that channels the energy, chaos and excitement of previous opening set pieces of the franchise, to each character who meets an untimely demise later on in the film, the kill sequences come in fast and furious. They are shocking, gruesome, mean spirited and everything fans want from the series, though given the extremes that this franchise has taken deaths too previously, many of them feel less outrageous than you would expect. But, there is one kill that is without question one of the best set pieces of the entire franchise that ranks alongside the logging truck from Final Destination 2 and the roller coaster in Final Destination 3, giving audiences a new irrational fear that has become synonymous takeaway for the franchise. If you are a horror freak like myself who both squirms and gets gleefully excited over gory deaths unfolding on screen, Final Destination: Bloodlines is the summer movie for you.
Coming back with an absolute vengeance, Death is up to its old tricks in Final Destination: Bloodlines. With Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein orchestrating a ruthless mix of mean and traumatizing deaths, family drama and uncomfortable moments of humour, not only do they rejuvenate the Final Destination series, but with a smart twist on the established franchise and a strong cast that evokes heart, they create a unique entry in the series with all of its hallmarks but a depth not previously seen before. Full of bloody, shocking and downright diabolical endings for its characters, but more memorably a truly beautiful final screen appearance from the late and legendary Tony Todd that is worth the price of admission alone, Final Destination: Bloodlines is a worthy new addition to the long running franchise that serves up all the horror madness that fans expect from it.