The Final Destination franchise began humbly back in 2000. Originally designed to be an The X-Files episode, writer Jeffrey Reddick decided the story would work better as a film, and New Line Cinema luckily agreed. What was born was essentially a new slasher franchise, but with an unorthodox approach. Instead of a typical masked killer, the killer would be the force of Death itself, coming after people who survived accidents that they weren’t supposed to due to premonitions from a passenger.
Acting as an odd sort of complement to the Saw franchise, the deaths would occur due to a Rube Goldberg-like series of odd occurrences, rather than painful mechanical devices. The end result was the same, though: people dying. The franchise was praised on the whole for its unique approach to horror. Yet by the end of the aughts, the franchise was burned out, with the fifth film coming out in 2011. Though it was the second highest-grossing entry of the franchise, it would take 14 years for a new film to come.
Was the wait worth it? Resoundingly, yes. While Final Destination: Bloodlines is by no means a masterpiece, directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein have delivered what is arguably the best film in this series.
Bloodlines succeeds by and large because it has a strong sense of humor about the franchise’s tropes. With five prior films in the rear view, they understood that these films had a formula: an opening scene of disaster, followed by the reveal that it is just a vision, and then Death coming for all of the survivors in order. Bloodlines doesn’t exactly unshackle from the formula, but its writing and editing teams aren’t afraid to get creative in the order they tell events and how they add new lore to the way visions could work.
The movie never becomes an outright satire or farce, but Bloodlines has fun. It teases the audience about the ridiculous nature of some of the deaths. It fakes out the viewers about when and how deaths occur, and it proves outright surprising at times. For a film this deep into a franchise, it’s a credit to the creative team that they find ways to make some things still fresh.
Certainly, Bloodlines has its share of issues. The convoluted nature of Death’s workings remain as silly as ever, and some plot occurrences break down under logic. The script leaps to have characters make conclusions or decisions that don’t make much sense in context.
Character development is also underbaked, though credit must be given for attempts at greater thematic storytelling. As the title suggests, the film ruminates on the idea of what we pass down to the next generation, and the way our own trauma from growing up might get carried forward unless we do something to break the chain. Tony Todd’s brief appearance is touching in the way it gives the deceased actor a final sendoff and offers a heartfelt message about the franchise’s premise.
By virtue of slasher movie conventions, much character work is shortchanged for the film to remain focused on the humor and death scenes. While it balances tone more effectively than say, Clown in a Cornfield, it still is challenged to make character arcs work while at the same time having the characters show comedic nonchalance about their family dying one by one.
The horror hounds are undoubtedly waiting for this point, though: are the deaths good? Rest assured, there are more than a few creative deaths and sequences. While some push the boundaries of credibility to amazing places (an MRI at a hospital takes on the powers of Magneto at one point), no one can fault the filmmakers for not coming up with new, overly-elaborate mechanisms of death. An abundance of CGI effects does diminish some of the shock value, with several deaths looking quite cartoonish. The opening sequence is especially faulty in this regard.
Final Destination Bloodlines does not elevate the franchise to new heights. It takes too many shortcuts for that. But Bloodlines does stand as a good horror movie, rather than the creative letdowns of other parts of the franchise. Bloodlines at least remembers to try to have characters worth caring about, and its more overtly comedic approach is an overall boon when we’re six entries into a series.
And, importantly, as the film’s credits say, RIP Tony Todd.
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