Final Destination Bloodlines
Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana, TV's 'The Flash') has been struggling at college due to a recurring, extreme nightmare she thinks involves the grandmother she's never met, Iris (Gabrielle Rose), so she decides to go home to see her. With her own mother, Iris's daughter, Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), having abandoned her family when Stefani was 10, she turns to her Uncle Howard (Alex Zahara), who is adamant that she not contact Iris, who he believes is crazy. But she is determined, and when she hears what Iris has to say, believes her grandmother can help her break the cycle that has been violently prophesizing death for decades in "Final Destination Bloodlines."
Laura's Review: B
Twenty-five years after some kids decided not to board a flight to Paris only to have Death come for them one by one nonetheless and fourteen years after the last installment, Jon Watts, Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor (screenplay by Busick and Taylor) freshen up the franchise with a family tree twist while honoring the franchise's gleefully twisted but unseen protagonist's Rube Goldberg-esque death delivery. The film opens with an incredible set piece set in the 60's, when the then young Iris (Brec Bassinger, "47 Meters Down: Uncaged") is taken to opening night of the Skyview restaurant by her boyfriend Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) who intends to propose hundreds of feet in the air.
This opening sequence, in which major death and destruction revolve around a 'lucky' penny unluckily retrieved from a ground level fountain by a bratty little boy (Noah Bromley) set to tongue-in-cheek soundtrack selections 'Bad Moon Rising' and 'Ring of Fire,' is first revealed to be Stefani's nightmare, then shown to have been the catastrophe Iris averted via her premonition of the event, a talent which appears to have been passed down to her granddaughter. Iris, who was pregnant with Darlene at the time, ended up marrying Paul, but after he and others present at the Skyview ended up dying in spectacular fashion in the order she had foreseen, Iris became convinced that death would not only come for her, but for the family who wouldn't have existed had she not lived. Her obsession with keeping her children safe eventually drove them away, her continual doom-laden letters dismissed, by Howard at least, as conspiracy madness, but Iris believes she has kept them alive for decades by surviving in a fortified cabin, surrounded by booby traps and steel gates. Unfortunately her extreme paranoia unsettles Stefani and Iris ends up sacrificing her own life to convince her.
And so Stefani will also inherit this same familial skepticism when she presents her arguments to them, including the order in which death will come for them now that Iris is no longer alive as their protector. The writers have some fun throwing in family secrets and setting up catastrophic events, most cringe-inducingly in a tattoo parlor with Stefani's multi-pierced cousin Erik (Richard Harmon), which go in unexpected directions.
Directors Adam Stein & Zach Lipovsky and their writers honor the elaborate set-ups with pointed close-ups of objects, like that rake beneath a trampoline, awaiting the catalyst that will turn innocent objects into lethal weapons. Even better, they use clever callbacks and crossovers, like "2's" logging truck which also is a foreshadowing, railroad tracks suggesting doom in opening moments only to fatefully reappear decades later and a warning prick from a rose thorn. Better yet, the late Tony Todd's character of William Budworth is finally given a smart back story explaining just why he always knew so much about the franchise mythos in addition to giving the clearly ailing actor improvised parting words of wisdom.
According to a Variety interview, Stein and Lipovsky got the greenlight when they staged one of their own beheadings by a ceiling fan for studio execs live during a Zoom call . This is a team with "Final Destination" fervor, and its legacy is honored with horror, humor and even heart.
Warner Brothers releases "Final Destination Bloodlines" on 5/16/25.
