Final Destination: Bloodlines
Final Destination: Bloodlines
Starring Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Tony Todd
Directed by Zach Lipovsky & Adam Stein
Back in 1968, Iris (Brec Bassinger) and her boyfriend Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) attend the opening of the Skyview Restaurant Tower, a towering restaurant residing high in the air. While there she has a premonition of death and convinces everyone to leave before catastrophe struck, saving everyone.
Decades later, Iris's granddaughter Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) has visions of that night and sees how it was supposed to play out, so she seeks to find her reclusive grandmother to find out why she's having these dreams. She meets Iris (Gabrielle Rose) in her compound, where she's been cheating Death for decades. She's discovered that everyone who was saved was targeted for Death and now it's reached her and her family, giving Stefani all her research to try and find a way to stop it. Together with her brother Charlie (Teo Briones), mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt) and her cousins, Stefani sets out to stop Death's design before it claims them all.
The "Final Destination" franchise is known for two things: the insane ways Death comes for its victims, and Tony Todd's presence. Both are in full effect here, and it's clear that this movie wasn't made for a quick cash grab on an already-established IP. Instead, directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein craft a story that's poignant, emotional, and even has some truly laugh-out-loud moments mixed in with the copious amount of gore, violence, and death that made for one of the best cinematic experiences I've had in a long time. I laughed, gasped, cringed (you'll know), cheered, and even teared up a bit. They perfectly hit every emotion perfectly while still relying on what made the franchise such a beloved one.
First off there's Tony Todd. Best known in the horror community for playing the titular Candyman, he was also well-known for playing William Bludworth in the "Final Destination" franchise. Throughout the six films, he's appeared to be the harbinger of doom, the voice of reason, who tells the soon-to-be victims that Death is coming, and offers ways to stop it. On November 6, 2024, Todd passed away from stomach cancer, making this his final on-screen appearance. You can tell the toll the cancer had on him seeing him on screen - once a tall, built, intimidating man, he was now skinny, frail, and his voice wasn't as booming as it once was. Still, he was so committed to the role that he endured the pain and gave one of the best cameo performances in cinematic history. Much like Chadwick Boseman's final performance in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," Todd gives a soliloquy about death, valuing life, and cherishing those around you while you have the chance. The directors said they knew what was happening, so they let Todd speak from the heart in the last scene, and it's incredibly moving and a fond sendoff for not just the character, but, more importantly, the man who played him. The emotion behind it, the actor himself, just everything was the moment the audience fell silent, and just in awe of the man Tony Todd was.
Back to the fun, Death is a flamboyant SOB. It doesn't just kill with conventional weapons, but makes a grand spectacle of it. Movie critics know the term "Chekov's Gun," which is the writing rule that any element that receives a significant introduction in a story should be used somehow - and "Bloodlines" is basically "Chekov's Gun: The Movie." Be it a penny, a screw, a rake, a lawnmower, a fan, a shard of glass - anything you see on screen will come back at one point or another to weak Death's vengeance. No lie, it will have you leaving the theater looking around at everything to make sure some small thing won't happen to kill you. The franchise excels at creating paranoia in the viewer, and "Bloodlines" does it expertly.
The gore and violence in the movie is top-notch, even though some of the CGI comes off as a bit laughable, it only adds to the fun. Yet there's also some impressive practical effects that are blended in to make for a full movie-going experience. None of the kills are lame by any stretch of the imagination, and are shown in full bloody glory. The directors know what makes the movies great, and knows what the audience expects from them, and are more than happy to deliver to the nth degree.
Even the performances are something to be praised, despite the movie being more about Death's design. Kaitlyn Santa Juana's Stefani is the main character who pieces everything together, and balances between being the harbinger of doom and a total wacko, which is what her extended family thinks she is. Again, looking from our viewpoint, she's the savior of their family - but for them, she's loco en la cabeza (although one nitpick I have with this movie, now that I remember, is that Iris and Paul were purely white, but Stefani is Spanish, while her mother is also white, her father is pure Asian, and her brother is Asian as well, so I was trying to figure that out). The other characters were also given deeper storylines that made you feel for them when their eventual ends (may or may not) come, and they offered a lot of comedic moments that had me laughing to the point of tears.
Capturing everything that made the franchise lovable - and raising the stakes - "Final Destination: Bloodlines" serves as one of the best films in the franchise, and hopefully it'll be the last (not that I don't want any more, but this one was sheer perfection).
The Score: A+
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