Death catches up to us all; and the longer you outrun it, the more likely it is you will get to see another Final Destination flick before they put you in the ground.
Which, maybe, hasn’t been the best reason for most of us to keep moving forward in recent years? But boy, oh boy, if the franchise can keep doing what it did with Bloodlines, I can keep fighting for another day.
Listen, I’m not even a huge fan of the franchise. I have seen the original movie exactly one time, and have caught bits and pieces and clips of the other sequels here and there.
The premise creates some fun and iconic kill sequences, but let’s not kid ourselves, most of Bloodlines‘ predecessors aren’t exactly top-tier cinema.
With a name like Bloodlines, you could worry that this movie might be overly connected to what came before and that only die-hard (get it?) fans would appreciate it—like maybe these characters are descendants of previous film protagonists. Nope! It’s all self-contained despite what I understand are lots of fun easter eggs and references to previous characters.
Knowing the premise of the franchise loads tension into every frame despite the film also taking a firmly campy tone. The opening sequence at the grand opening of the SkyView tower is possibly the greatest possible execution of the Final Destination premise, and the filmmakers tease you with every possible thing that could go wrong: is a bolt loose? Can the elevator hold that many people? Why are we so focused on this chef’s blazing skillet? What’s going to happen with this jerk kid throwing pennies off the tower?
Who knows what’s going to happen? But it gets the mind racing as we know that it’s all bound to come together in some horrible, beautiful way. And that scene delivers. Then we get to fast forward to two generations later—the granddaughter of someone who shouldn’t have survived that opening scene is having a recurring nightmare of it. But what happens when whole bloodlines have been created by someone who cheated death?
It’s a fresh take within the franchise that opens up new and exciting possibilities and fertile ground for the imaginative death scenarios we know and love. And in between the gory, ridiculous deaths there is consistently terrific jokes that keep this thing rocking and rolling like few horror comedies do.
The third act is not quite as strong, but I still found it to be a good way to tie up the movie— until the very last scene. Without getting into spoilers, there are a handful of ways to end a horror film, and the filmmakers really drew the wrong straw here. But there’s still hope! I can foresee a way to retcon the final scene for a sequel that would instantly put a nicer bow on Bloodlines and open an exciting new chapter to let the franchise cheat death one more time.
