“Final Destination: Bloodlines” is a wickedly clever return to the cult horror franchise that’s turned ordinary household items into instruments of deadly fate. Fourteen years after the last installment, co-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein bring fresh energy—and a twisted sense of humor, to the series’ sixth entry, reminding audiences why we fear toasters, ceiling fans, and yes, even blenders.
The film opens with what is arguably its most stunning and suspenseful sequence: a flashback to 1969 atop the towering Skyview restaurant (which strongly resembles Seattle’s Space Needle but was actually filmed in Vancouver). There, we meet Iris (Brec Bassinger), a young woman expecting a romantic evening, and an unexpected proposal. But a slip of the blade and a foreboding comment, “I’ll live,” she says after nicking her finger, set the stage for disaster.
Soon, bolts are flying, the tower is crumbling, and patrons are falling to their deaths, all to the ironic tune of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”. It’s a chaotic, clever opening that blends nostalgia with dread, and it jolts us straight into the franchise’s signature formula.
Then we wake up, literally, with present-day college student Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), who’s been haunted by this same terrifying vision. Failing school and driven by obsession, Stefani returns home to learn more about her family’s murky past. Her journey leads her to the reclusive Iris, her grandmother, who survived the 1969 incident thanks to a premonition.
But survival came at a price. “Death is coming for our family,” Iris warns. Those who cheated death that night were doomed to eventually meet grisly ends, and worse, so are their descendants. This chilling revelation explains the movie’s subtitle, Bloodlines — Stefani and her family were never meant to exist.
From here, the film launches into a series of cleverly choreographed death sequences that feel like demented Rube Goldberg machines. A peaceful family barbecue turns nightmarish thanks to a glass shard lurking in a blender and a rake ominously resting beneath a trampoline. A visit to a tattoo parlor leads to one of the movie’s most inventive kill setups, and an MRI scanner becomes the centerpiece of one of the most suspenseful scenes—reminding us why strong magnets and metal don’t mix.
But it’s not just the deaths that keep viewers on edge. Equally important are the moments when death doesn’t strike, just yet. “Actually he doesn’t die,” the reviewer noted, recalling moments of deliciously prolonged tension.
Lipovsky and Stein strike a rare balance in horror: this is a movie that dares you to laugh while covering your eyes. The film’s wit makes the blood-soaked mayhem more palatable, allowing even genre skeptics to giggle amid the gore. As the directors shared at the premiere, they hoped audiences would “be watching this… through their fingers, but with smiles on their faces.”
Indeed, for horror fans and the morbidly curious alike, Final Destination: Bloodlines delivers both thrills and twisted chuckles. It reminds us that in this franchise, Death doesn’t just knock — it constructs an elaborate chain reaction first.“Final Destination: Bloodlines” is a Warner Bros. release rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “strong violent/grisly accidents, and language.” Running time: 110 minutes.
Rating: ★★½ out of 4.
Paraluman P. Funtanilla
Paraluman P. Funtanilla is Tutubi News Magazine's Marketing Specialist and is a Contributing Editor. She finished her degree in Communication Arts in De La Salle Lipa. She has worked as a Digital Marketer for start-up businesses and small business spaces for the past two years. She has earned certificates from Coursera on Brand Management: Aligning Business Brand and Behavior and Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content. She also worked with Asia Express Romania TV Show.
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