“Final Destination: Bloodlines” Brings Back The Death, More Thrilling Than Ever | Review

Kill me, but the “Final Destination” movies have always been pure fun for me. Ever since the first film came out in 2000 – a film that actually started as a suggestion for an installment in the masterful The X Files” series – I found myself eagerly awaiting what would become a much-loved franchise. The films taught me that death literally lurks around every corner, that it is impossible to escape it, and that it can catch us in the most cruel and entertaining ways. So when I heard the announcement of the sixth film in the franchise, something like 25 years after the first film and 15 years after “Final Destination 5,” I counted the days, while I was on my guard to stay alive and see it.

The bottom line is that it was worth the wait. “Final Destination 6,” or by its official name “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” is a great horror film. It is bombastic at times, fun, creative, and funny, including reflexive references to the film’s heritage. Even if not everything is perfect here, it is one of the better horror films of 2025. Moreover, it is proof that, in contrast to what happens in the movies, this franchise is still alive and well.

Like A Slasher, With A Surprising Killer: What Is Final Destination: Bloodlines About?

Are you familiar with the basic structure of the slasher, in which characters are murdered one after another by a specific person, usually a mysterious killer in a mask? This is roughly the narrative principle of the “Final Destination” films, with a big difference. The main villain here is death, which does not necessarily take the forms we use to see (say, a killer with a butcher knife, a ghost, or a scary demon), or even a form at all, but it is more of a concept. Except for a few cases, such as the shadow that passed in the first film for a few seconds, we learn about the presence of death mainly through the cinematic expression: music changes, close-ups of objects and potential dangers (and every object is a suspect here), increased pace, and so on.

The formula of the “Final Destination” films generally speaks of a deadly vision that opens the film, and of a character who sees what is about to happen, warns those who are willing to listen, and thus saves many lives. But you cannot fool death, dear, and it returns to kill the “survivors” one by one, according to the original order. One of the hallmarks is that death is truly present here at every corner, with creative killings that show that a person can encounter countless “dumb ways to die,” if we return to the song that went viral a few years ago. Some films have attempted to refresh the format, for instance, by exploring the laws of death or ways to outwit it, with varying degrees of success.

Here is the trailer of “Final Destination: Bloodlines”, to get things started:

Suppose you’ve seen any of the films in the series, like you should as a horror fanatic. In that case, you know that the opening of these films, which present the disaster that has occurred (or been avoided), is bombastic, and fortunately, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” delivers the goods in a big way. After seeing a plane crash (“Final Destination 1”), a fatal car accident (“Final Destination 2”), a horror at an amusement park (“Final Destination 3”), a car race (“Final Destination 4”) or a bridge collapse (“Final Destination 5”), we arrive in 1968. Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger, “47 Meters Down: Uncaged” and the TV series “Bella and the Bulldogs” and “Stargirl”) arrives with her boyfriend Paul (Max Lloyd Jones, “War for the Planet of the Apes”, “Woman of the Hour”) for the opening night of a very prestigious restaurant, located at the top of a skyscraper in Cloverdale, New York.

The problem is that Iris suffers from a fear of heights, and the restaurant has just opened, and we are at the beginning of a “Final Destination” movie. This series unusually presents its climax scene at the beginning of the film, rather than at the end. If you connect the dots, you realize that very soon things will start to collapse and people will die in ruthless ways. Thanks to the efforts of an annoying kid who tosses a coin and a few other coincidences that made the series a pleasure, we get a well-made disaster scene.

It ends with the death of the heroine, only to discover that what we saw was a vision of Iris, and that she managed to warn those present and save them. We learn about this because her granddaughter, Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana, “The Friendship Game,” “The Flash”), has flashbacks of the same disaster, which cause her to collapse on her school bench.

Same Formula, With Some Creative Twists

Stefani may not have seen the “Final Destination” films, since she is a character in a movie, but she does her own research. She returns to her family home and meets her pretty cool family, which includes her father, younger brother, aunt, uncle, and three cousins. There’s also a family story here with some complexities. Still, the bottom line is that Stefani realizes she must visit her grandmother, who now lives in an isolated cabin with numerous defenses. After all, she managed to stay alive even after death took almost everyone who survived her premonition.

Stefani investigates everything that happened to the survivors of that tower. After death begins to strike the family, she realizes that it is waiting for the family members, in a specific order that we won’t reveal right now. This part of the film is definitely well-made in several respects. First of all, because the kills are very creative and entertaining: What else can you expect when they involve a lawnmower, a football, a garbage truck, an MRI machine out of control, a snack machine, a piano, and more. There are some worthy additions to a series that taught us, for example, about the dangers of household products (like microwaves, elevators, or weights), basic services (like tanning salons, eyeglass repair shops, and dentists), and of course, the way we conduct ourselves daily, such as the fact that no viewer of the films would EVER drive behind a truck carrying logs. In short, if movies can make us paranoid, they are the “Final Destination” films.

The second reason is that, despite the formula being quite familiar, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” manages to surprise us at times. Without spoilers, there are several scenes in which the person who is injured is a different person than we thought, for reasons that we will understand during the film, or death strikes in a different way than we expected.

This is also where part of the film’s tension structure lies, which the format certainly helps. If in the “Smile” films, for example, we are on alert because at any moment a particular character might crack a creepy smile and do strange things, in “Final Destination” every shot at a specific object makes us think that it will be involved in the next disaster. The viewer remains on the alert and usually gets what they want after a few minutes: usually, a gruesome death that is presented, this time, mainly in a humorous way. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t, but the film manages to keep things interesting in any case. The film incorporates a few jokes or reflexive references to the film series, or even to the representation of death in the media, which adds spice as well.

Final Destination: Bloodlines Shows Some Awesome Filmmaking

“Final Destination: Bloodlines” was directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, who worked together on Disney’s action comedy TV films “Kim Possible” and the solid horror film “Freaks” in 2018. New Line Cinema reportedly decided to hire them after the two showed off a video and visual effects piece in the style of “Final Destination” (it’s likely that Lipovski, a special effects man on several films, was the leading technical executive).

Although “Final Destination: Bloodlines” is far from groundbreaking, even within the franchise it exists within, the two do a great job of reviving the franchise. The film is well-made and successfully combines disaster, action, humor, and horror, even if it’s hard to argue that it’s a scary film or one that will give you nightmares at night like its heroine experiences.

Two people sign the script, and they too can put a big “V” on their work in creating a refreshing product, which manages to be a sequel and a prequel at the same time. Lori Evans Taylor is a producer, writer, and director who took on these roles in the likable “Bed Rest” with Melissa Barrera and co-wrote the average “Cellar Door”. The better-known name is Guy Busick, known for his collaborations with the duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, in films such as “Ready or Not,” “Scream 5,” “Scream 6” and “Abigail,” who is currently working on the script for “Scream 7” (as a sole writer) and the anticipated sequel to “Ready or Not”, known as “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” (along with R. Christopher Murphy). Based on these works, you can certainly expect a lot from a film that Busick is behind, and “Final Destination 6” does not disappoint in this respect. The film is well-paced, the characters are interesting (even if not overly developed, because most of them are supposed to be cannon fodder anyway), and there are, as mentioned, some creative ideas along the way.

The directors manage to revive the script ideas, and these scenes work, even if those who expected a complete break with conventions or a complete avoidance of clichés may be disappointed. For example, the film introduces the “coin effect”, a symbolic object that shows that a coin thrown or dropped in one place may cause a catastrophe in another. We have already seen objects of this type earlier in the series, in an attempt to show the fact that death is not random, even if the accident seems out of place.

Some Discussion About Death

You can’t expect an in-depth discussion about the meaning of life and death, because after all, this is a commercial and light horror film, and not Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal”. The general idea, that death comes and cannot be cheated, already recurs in almost every film of the franchise, but its implementation is very impressive. It raises some dilemmas about how one can gain a little more life by harming others, and the treatment of them is quite symbolic: in other words, don’t expect nerve-wracking dilemmas like “Saw” here. The film also touches on several different social issues, such as the relationships between mothers and their children, in a sensitive but not particularly moving way.

One of the central questions here (and of course in the previous films) is whether caution can prevent, delay, or even cheat death. On the one hand, the assumption is that everything is written from above, and it is impossible to avoid death because any object can kill you, no matter how safe you try to be. On the other hand, the adult character of Iris is someone who, although she went crazy, managed to survive and control her death thanks to self-awareness and optimal planning of her home. In my opinion, this narrative could have been structured in a slightly more consistent and logical way, even within the disturbed inner world of “Final Destination.”

The Cast Of Final Destination Bloodline: Promising Young Names, One Horror Legend

Speaking of adults, it is impossible not to mention the last role of horror legend Tony Todd, the man behind “Candyman” and countless passionate roles in films of our favorite genre. Todd returns here to play William Bludworth, the survivor from the previous films, who is also involved in some way in the observation tower incident that opens the film. Todd arrived at the filming already in a tough state of health due to the stomach cancer he suffered from, and it is quite easy to see that, but they say that he tried with all his might to continue filming. The creators decided to give him creative freedom in the scene, and we got the last words of his career, an improvised monologue that speaks more to the viewers than to the characters in the film. Some chilling sentences about death, and especially about the need to enjoy life, because who knows when something will happen to us: “I intend to enjoy the time I have left, and I suggest you do the same. Life is precious. Enjoy every single second. You never know when… Good luck”.

Another veteran you can see here is the symbolic role of a 71-year-old stuntwoman named Yvette Ferguson, who came back from retirement to get set on fire (for real) in the tower scene. They are trying to give her a Guinness World Record as the oldest woman set on fire in a movie, and she may get her record.

Still, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” is mainly driven by the young cast, who do a good job. Bassinger (no relation to Kim Bassinger) is convincing in the first disaster scene, which lasts something like 20 minutes. Most of the cast are unknown to the average viewer, but they do the job. Kaitlyn Santa Juana is charismatic and carries the dramatic scenes on her shoulders, with the humor mainly provided by her cousins: Richard Harmon (horror films “Lowlifes” and “Margoaux”, and TV series “The 100”, “Van Helsing” and “Bates Motel”), Anna Lorre (“Contracted: Phase 2”, the terrible “They/Them” and soon “The Black Phone 2”) and Owen Joyner (“Julie and the Phantoms”).

Should You Watch Final Destination: Bloodlines?

Ultimately, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” proves that the wait was worthwhile, especially when we received a product that compares favorably to most of the films in the franchise, which began to falter a bit over time. The film received positive to excellent reviews, and was a massive success at the box office worldwide with revenues of more than $285 million, making it the most successful film in the franchise and one of the most profitable horror films since the COVID-19 pandemic (of course, its budget is also the highest so far). So it’s true that the goal of films of this type is financial, but “Final Destination: Bloodlines” manages to justify its existence even among the cynics, who oppose film series that refuse to die to make a few more millions.

The “death” of this franchise may come someday, but if it can be “cheated” with a few more films that manage to preserve what is good and even improve some elements, who am I to argue against it? We have not yet reached the “final destination” of the franchise, and there are still many more kills in store. New Line Cinema just announced the Seventh “Final Destination” film, and we are eagerly awaiting its release.

In the meantime, enjoy the time we have left to wait, and every single second, because life is precious.

Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025) – Frequently Asked Questions

Who directed Final Destination: Bloodlines? Zach Lipovski and Adam Stein, who worked together on “Kim Possible” and “Freaks”, co-directed the film.

Who plays in Final Destination: Bloodlines? Kaitlyn Santa Juana leads the cast, which includes Brec Bassinger, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Teo Briones, and horror legend Tony Todd in his final role before passing away. 

Who wrote Final Destination: Bloodlines? Guy Busic and Lori Evans Taylor wrote the script for the film, based on the story they wrote with John Watts.

How long is Final Destination: Bloodlines? The running time of the film is 110 minutes.

What languages are spoken in the film? Just English, as I recall. Death doesn’t need words to do its job.

When did Final Destination: Bloodlines come out? The official release date of the film to cinemas was May 16, 2025.

What was the budget of Final Destination: Bloodlines? The budget of the film, according to reports, was about $50 million.

Why is Final Destination: Bloodlines rated R? The Motion Picture Rating (MPA) of the film is R, for strong violent/grisly accidents, and language. There is no sex or nudity in the movie.

What was the box office gross of Final Destination: Bloodlines? The movie was a massive hit with $285 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. This impressive box office performance has made it the highest-grossing film of the franchise.

What do the reviews say about the film? Final Destination: Bloodlines currently holds a 6.8 rating on IMDB. On Rotten Tomatoes, as many as 93% of the critics gave it a positive review.

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