by Tim Gordon
Twenty-five years after it first asked us to fear the unseen hand of fate, the Final Destination franchise returns with Bloodlines, a chilling new chapter that proves Death never truly lets go.
This sixth installment digs deep into the past to remind us that cheating Death comes with consequences, not just for you, but for everyone who shares your blood. With familiar, over-the-top kills, a fresh generational twist, and the final haunting performance from franchise icon Tony Todd, Bloodlines is a gruesome, nostalgic reminder that in this universe, nobody escapes the plan.
Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein from a screenplay by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, Bloodlines follows college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) as she’s dragged into her family’s deadly legacy. Plagued by vivid nightmares about her grandparents dying in a 1969 structural collapse that never actually happened, Stefani returns to her hometown of Cloverdale desperate for answers. What she discovers is a terrifying truth: her grandmother, Iris, once had a premonition that saved dozens of lives by preventing the Sky View tower’s collapse. But by interrupting Death’s design, she doomed her descendants to pay the price.
Iris, now frail and dying of cancer, reveals to Stefani that Death has been patiently working its way through the survivors’ family tree ever since, taking lives in the order they were meant to die that fateful night. When Stefani tries to brush it off as insanity, Iris sacrifices herself in a final, gruesome gesture to prove that the curse is real. From there, it’s a race against fate as Stefani, her brother, and their extended family scramble to dodge Death’s elaborate traps, but fans of the franchise know how well that usually goes.
Like its predecessors, Bloodlines leans into the franchise’s signature formula: ordinary objects turned lethal, Rube Goldberg–style setups that make you second-guess every seemingly harmless scenario, and a mean-spirited sense of irony that leaves no character safe. Directors Lipovsky and Stein do a solid job staging some inventive, stomach-churning set pieces that should satisfy longtime fans hungry for creative carnage.
The cast, featuring Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, and Brec Bassinger, mostly delivers what’s needed for a film like this, screaming, panicking, and facing grisly fates with just enough heart to keep you invested. But it’s the late Tony Todd, in his final appearance as the enigmatic William Bludworth, who steals the spotlight. His last scene is surprisingly poignant, offering a bittersweet reflection on life’s fleeting nature that lingers long after the credits roll. Todd’s unmistakable presence has always been the franchise’s chilling anchor, and here, his final words land with real weight.
In the end, Final Destination: Bloodlines doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it try to. Instead, it taps back into what has always made this franchise endure, the terrifying idea that no matter how carefully you plan, you can’t outrun fate. While the film doesn’t quite reach the suspenseful heights of the series’ best entries, it’s a fittingly bloody reminder that Death’s design is never truly finished.
For fans of the franchise, Bloodlines is solid, nostalgic entertainment: a familiar, fear-fueled thrill ride with enough brutal payoffs to justify one more final destination. For everyone else, it’s another grisly chapter in a series that’s always known exactly what it is, and what it isn’t.
Grade: C+
