Franchise Fixations is a recurring column by Will Ashton that digs beneath the surface of today’s latest franchise films—unpacking what they add, subtract, or accidentally reveal about the ever-growing universes they inhabit. Sometimes it’s praise, sometimes it’s therapy. Always, it’s personal.
As a diehard Radiohead fan, I like to think I live in a world with no surprises. The older you get—and the longer you keep even a pinky toe dipped in the uncertain waters of movie criticdom—the better you get at predicting what films are worth your time. Sure, there’s always an underground hit. Or a movie that surpasses your expectations. But you can usually get a read on how the tides will turn. The more in tune you are with your tastes, the easier it is to tell what will be up your alley and what you should avoid. Call it instinct. Call it a hunch. Maybe even…a premonition? But whatever you do, don’t call me late for dinner! Hahahahaha.
We like to have fun around here.
Anyway, I bring this up because while I found myself amused by its trailer—and not entirely sure why I was even in the theater to see The Alto Knights earlier this year—I didn’t have any real expectations for Final Destination: Bloodlines. It looked like yet another Final Destination movie. No better, no worse. If anything, I was mildly annoyed they were still milking this cadaver-filled franchise after Final Destination 5 gave the series a solid send-off back in 2011. Did we really need more of this? More importantly, what could they possibly do with this franchise to keep it fresh?
So consider me properly blindsided when I say Final Destination: Bloodlines is not only a worthwhile addition, and easily the best installment to date, but also one of my favorite films of the year. This legacyquel ranks among the most inspired and entertaining horror movies I’ve seen in a hot minute. It’s one of those rare decades-later sequels that not only justifies its own existence tenfold, but actually builds upon and improves the franchise as a whole. That’s a tall order for a late-in-the-game sequel. But it delivers, all while providing the splashy, gooey, gory deaths we’ve come to crave from Final Destination.
Admittedly, I’m late to the party on this one. Originally set to be an HBO Max exclusive, the New Line Cinema release had the biggest opening weekend of any entry in the series, and it’s the best-reviewed by a wide margin. A lot of people saw Bloodlines before I did, and they sang its sick praises before I caught one of the last screenings in my area. So why was I still surprised?
Well, not to sound all hoity-toity, but I tend to take horror buzz with a hefty pile of salt. I watch a lot of horror movies, and if I had a quarter for every time a buzzy horror film let me down, I’d have…well, a whole lot of quarters. (I was never great at math.) Horror fans—God(?) bless them—are an enthusiastic bunch. If they love something, they love it. If they hate something, they really hate it. There’s no in-between. And while that’s part of what makes horror fandom so fun, it also means I’ve learned to keep my expectations tempered.
So when I say Final Destination: Bloodlines is one of the best legacyquels in recent memory, I mean it. This one’s a real barnburner. A hoot and a half! A full-throttle thrill ride!
Alright, you get the gist.
Like 2023’s flawed but surprisingly heartfelt Saw X, Bloodlines injects a long-dormant horror franchise with new life (or, more appropriately, new death). In an era where franchises are the rule, not the exception (hence this semi-regular column!), I say it’s better to embrace the wins than lament the reboot-industrial complex. I don’t care if you make a fifteenth Friday the 13th or a twentieth Halloween. If you bring fresh ideas to a tired formula, I’m in. And that’s exactly what this sixth movie manages to do.
From its opening scene, you can tell Bloodlines has something new in mind. Which is ironic, because it starts in the past. 1968, to be exact. Young lovers Iris (Brec Bassinger) and Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) attend the grand opening of Sky View, a high-rise restaurant with a panoramic (if heavily CG-ed) skyline view. The building was rushed to completion, and Death—big fan of human error, as always—lines up a buffet of bloody mayhem. But when Iris has a gory premonition of the disaster to come, she intervenes and saves hundreds of lives. She’s hailed as a hero, but if you’ve seen a Final Destination movie, you know how this works: Death doesn’t like to be cheated.
Normally, this is where we’d watch the survivors get picked off one by one in creatively fatal ways. That’s the bread and butter of this series, and it’s gotten a bit stale. Even the better entries have felt trapped in the formula. But Bloodlines zigs where others zag. Instead of sticking with the past, it flashes forward to the present.
Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is plagued by recurring nightmares, visions of what would’ve happened at Sky View if Iris hadn’t interfered. Once a top student, Stefani’s now on academic probation, consumed by these dreams. She knows her estranged grandmother was named Iris, and desperate for answers, she heads home to reconnect.
After some resistance from her family, Stefani finally meets her long-lost grandma (Gabrielle Rose), a cancer-stricken shut-in convinced the world outside is a death trap. Turns out, she’s not entirely wrong. Iris survived the Sky View disaster, but it came at a cost. Death has been trying to correct the imbalance ever since. Her long life, full of paranoia and isolation, is the consequence of denying death its due.
Everyone else who was supposed to die that day—including Paul—met their fate eventually. But Iris clung to life, and her survival created a ripple effect. Her descendants weren’t meant to exist. Now, Death wants to erase the family tree, one branch at a time. Iris, painfully aware of what’s coming, tries to warn her granddaughter. But in classic horror fashion, some people need to see the carnage firsthand before they believe.
From here, you know the drill. The body count rises. Death’s affection for elaborate Rube Goldberg kill machines remains delightfully intact. But there’s also a knowing cheekiness at play. The filmmakers are clearly fans, but they’re not afraid to mix things up. In the sixth entry of any horror franchise, you either evolve or die. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein are here to evolve.
Slasher movies aren’t rocket science. The audience wants brutal kills, yes, but they also want to be entertained. Too many franchises get bogged down in formula. Even the solid Final Destination 5 didn’t break much new ground. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but you do need to keep it from squeaking. And Bloodlines does.
What makes it stand out is its energy. It’s confident, expansive, and dynamic in ways that feel rare for a sixth film in a twenty-year-old series. The idea of Death correcting a broken bloodline adds fresh stakes and a surprisingly emotional core. You can see why Warner Bros. decided to move it from streaming to theaters. This is a movie that plays better with a crowd laughing, squirming, shrieking in unison. It’s a blood-soaked piñata of a film, and it’s raked in nearly $140 million domestically, outgrossing plenty of would-be summer blockbusters, including Ballerina, Karate Kid: Legends, and 28 Years Later. A surprise hit, by any metric.
And that’s before we even get to the Tony Todd of it all. The late horror icon appeared in nearly every Final Destination movie, and my personal belief is that the more Tony Todd you have, the better your movie is. Case in point: he’s absent from The Final Destination, easily the worst of the bunch. Though sick during production, Todd graciously returned for Bloodlines in a cameo, one final message to fans embedded in the story as a warning to our soon-to-be-doomed characters.
On paper, it sounds like a tonal disaster: an earnest tribute plunked in the middle of a gleefully nasty horror comedy. But somehow—thanks to Todd’s gravitas, the filmmakers’ restraint, or both—it works. Beautifully. It’s a touching, bittersweet grace note nestled inside a splattery rollercoaster. Even better, the script smartly uses the scene to explain how Todd’s character knows Death’s rules, and how he’s survived for so long. It’s thoughtful, and more importantly, it makes sense.
How often does a franchise this morally grim and proudly cynical allow itself to be sincere? Almost never. But that’s the magic trick Bloodlines pulls off. It’s clever when it doesn’t have to be. Sincere when you least expect it. And somehow, against all odds, emotionally resonant.
I never thought I’d use the word moving to describe a Final Destination movie. But here we are. And that’s what makes Final Destination: Bloodlines such a triumph. It’s gory, it’s goofy, it’s genuinely great. And, like Death itself, it got me when I least expected it.
