Final Destination: Bloodlines

A Franchise That Once Cheated Death Finally Runs Out of Life

The Final Destination films developed a rote, if effective, formula that—while stale by the fifth entry—allowed the franchise to maintain a surprisingly strong shelf life compared to other horror series. In fact, Final Destination 5 (2011) was one of the stronger installments, complete with a fabulous twist ending. The premise has remained consistent: a teen has a premonition of a catastrophic accident and saves a group of people, only for Death to return and claim its intended victims one by one in freakish, Rube Goldberg-style accidents. But there’s a reason this trope can only be rehashed so many times. That lesson, unfortunately, went unlearned despite a long hiatus between entries, culminating in the arrival of Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025).

Bloodlines opens in the 1950s, when a young woman named Iris (character name missing) has a vision of a horrific accident at a newly built observation tower and manages to save everyone. Decades later, she has defied death and started a family—but her college-aged granddaughter, Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), begins having recurring nightmares about the event that should have killed Iris. As it turns out, Death is now coming for the entire bloodline, seeking to reclaim lives that were never meant to exist.

Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein—best known for uninspiring films like Kim Possible (2019) and Leprechaun: Origins (2014)—Bloodlines doesn’t generate much initial confidence. But the expectations for a Final Destination film are specific: build tension through clever, suspenseful setups where everyday objects become instruments of death. To that end, Lipovsky and Stein deliver serviceable, if uninspired, sequences. We still get our red herrings—like a rusty rake beneath a trampoline while teens bounce above—but the scenes lack the suspense and creativity that marked the franchise’s highlights. Apart from the 1950s tower sequence, few are memorable. Worse still, the directors overcomplicate the formula by diving too deeply into the franchise’s mythology, bogging the film down with lore at the expense of the visceral set-pieces viewers came to see.

With the exception of The Final Destination (2009), the franchise has typically offered compelling protagonists and competent scripts that raised the stakes. Bloodlines, penned by Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor, and Jon Watts, is a significant step backward. The dialogue is cringe-worthy and overwrought, and the characters are drawn with almost no depth.

The cast does little to elevate the material, delivering performances more reminiscent of a Hallmark movie or a throwaway ’80s horror sequel than a long-awaited studio entry. Santa Juana is given a single emotional note—worried—and the rest of the cast aren’t even allowed to play into genre clichés, trapped instead in flat roles with stilted lines. The late Tony Todd makes a final appearance as the franchise’s iconic mortician, and in just a few lines, he reminds viewers what a skilled actor can do with otherwise lifeless material.

The result is that Bloodlines doesn’t feel like a legitimate entry in the Final Destination franchise. It feels more like a fan film made by student filmmakers. The death sequences are mildly entertaining but largely forgettable. The story and characters are left adrift in a sea of B-movie scripting, awkward dialogue, and one-note performances. In the end, the Final Destination franchise—once considered an exception to the horror rule of diminishing returns—has lingered too long and finally succumbed to its fate.

4.0/10